The Battle Creek idea

Everyone is familiar with the Kellogg name. We probably had a cereal product bearing that brand for breakfast. These are the products of the company founded by Will Kellogg, which we know as the W.K. Kellogg Co. Less well known is the name of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, W.K.'s brother, the longtime director of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, in Michigan

Members of the Seventh Adventist Church founded the Battle Creek Sanitarium soon after the Civil War. Dr. J.H. Kellogg, just out of medical school at age 24, was made director of the Sanitarium (often referred to by its nickname, "The San") in 1876. He held the post until 1938 -- 62 years. Under his direction "The San" gained a world-wide reputation. Initially, Dr. Kellogg was drawn to the Sanitarium by the health tenets of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Later Dr. Kellogg broke with the church because of some of his unorthodox health ideas. His methods of restoring health to his patients included low calorie, vegetarian meals, exercise and biologic living, better known as "The Battle Creek Idea."

He developed peanut butter, granola and toasted grain flakes, as well as the menthol inhaler, and the electric blanket. He warned of the harmful effects of drinking alcohol, and of smoking tobacco, decades before the AMA took up that cause. He was an early proponent of radium cures for cancer. But he also promoted some controversial cures at the clinic, 1. hydro-therapy, in which a patient was suddenly and repeatedly thrust into ice cold water, 2. electro-therapy, in which the patient was shocked with low voltage in various parts of his body, 3. mechano-therapy, which used a vibratory chair, which shook the patient violently for short periods of time, and was said to have a healing effect on a broad range of ailments. He was opposed to sexual activity of any kind, and repeatedly stated that his own marriage, devoid of sex, was a good one.

But above all, Dr. Kellogg was obsessed with the bowel, believing that the body was being poisoned by meat-eating, drinking, smoking, and almost everything pleasurable. The only remedy was a squeaky-clean bowel. Toward this end he advised a daily enema, followed by the consumption of great quantities of yogurt, to replenish the "good" bacteria in the gut. Using his methods, he claimed cures for stomach cancer, ulcers, diabetes, schizophrenia, manic depression, acne, anemia, asthenia, migraine, and premature old age. He said, "There is nothing a clean bowel cannot handle." Though some of his methods were controversial, the Mayo Brothers held Dr. Kellogg in high regard for his innovative surgical procedures, particularly in abdominal surgery, in which his success rate was extraordinarily high and his casualty rates were extremely low. In 1880, Dr. Kellogg's younger brother, Will (W.K.) came to work for his brother at the Sanitarium, as a bookkeeper -- a post he held for 26 years. In 1887 the brothers introduced toasted grain flakes to the Sanitarium menu, as a unique new health food. No doubt the flakes were healthy all right, but they were terribly bland. A bit later, in 1906, Will sought the to improve the grain flakes by mixing a little sugar into the formula. A severe disagreement between the brothers arose. John thought that adding sugar to the formula was unhealthy. As a result of the squabble, Will left the Sanitarium to found his own toasted flake company. Dr. John sued Will, to keep the Kellogg name off the package, but the attempt failed. (In 1906 Will Kellogg manufactured the first corn flakes at his own company, which eventually grew into the W.K. Kellogg Co. The daily production at first was 33 cases per day. By 1980 the Kellogg Co. had 47 plants in 21 countries. Today the W.K. Kellogg foundation is well known for the many charitable causes they support throughout the world.) Though Dr. Kellogg died in 1943 at the age of 91 (he was busy 15 hours a day, dictating notes for books on health to two secretaries, to the end), others carried on his work, promoting "The Battle Creek Idea" to residents of a retirement complex in Battle Creek until at least 1966. In the late 1940s, our family had a Great Aunt who made her home at the successor to the Kellogg Sanitarium at Battle Creek, Mich. Veronica Babette (Aunt Verna to the younger family members) was born in 1866, in Illinois, and came with her family to settle in Nebraska in 1880. Though the family was not rich, Verna was raised rich. An Uncle of hers, in Cleveland (who was rich) had a daughter of like age. He regularly invited Verna to be a companion to his daughter, on shopping trips to East Coast cities and tours of Europe. He treated her to music and painting lessons, and furnished her with a wardrobe equal to his that of his own daughter. The result of all this indulgence was that Verna never was much of a worker around the home, preferring to spend her time on more arty things. But she was pretty and fun to be around, and she had her pick of beaus. She eventually married a doctor in the community who pampered her in the manner to which she had become accustomed. The couple had no children.

Unfortunately, her doctor husband died at an early age and Verna was left with no means to make a living. But the family was close knit, and Aunt Verna's four brothers took up her cause, and through an informal agreement amongst them, picked up her living expenses for the rest of her life. For a number of years she resided in Lincoln, in a comfortable, if modest apartment. Over the years she became a follower of Dr. Kellogg, and yearned very much to make her home at the Battle Creek Retirement Center, so that she could more closely follow the health teachings of the good doctor. So, at age 80, she announced that she wanted to move to Michigan to follow the "Battle Creek Idea". Remarkably, the brothers agreed to the move. (However, when she announced (at 85) that her fingers were becoming prematurely stiff and she would need a new Grand Piano to extend her flexibility, they substituted a spinet piano instead).

For the next 11 years, until her death at age 91, Aunt Verna lived at the Battle Creek facility and practiced healthful living, as had been promoted by Dr. Kellogg. For three weeks in the fall Aunt Verna's brother and wife, who lived in Cleveland, made an annual visit to Nebraska. Aunt Verna usually made the trip with them, riding in their car. On a Nebraska cattle feeding farm, where people still smoked, looked down on folks who "walked for exercise," and ate prodigious quantities of red meat, Aunt Verna practiced her health routine, and when anyone expressed interest, she was more than pleased to advise others on those practices. People were polite, but most dismissed her advice, and felt that she was a bit odd.

For the most part Aunt Verna kept to herself a good part of the day, since her various health procedures took up a great deal of her waking hours, but she always joined the family late in the day. The family regularly gathered for a highball and conversation before dinner. Aunt Verna was very much against the drinking of alcohol, but she loved the company. She staunchly held out for just a glass of warm milk. While the milk was being heated, she made her way to the kitchen, to instruct that a tablespoon of liquor be put into her milk "for medical purposes." When her instructions were followed to the letter, "One Tablespoon only," she would say, "Well, I usually let it run over a little bit." So much for the taboo on alcohol. On the farm Aunt Verna continued to follow Dr. Kellogg's recommendation of plenty of fresh air, by taking "air baths," which required the removal of all clothing. One time, during harvest, she almost brought the farm operations to a halt when she combined her air bathing with sun bathing, and chose as her location the front lawn, past which, the grain wagons had to pass. Years have passed. We still eat our toasted grain flakes, some of Dr. Kellogg's ideas on health no longer seem so strange, and we surely have been able to remember Aunt Verna with a great deal of fondness at family reunions.