The Oatmeal King

The Oatmeal King. . , The F. Schumacher Milling Company became Akron's largest business for its time, but it started small. A German immigrant, Schumacher arrived in Akron in 1851. He opened a toy and fancy goods store on Howard Street and then a grocery and drugstore on Market Street. Making oatmeal at the back of his grocery store, he slowly introduced Akron to this product that he knew from his German childhood. , His fortunes turned when he filled a major oatmeal order for the Union Army during the Civil War, which he produced at his German Mills across North Street. With his success as a grain supplier, he added the Empire Barley Mills on Summit Street to supply the Army with pearl barley in 1863. , Schumacher invented ways to process oats for commercial appeal. Operating from his grocery store, he invented a machine to cut oats, which he packed into small glass jars. In the 1870s, his mills launched fast-cooking rolled oats, produced by presoaking whole oats and then running them between rollers to create oat flakes. , Schumacher had a strict belief in duty and temperance. He ran for governor of Ohio in 1883 on the Prohibition Party ticket, but lost by a landslide. As author W. D. Ellis wrote in The Cuyahoga in 1966, "Schumacher valued oatmeal as a 'good solid grain that grew good solid people.'"