John Harvey Kellogg JOHN HARVEY KELLOGG (1852 - 1943)

John was born on a farm in Livingston County, Michigan. He was one of sixteen children. When he was young the family moved to Jackson, Michigan, and two years later to Battle Creek, where his father established a broom factory.

At first Johnny was little distinguished from his brothers and sisters. Even though John was smaller and more sickly than the average child, he possessed a strong will and determination. One

I - day when he was about four, Johnny asked to go with his father and brother on a business errand. He was given permission on the ll condition that he keep up with the adults. "I will keep up," said \ John, and he dashed off ahead. Suddenly he tripped and fell flat on his stomach. Before his father could reach him, he scrambled to his feet, afraid that they would send him home and said with a

smile, "1 did that on purpose."

Maintaining a large family in the mid-nineteenth century involved plenty of work, and parents required children to do their share. The Kelloggs expected Johnny to keep the wood box filled, to help prepare breakfast, to care for the cows, and to assist in the manufacture of family necessities like soap.

One morning when he was about ten, John's parents sent him to drive the cows to water. To encourage them along, he cracked a long rawhide whip at their heels. Spotting a robin on a nearby limb, he decided to see how close he could come to it with his whip without actually hitting it. Unfortunately, he misjudged; the whip's tip struck the bird and killed it. Remorse immediately filled the boy.

"1 fell on the ground," he later recalled, "and sobbed and on my knees promised God I would never kill another thing as long as I

lived. l1 As a result of the experience, John maintained that he had twinges of conscience even when called upon to swat a mosquito.

Early Seventh-day Adventists believed so strongly in the soon return of Jesus that formal education for children seemed to many unnecessary. The belief, combined with John's poor health, delayed his first regular schooling until he was nine years old. When John did learn to read, he became a voracious reader. After exhausting his parents' meager library, John borrowed books from the neighbors. From the first money he earned while working away from home, he used $2.50 to buy aa secondhand set of Farr's four-volume Ancient History. Soon his private library branched out to include shorthand, botany, and astronomy texts, as well as a German grammar and a dictionary. Words fascinated John Harvey all his life. In later years he frequently carried a vest-pocket dictionary, from which he would read in spare moments.

About a year after he began to work in his family's broom factory, John sat on the back steps gazing across the field thinking of his future and what he should do with his life. Suddenly in his daydreams he saw a road winding up a hill to a little schoolhouse. There were crowds of children coming along the road, ragged, dirty, unkept, pitiful children, going toward the schoolhouse. And then he saw himself standing in the doorway of the schoolhouse, beckoning the children to some in. And John knew in that moment that he had found his life work - to help children. I

After this incident, young John's thoughts turned repeatedly to the idea of a teaching career. At sixteen, like many other bright American boys of his time, John Kellogg accepted a position as a -1 I teacher of a school in Hastings, Michigan. For thirty dollars a month, plus room and board with various local families, he taught forty pupils everything from the ABC's to high school subjects. His experience at Hastings was one that he always treasured.

However, teaching was not to be his profession. The next year ( ,t after barely beginning his school year he was called home and persuaded to go into medicine and help the Adventist church as a doctor.

In 1876 after finishing his two-year medical course, he was appointed superintendent of the Western Health Reform Institute in Battle Creek. This institution had been opened after Ellen G. White said that Seventh-day Adventists should provide a home for the sick, where they could be treated for their diseases, and learn how to take care of themselves as well as prevent sickness.

The institute was small at first. But with a young, enthusiastic ( . doctor it soon grew until it became necessary to construct a large, modern, well-equipped sanitarium and hospital. It was not long j before John became known in America and across the seas as one of the ablest surgeons of his time. Rich and poor, and even royalty, came to be treated by him. However, it was not just surgery that gave Battle Creek Sanitarium its good reputation; it was also following the principles set forth by Ellen G. White for its

operation - proper diet, natural remedies, and simple treatment with loving care.

Dr. Kellogg was a vegetarian and enthusiastically promoted the principles of health and temperance. It was John who invented Corn Flakes and other dry breakfast cereals now available all over the world. He also invented Protose and other meat substitutes. It was also Dr. Kellogg who first introduced peanut butter. He invented many different machines for the treatment of various ailments. Some of these are still used in hospitals around the world. Dr. John also wrote fifty books. Most of them had to do with scientific works.

Shortly after the turn of the century Dr. Kellogg came into conflict with the leaders of the General Conference over his attempt to get the control of all Seventh-day Adventist medical institutions with which he had been associated. He finally succeeded in gaining control of the Battle Creek Sanitarium and the Battle Creek Food Company. He also began teaching strange doctrines. He wrote a book The Livins Temple which contained many of the principles of pantheism. Ellen G. White worked with him personally and sent him many written letters. Others also tried to help him see the error of his thinking, but it was in vain. In 1907 he lost his membership in the church.

While Dr. Kellogg was connected to the Adventist Church, he probably did as much as any man in the denomination, if not more, to bring the work of Seventh-day Adventists as well as the name to the favorable attention of the world. If he had remained loyal he could have continued to be a strong influence in our church. Many were hoping and praying that he would return. However, on December 14, 1943, in his Battle Creek home, he died without returning to the church.

Sources of information:

John Harvev Kelloqq : American Health Reformer by Richard Schwarz The Seventh-day Adventist Commentarv, Vol. 10 John Harvey Kellogg

Dial-A-Word Code Directions: The telephone dial is the key to this coded word game. The numbers in the clues below represent the numbers on the dial. Each number gives you a choice of 3 letters. Sometimes more than one word can be made from the given number combination. For example, 786 can make RUN or SUN. The words below are related to careers. Write a code for any 10 words from this list. Exchange with a friend and see if he or she can solve your coded word.

Word Bank

school flakes sanitarium vegetarian bird

broom Eattle Creek peanut medicine doctor

teacher writer John Harvey Kellogg

"Get Well Card" Directions: Using the card below as a guide, design a get-well card and take it or mail it to a person in a hospital or nursing home.