John Harvey Kellogg
Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (February 26, 1852 – December 14, 1943) was a medical doctor in Battle Creek, Michigan who ran a sanitarium using holistic methods, with a particular focus on nutrition, enemas and exercise. Today Kellogg, a radical advocate of vegetarianism, is best known for the invention of the corn flake, not to mention the very concept of a breakfast cereal.
Birth
Dr. Kellogg's was born in Tyrone, New York in 1852 to John Preston Kellogg (1807-?) and Ann Janette Stanley (1842-?). The family had moved to Battle Creek, Michigan by 1860 where his father set up a broom factory. John later worked as a "printer's devil" in a Battle Creek publishing house.
Education
He went to the Battle Creek public school system then he attended the Michigan State Normal School and finally New York University Medical College at Bellevue Hospital. He graduated in 1875 with a medical degree.
Marriage
He married Ella Ervilla Eaton (1879-1920) of Alfred Center, New York, on February 22, 1879. They did not have any children of their own, but raised over forty children, legally adopting seven of them, before Ella died in 1920.
Children
The adopted children include: Agnes Grace Kellogg; Elizabeth Kellogg; John William Kellogg; Ivaline Maud Kellogg; Paul Alfred Kellogg; Robert Moffatt Kellogg; and Newell Carey Kellogg.
Battle Creek Sanitarium
He worked at the Battle Creek Sanitarium run on Seventh-day Adventist principles. He also performed surgery. When a patient was not cured by a vegetarian diet at his sanitarium he resorted to surgery by removing a section of their intestines.
Sanitas Food Company
With his brother, Will Keith Kellogg, they started the Sanitas Food Company to produce their whole grain cereals they invented to replace the standard breakfast of eggs and meat. They eventually argued over the addition of sugar to the cereals and Will started his own company called the W.K. Kellogg Company in 1906. John then formed the Battle Creek Food Company to develop and market soy products.
Antisex
He was a campaigner for health and sexual temperance. Kellogg was a zealous campaigner against all forms of sex. He recommended extreme methods:
- A remedy for masturbation which is almost always successful in small boys is circumcision. The operation should be performed by a surgeon without administering an anesthetic, as the brief pain attending the operation will have a salutary effect upon the mind, especially if it be connected with the idea of punishment. In females, the author has found the application of pure carbolic acid to the clitoris an excellent means of allaying the abnormal excitement.
- John Harvey Kellogg, M.D., "Treatment for Self-Abuse and its Effects," Plain Fact for Old and Young. Burlington, Iowa: F. Segner & Co. (1888). P. 295
Death
He died in 1943 and was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Battle Creek.
Selected publications
- 1877 Plain Facts For Old And Young: Embracing The Natural History And Hygiene Of Organic Life
- 1893 Ladies Guide in Health and Disease
- 1903 Rational Hydrotherapy
- 1910 Light Therapeutics
- 1922 Autointoxication or Intestinal Toxemia
- 1923 Tobaccoism or How Tobacco Kills
- 1927 New Dietetics: A Guide to Scientific Feeding in Health and Disease
- 1929 Art of Massage: A Practical Manual for the Nurse, the Student and the Practitioner (
Kellogg in cinema
T. Coraghessan Boyle's 1993 comic novel The Road to Wellville is a fictionalized story about Kellogg and his sanitarium. A filmed version of the book, directed by Alan Parker, was released in 1994. It starred Anthony Hopkins as Kellogg.