Cream of Wheat remains a favorite
By Jonathan Knutson
The Forum - 08/28/1999

"Never mind shipping us any more of your flour, but send a car of your 'Cream of Wheat'."

And with that telegram - from a New York broker to a struggling Grand Forks, N.D., mill - the famous Cream of Wheat Corp. was born a century ago.

Today, the Cream of Wheat cereal line is owned by the giant Nabisco food company and consumed "everywhere in the world where hot cereal is eaten," said David Stivers, a Nabisco spokesman.

Cream of Wheat now comes in four varieties: "regular", "quick", "instant" and "mix 'n eat." The "regular" variety found in stores today is the same basic product that was created a century ago in Grand Forks.

Though Cream of Wheat is one of this area's longest-running successes, the cereal was born out of near-failure.

In 1893 a financial panic struck America, forcing many businesses to close and sending others to the brink of collapse.

In the latter group were Emery Mapes, George Bull and George Clifford, who owned a small flour mill in Grand Forks. They fought successfully to keep their business alive during the 1893 panic, but were left with little operating capital. The mill's future was in doubt.

Against that backdrop, Tom Amidon, the plant's head miller, approached the partners in 1895 to pitch a "breakfast porridge" he had developed from the "middlings" - the part of wheat that produces the highest-grade flour. He had been using the porridge at home and thought it might be packaged and marketed to others.

The partners, figuring they had nothing to lose, decided to give it a shot. Bull "felt as they were practically broke anyway, it may pay to try the cereal," Daniel Bull, George Bull's son, wrote in 1959.

Funds were so tight that Amidon cut by hand the cardboard for the cartons, labeled the packages and crated them in wooden boxes made from waste lumber.

Someone - it isn't clear who - suggested calling the cereal "Cream of Wheat" and the name stuck.

The package design featured a black chef with a saucepan over his hand. The chef's image became hugely popular and still is featured on Cream of Wheat products.

Not that the Cream of Wheat originators gave much thought to the image they selected.

According to the Nabisco Museum in Parsippany, N.J., the milling company didn't have money to spend on package design. So Mapes, an erstwhile printer, scrounged through his stock of old printing blocks. One of the blocks featured the figure of the black chef and saucepan. Mapes figured it would be adequate - and used it.

Once the cereal was packaged, the Grand Forks men sent 50 cases of it to New York City. The milling company's agent there was greatly impressed and immediately wired word to send a carload of the stuff.

Demand for Cream of Wheat was so great that the milling company outgrew its Grand Forks plant by 1897. The company then moved to Minneapolis, which offered "the best source of necessary raw material, and (was) a good shipping point with advantageous freight rates," according to the Nabisco Museum.

A Cream of Wheat plant still operates in Minneapolis.

Around the time of the move to Minneapolis the company's name was changed from the North Dakota Milling Co. to The Cream of Wheat Co., according to Daniel Bull, who spent many years as a Cream of Wheat executive.

The cereal's popularity continued to grow, in part because of shrewd marketing. Around the turn of the century the Cream of Wheat Co. began an advertising campaign that featured some of the country's best illustrators. Cream of Wheat ads featuring their work appeared in popular national magazines.

In 1929 the company was reorganized as The Cream of Wheat Corp. and its stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

In 1962 the Cream of Wheat Corp. was purchased by Nabisco Holdings Corp., then known as National Biscuit Co.

Cream of Wheat Corp. executives and shareholders felt their product would do well at Nabisco, which is known for its marketing savvy.

Nabisco sells a wide array of food products. Its brands include Oreo, Chips Ahoy!, A.1. steak sauces, Milk-Bone pet snacks and Life Savers candies, among many others.

Food and tobacco titan RJR Nabisco owns 80.5 percent of Nabisco Holdings.

It's anybody's guess if Cream of Wheat will still be around in another 104 years. The cereal remains popular, according to the company, though recent sales figures aren't available.

Whatever its future, Cream of Wheat already has a remarkable run.

As Stivers said, "Quite a story, isn't it?