BIO: Howard Kellogg; Buffalo, Erie, Co., NY

transcribed by W. David Samuelsen for USGenWeb Archives

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History of Northwestern New York: Erie, Niagara, Wyoming, Genesee and
Orleans Counties.
Lewis Historical Pub. Company, pub. about 1947 (?)
Vol. 3 Biographies

HOWARD KELLOGG
In the presidency of Spencer Kellogg & Sons, Inc., Howard Kellogg has
continued and expanded a family interest with a history of almost three
quarters of a century in Buffalo. Other constructive and progressive interests
of the city have his support, and under his guidance the Kellogg name and
organization have met the high standards of the past and, in new fields, have
set higher goals for the future.

The family is an old and noted one. Spencer Kellogg. father of Howard Kellogg,
and founder of Spencer Kellogg & Sons, Inc., was born June 16, 1851, and died
November 14, 1922. He was a man of simple straightforwardness and mode of
life, having been reared in simple surroundings. His mother taught school to
support her family. He was left an interest in trust in his father’s business,
but decided to change his plans after his marriage, and was engaged in banking
for a time in Des Moines, Iowa. Seeking always for broader opportunities,
Spencer Kellogg came to Buffalo in 1879, founded the linseed oil business
which later became Spencer Kellogg & Sons, Inc., and distinguished himself as
a grain elevator operator, a manufacturer of brooms and brushes, paints and
varnishes, white lead, iron and steel, olemargarine and vegetable oils. He was
for years active in promoting education and community welfare, and to help
further Milton Fairchild’s struggle to introduce the teaching of ethics in
American schools Spencer Kellogg offered in 1916 a $5,000 prize for the best
children's code of morals. Nearly seventy codes were submitted and judged in
the course of the year in which the competition was open. Judges of national
repute in education awarded the prize to William J. Hutchins, of Oberlin,
Ohio. Later Mr. Kellogg offered a $20,000 prize for the best "method" for
introducing and teaching the code in public schools. This prize was finally
won by a set of collaborators, under the chairmanship of Professor Starbuck,
of the University of Iowa. A further philanthropy of Spencer Kellogg was his
work at the Community Church, at Jerusalem Corners, near Derby, New York,
where his spirit became a vital force in the program that took shape in the
group of buildings there. He had a summer home at Derby on-the-Lake-Lochevan,
where he reared his children. He married Jane Vrooman Morris.

Their son, Howard Kellogg, born March 26, i88z, in Buffalo, attended the
Heathcote School here, was graduated in 1898, then spent a year at Phillips
Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire, before entering Harvard University in
1899. In 1903 he was graduated cum laude with special honors in mathematics as
a Bachelor of Arts at Harvard, and at once began his association with Spencer
Kellogg in Buffalo, becoming vice-president and general manager in 1912 and
president in 1922, as well as president of subsidiary companies. The Spencer
Kellogg & Sons organization has become a ramified system of industrial
activities. In addition to general offices, mills and elevators in Buffalo,
the company has mills at Minneapolis, Minnesota; Superior, Wisconsin; chicago,
Illinois; Decatur, Illinois; Des Moines, Iowa; Long Beach, California;
Bellevue, Ohio, and Manila, Philippine Islands. There is also a Kellogg ocean
pier at Edgewater, New Jersey, where the company also has a mill. The
Edgewater unit is situated along the Hudson River, opposite Ninety-sixth
Street, New York City, and the mill there was for many years the largest
linseed crushing plant in the world; now it also manufactures castor oil and
refines cocoanut and other vegetable oils.

Often Mr. Kellogg recalls, as other members of his family have done, the
interest of an ancestor, Supplina Kellogg, in linseed oil. It was back in 1824
that that pioneer began operating a linseed oil mill in upstate New York. A
blind mule tramped around a turning post to provide power, and the daily ,
output was two barrels. The company in , its present form dates back to 1894
Its history has been a. fascinating story of industry. Decades ago it defeated
the linseed trust. Later it fought a combination of the Western Elevator
Association and the railroads serving Buffalo, and won that battle. Mr.
Kellogg, as president, today follows a conservative policy of management, as
does his son, Howard Kellogg, Jr., in his capacity as executive vice-president

Mr. Kellogg served two terms as director of the Buffalo branch of the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York, and is a director of the Buffalo Society of Natural
Sciences. He is also a director of the MarineMidland Group, and is a
Republican, a Presbyterian and a member of the Buffalo Club, the Buffalo
Athletic Club. the Wanakah Country Club and the Buffalo Country Club. During
World War I Mr. Kellogg served as member of the United States Food
Administration and on other committees connected with the war effort. In World
War II he acted as chairman for Erie County of the War Bond campaign.

He married, March 27, 1906, Cyrena A. Case, who died in 1931. Their children
were Martha, Howard, Jr., (see accompanying record) and Spencer Kellogg. He
married (second), July 21, 1933, Mrs. Lily Ann (May) Bowen.