Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 301

Wachhiirn'c 'LCnllw' ca! vvwwiimiiiii vii gwi ace for mill industry ') Hit fao miar Staff Writer CadwaHader Cokton Washburn was doing everything wrong, or so people said in the 1860s and 1870s. They thought his first flour mil so ridiculous they called it "Washburn's Fotty." Built in 1866 at Mtnneapofo's St. Anthony Falls, it was a huge, six-story building costing the fabulous sum of $100,000. He bought brand-new equipment, transported all the way from Buffalo. People said Minnesota couldn't possibly use all the flour produced by such a large mill.

Washburn ignored public sentiment. He viewed the whole nation even the world as his market. tended by 170 millers, including 14 from Europe. His firm Washburn, Crosby and Company came away with the Gold Medal. And the silver.

And the bronze. All three top prizes went to Washburn Crosby. The company became General Mills, and Cadwallader Washburn still is regarded as having shaped Minneapolis as much as any one person. Cad Washburn was bom in 1818 in Liver-more, Maine, to a family with a good name (two Washburn8 came to America in the Mayflower) but suffering from financial problems. Cad Washburn taught school as a sideline to farming and read law with an uncle.

Biographers say he was "retiring." "frank when others chose to be friendly." "exceedingly honest," "of a Puritan stock that was disposed to discourage gayety and pleasure." He headed west, with no definite idea of where he would stop. He did know he wanted to settle and make his fortune somewhere on the banks of the Mississippi River. Between 1 839 and 1 842 he wandered the Mississippi Valley, seeming to try various communities on for size. At age 24, he settled down for a while in Mineral Point, practicing law. He got into the real estate and timber businesses in eastern Minnesota and the Black River country of Wisconsin.

He made a bundle. By the time he was 35, he was the chief businessman in his Strange. Decause mere was no great market for Minneapolis flour even in the eastern United States. The idea persisted that Minnesota was much too far north to grow a realty good flour-producing wheat. Minneapolis mtters often labeled their flour barrels "Made in St.

Louis." When Washburn entered the milling business, the process had remained essentially the same for hundreds of years. A relative newcomer to the business, he hired top-grade scientists to develop a way to make fine white flour from the hard spring wheat. He sent an excellent salesman to Europe to sell the flour. Washburn's belief in his product paid off. In 1880 his company, Washburn Crosby, participated in the first Millers' International Exhibition, held in Cincinnati.

It was at part of Wisconsin. He also made a reputa- Cadwallader Colden Washburn. i v. ii Jill tf til -fTiiitiiii II nil i 7 inn iii it iiimii inn a --t k. aj i Ut.js A A .1 mm.

I 1 r'Ans-hiae I ftp AJ drawing of Washburn-Crosby flour mills, and C. The scene at the mills after the May 2, 1878, explosion that killed 18 men and leveled the Washburn A Mill and other buildings..