The History of Aunt Jemima's Mill

www.lancasterfarming.com Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 9, 2013 - B21 Lancaster Farming Antiques Center The History of Aunt Jemima’s Mill Branding an American Wheat Product

Photo provided by Quaker Foods The modern-day Aunt Jemima logo.

Amy Halloran Although people had always N.Y. Correspondent been working on new tools to handle the hard work of the grain Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix was harvest, progress in this area at a benchmark in agriculture and in the time was stymied by cost, and food processing. also, by objections from people The ready-mix, self-rising pan- who were afraid of losing their cake flour was invented in the late jobs. Not until the Civil War cre- 1880s in St. Louis, Missouri, and ated a shortage of farm workers was the first packaged mix. The did the expense of reapers become mix was the brainchild of entre- a necessary investment. preneurs Charles Rutt and Charles Along came roller mills, which Underwood. Together, they pur- began taking the place of mill- chased the bankrupt Pearl Milling stones to crush grain for flour, Company when there was a glut helping create the circumstances of flour on the market. Rutt was that led to the first packaged mix. a newspaper editor, and saw op- While also a hefty investment for portunity in the bankrupt mill to producers, the new roller mills led try something innovative. They to a leap in productivity over stone believed that if they could come mills. Plus, the sifting systems that up with a product that made flour worth more than its base value, were generally part of the roller perhaps they would find fortune. mills allowed for easier manufac- To understand the Aunt Jemima ture of white flour, long a highly story, it is necessary to know about coveted food. the changes that were taking place This, combined with price at the time. For example, during swings invited by international the course of the 19th century, im- markets for American wheat, provements in transportation and caused the flour glut that made the agricultural technology had cre- Pearl Milling Company go bank- ated a global market for American rupt, and put the mill under the wheat. eyes of newspaperman Rutt and The Erie Canal is perhaps the his business partner Underwood. best example of improvements in The original recipe for their transit leading to advances in grain pancake flour included wheat production. As soon as financial flour from hard winter wheat, corn backing for the inland waterway flour, salt and leaveners. The name across New York State was an- “Aunt Jemima” was taken from nounced in the legislature in 1811, a minstrel show song, sung by a farmers and speculators bought character in blackface. These ele- flat land in the rich Genesee Val- ments did not add up to success, ley, anticipating access to New however, for Rutt and Underwood, York City markets. who sold the formula to R.T. Da- As soon as the Erie Canal vis Milling Company in 1890. reached that area, milling opera- This is where the pancake mix tions exploded. Rochester, N.Y., began to find its footing. Davis became known as The Flour City, added powdered milk to the recipe, and was milling 25,000 bushels of and a real live spokesperson to sell wheat a day. However, the moniker the pancake flour. Nancy Green, and mills didn’t last long. Buffalo, known as a great cook and story- N.Y., just 60 miles west, displaced teller, was hired to play a real life Rochester as the key milling cen- Aunt Jemima for the 1893 World’s ter once a canal system developed Columbian Exposition in Chicago. that took advantage of the Great Green was an emancipated slave Lakes. who worked as a cook for a Chi- Gradually, the railroad system cago judge. Inside a flour barrel- and improvements in ocean-going shaped booth at the fair, she made vessels created further opportuni- pancakes and told stories of her Image courtesy Library of Congress ties for grain production in more famous pancakes saving her Colo- Shown is an ad for Aunt Jemima pancake flour, from the Nov. 7, 1909, edition of the New-York Tribune. western states, which also corre- nel from marauding Union forces. tinued to play Aunt Jemima, dem- way people latched onto a char- began asking grocers for Quaker sponded with major advances in Her exhibit was so popular that the onstrating the pancake mix at a acter as an advocate to guide con- Oats by name. While the associa- equipment adoption. fair placed extra security to moni- wide range of events until 1928, sumer choices. tions of Aunt Jemima were far more tor the line waiting to when a streetcar hit her. Although Quaker Oats had a similar complicated, glorifying a time and sample her pancakes. the character’s associations with launch. Its initial advertising cam- place where the enslavement of By the end of the fair, and reinforcement of an antebel- paign was an 1891 railroad tour. African-Americans was seen as people and businesses lum south received criticism, the Just before the Quaker Oat Special acceptable, the public nonetheless had placed 50,000 or- character remains aligned with the was due to arrive in locales, ad- embraced this food character, too. ders for Aunt Jemima product. vance men pasted notices declar- Perhaps the reason these inven- Pancake Mix. Davis Milling Company re- ing free samples. A person dressed tions appealed to the public was This particular named itself Aunt Jemima Mills in in recognizably Quaker garb — a that they came in an era when ag- World’s Fair debuted 1913, and Quaker Oats bought the wide brimmed black hat and simple ricultural production occurred at a other products that company in 1926. clothes — gave free half-ounce scale that took grain growing and became fixtures in Aside from the country’s eager samples to assembled crowds. This grain processing out of the public America, too, such as adoption of a packaged mix that character was chosen by the con- eye. The public imagination still Cracker Jacks, Shred- still needed eggs and milk or wa- glomerate of millers who owned wanted to see the story of food, ded Wheat, and Wrig- ter to make it complete, one of the company because of its associa- somehow, and Aunt Jemima and Rutt’s recipe from Nov. 1, 1889, on display at ley chewing gum. the most remarkable things about tions with honesty. Quaker Oats capitalized on and de- Patee House museum in St. Joseph, Mo. Nancy Green con- Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix is the The ad game worked, and people livered that desire.