Cerealine
Cerealine, also known as malt flakes, was a popular 19th century American cereal product and the first dry breakfast food. Similar to but predating corn flakes, which appeared in 1898 and are first rolled and then toasted, cerealine is corn grits in the form of uncooked flakes. It was originally used by the brewing industry.
More popularly, Cerealine Flakes, colloquially called simply Cerealine, was also the brand name for raw-flake cereal made from grits by the Cerealine Manufacturing Company of Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.
History
After having long been used for beer brewing, cerealine in the late 19th century became one the three most popular cereals of that time, along with cracked wheat and oatmeal. All three were typically sold by retailers who bought cereal in barrel lots and scooped it out to sell by the pound to customers. Cerealine Flakes was later sold in packages.
White-corn cerealine flakes were invented, perhaps accidentally, by Columbus, Indiana mill worker James Vannoy circa 1884[1] or 1887.[2] Cerealine was established as a breakfast food by at least 1897, when the Illinois Farmer's Institute annual report noted that, "Some mills make hominy of white corn, roll it into broad, flat flakes, called cerealine, which are used here as a breakfast dish...."[3]
Cerealine Manufacturing
Aurora, Indiana's T. & J.W. Gaff & Co. distillery built the Cerealine Mill,[4] at 607 Jackson Street in Columbus, Indiana, in 1867. Their Cerealine Manufacturing Company moved to Indianapolis, Indiana[5] sometime prior to 1898,[6] though the Columbus mill's building remained extant and was restored in the late 20th or early 21st century[7] for use as a cafeteria and conference center[8] by the engine manufacturing corporation Cummins Inc.[9]
Prior to being annexed by Indianapolis in 1895, the settlement around what was then called the Cerealine Works was known as Cerealinetown.[10]
Footnotess
- ↑ TripTrivia.com: Columbus, Indiana Tourism
- ↑ The Evening Republican (July 22, 1902); James Vannoy obituary
- ↑ Mills, Charles F. editor, Annual Report, Illinois Farmer's Institute with Reports of County Farmers' Institutes for the Year 1897 (Phillips Bros., State Printers, Springfield, Ill.) p. 122
- ↑ Hillforest.org: History of Hillforest
- ↑ Joseph Hart and His Descendants, by Rev. Charles Coffin Hart (1901): Gideon B. Hart
- ↑ The Digital Collections of IUPUI University Library: Indianapolis Sanborn Map #61, 1898
- ↑ Repp and Mundt: Restoration. Includes image of building.
- ↑ Cartage.org: Cummins Engine Co.
- ↑ HistoricColumbusIndiana.org: "Columbus Indiana Pictures and Photos From Bygone Days", p. 8. Includes image of building.
- ↑ Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana: Press release (Oct. 20, 2002): "Preservationists aim to save historic schools and taxpayer money"