Battle+Creek,+Michigan

Visitors: Pietro Vincenzo (1920-1934)
 * Battle Creek, Michigan**

Battle Creek was first a market and mill center for prairie farmers, but by the latter part of the 19th century it had developed into a thriving industrial center exporting agricultural machinery, steam pumps, violin strings and newspaper printing presses internationally. It was used for military training during both world wars.

1886: The Battle Creek Sanitarium opens as the Western Health Reform Institute. It advocates the health ideas of the Seventh Day adventist church. In 1876, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg becomes superintendent. The number of patients increased dramatically, from 106 in 1866, to 7,006 in 1906. In 1902, the Sanitarium's main building burns down. Fifteen months later rebuilding on the new building was complete. Kellogg continued running it, but faced financial difficulties due to the Great Depression. In the late 1930's he moves the Sanitarium, presumably to a smaller location, and in 1942, the Sanitarium is sold to the federal government.
 * Dates**

1906: William Keith Kellog starts the Kellogg company, (originally calling it the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company). His brother, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg soon invents cold breakfast cereal, an alternative to the common meat heavy breakfast.

1942: The Sanitarium building is converted into the Percy Jones General and Convalescent Hospital, an orthopedic hospital for U.S veterans during through World War II. It was the largest U.S. military hospital until 1954 when it is converted into federal civilian and military department offices.

Erastus Hussey: Operated a station of the Underground Railroad. Sojourner Truth: Abolitionist and women's rights speaker, lived in Battle Creek for 27 years starting in 1857
 * People**

[|General History] [|Kellogg and the Sanitarium]