Jenn Carpenter - The Cereal Killer Chronicles of Battle Creek

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC

www.historypress.com

Copyright 2021 by Jenn Carpenter

All rights reserved

Front cover image courtesy of Erica Cooper, 2020.

First published 2021

E-Book edition 2021

ISBN 978.1.43967.290.7

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021937168

Print Edition ISBN 978.1.46714.949.5

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

CONTENTS

For my sons, Austin and Ethan. May you always be bold enough to be the Froot Loop in a bowl of Cheerios, and may you always have the courage to follow your dreamsno matter how outlandish they may seem.

PREFACE

Humans are creatures of habit. We all have our traditions and routines, our idiosyncrasies that others may view as odd, but that make us who we are. One strange custom of mine is that I have to have a bowl of cereal every night before bed. Ever since I was young, the last thing I do before turning in each night is pour a bowl of Froot Loops or some other sugary confection, drown it with milk and crunch away to my hearts content. If, for some reason, I fall asleep before my requisite bowl of cereal, I will inevitably wake up in the middle of the night craving a little snap, crackle, pop2:00 a.m., 4:00 a.m., it doesnt matter. I will find my way through the dark to the kitchen, make a bowl of cereal (or two) and often turn on the TV while I eat. As a true crime aficionado, my TV is almost always tuned to one of those channels that airs true crime documentaries 24/7. It was on one such night, while I was eating cereal and watching murder shows, that The Cereal Killer Chronicles was born.

As the host of a podcast that focuses on true crime and weird history in Michigan, Im always looking for stories to cover. On this particular night, as I was munching away on my Froot Loops during the wee hours, I had a thought: cereal was invented in Michigan. (This wouldnt turn out to be exactly true, but this is how it all began, so just bear with me.) The Kelloggs were from Michigan, I remembered. They created cereal while working on recipes for patients at their sanitarium. The Kelloggs ran a sanitarium. Waitthe Kelloggs, the rulers of the cereal world, ran a sanitarium in Michigan. I was instantly upset with myself that I was a full year and a half into my podcast before it dawned on me that the Kelloggs might make an interesting topic of conversation. With my thoughts in overdrive and the possibility of sleep out the window, I fired up my laptop and jumped willingly down the rabbit hole of Kellogg history. Its fitting that my research began with The Road to Wellville, a quirky, off-beat movie based on the novel by the same name, because the next several weeks were truly a journey.

During my fact-finding mission, I kept coming across stories that were not directly connected to the Kellogg family, per se, but their legacy. Some of the employees at their cereal factory and students of their university were involved in unspeakable crimessome as victims and others as coldblooded killers.

In this book, youll learn about the rise of the Kelloggs, from their days as religious fanatics to their breakfast food empire, and all of the death and darkness in between. Youll also learn about their enduring legacy in Battle Creek, from the ghosts they left behind to the curse that appears to haunt those who work and learn in Kellogg-built institutions.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

History must be preserved in order for others to write about it, so I would like to extend the humblest of thank yous to those who work so hard to conserve our past by saving and digitizing documents, newspapers and photographs for future generations to reference. I would also like to thank those who put in hundreds upon hundreds of hours of research to write comprehensive works on the subjects covered in this book. The Willard Library in Battle Creek and the work of Dr. Howard J. Markel were especially important to this project. To my dear friend and colleague Erica Cooper of Erica Jo Photography, who provided many of the breathtaking images in this publication, thank you! There is no one Id rather explore a cemetery with. To my husband, Dax, and our boys for taking care of the dogs and the house while I spent months living in an alternative universe ruled by cereal and killers, thank you, and I love you. Thanks also to all of my friends and family members who took time out of their busy schedules to proofread the book and provide feedback. Lastly, I must thank the Kelloggs themselves, not only for creating the worlds most versatile meal, but also for being so delightfully odd and awful that they still inspire the creators of today.

INTRODUCTION

The publisher of this work offers no apology for presenting it to the reading public, since the wide prevalence of the evils which it exposes is sufficient warrant for its publication.

Dr. J.H. Kellogg, 1877

Where the Battle Creek and Kalamazoo Rivers converge, youll find Cereal City USA, an urban metropolis with a strange and fascinating history. Named after a bloody battle between Natives and nineteenth-century land surveyors, Battle Creek was the birthplace of Seventh-day Adventists (SDA) and an integral part of the Underground Railroad. It was also home to the Kelloggs, a family of eccentric inventors and entrepreneurs who would go on to rule the world of breakfast foods. But before their worldwide fame came the sanitariumand the questionable deaths and the fires. And after their downfall came the complicated legacy that would continue to result in tragedy for decades to come. Cereal is Battle Creeks lifeblood, but it has also been the root cause of bloodshed in the city many times over.

With a modern-day population of just over fifty thousand, Battle Creek is classified as a small city, but it was once home to giants. Like most Michigan cities, its first settlers were Natives. Around 1774, the Potawatomi and Ottawa tribes formed a village where two wild rivers met. They lived in relative peace for years. But in 1817, construction began on a navigable water route from New York and the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. As the Erie Canal neared completion, the U.S. government began surveying the new land that would soon be accessible to the overpopulated puritanical colonies on the East Coast. In anticipation of what would soon become known as Michigan Fever, land was to be charted, sectioned off and sold to hopeful pioneers. Sure, they were selling land that was already home to Native tribes, but there was another plan in the works to remedy that.

Downtown Battle Creek. Courtesy of Erica Cooper, 2020.

By 1825, surveying of the area that was soon to be known as Battle Creek was well underway. Led by Colonel John Mullett, surveyors set up camp near what is now the Battle Creek River. Their presence disrupted the way of life the local Native tribes were accustomed to. As life got noisier and busier, the wildlife that had once been in such abundance in the area grew scarce. The woods were over-hunted, the rivers were over-fished, and soon, the tribes began struggling to find food. Per a treaty with the government, the Army was supposed to provide food and supplies to the tribe, but their deliveries were often late, resulting in dangerous food shortages.