Becoming an American Company

Becoming an American Company. . Fires and mergers transformed Schumacher's Akron business into the major American company of Quaker Oats. Schumacher's empire peaked as an independent business in the 1880s. His Empire Mills had expanded into a major complex which included the German Mills, rebuilt after an 1872 fire, and the new eight-story Jumbo Mills, then the largest mill in the world. Trouble followed in 1886 when fire destroyed the complex and caused over $10 million damage in 2008 dollars. , Schumacher could not afford to rebuild. After a series of mergers his company became the American Cereal Company. Personal financial trouble struck during the 1896 depression, causing Schumacher to lose his stock in the company. By 1901, with Schumacher no longer involved, the company became known as Quaker Oats. , The Quaker trademark began with the Quaker Milling Company of Ravenna, Ohio. The F. Schumacher Milling Company merged with seven other companies, including Quaker Milling, as the American Cereal Company in 1891. , After Schumacher lost his stock in the American Cereal Company, he founded a new company, the Schumacher Cereal Mills, with his sons in Iowa. While his business interests followed the agriculture to the Great Plains, he continued his affiliation with Akron, where he died in 1908.