Austin Church

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Austin Church
Born(1799-01-08)January 8, 1799
East Haddam, Connecticut
DiedAugust 7, 1879(1879-08-07) (aged 80)
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Businessman, manufacturer, medical doctor
Known forpioneer of bicarbonate of soda

Austin Church (January 8, 1799 – August 7, 1879) was an American medical doctor and a pioneer of bicarbonate of soda manufacturing. He was a co-founder of the company that first developed the product in America from chemical compound salts. His company was the first to use the Arm & Hammer trademark to sell the product as a baking soda. He was a businessman involved with merchandising the soda product in a variety of uses from cooking and cleaning ingredients to health product supplements. As a philanthropist Church was involved with charities across the United States.

Contents

Early life

Arm & Hammer trade card from the 1870s Arm and Hammer brand Best in the world.jpg
Arm & Hammer trade card from the 1870s
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Church was born in East Haddam, Connecticut, on January 8, 1799. He was the son of Oliver Church, a school teacher, and Elizabeth ( née Cone) Church. [1] His mother and father died while he was still a child, leaving him an orphan with little means. However, Church was able to finish high school and put himself through Yale Medical School to become a medical doctor. [2] He began his medical career in Utica, New York, in 1824. In 1826 he moved to and practiced in Cooperstown, New York, and in 1829 went to Ithaca, New York. [1]

Career

In 1834, Church began to experiment with sodium carbonate and carbon dioxide to try to find a yeast substitute for making bread rise while being baked. Bicarbonate of soda became a replacement for the potash then used for baking. Church gave up his medical practice and established a factory to make pearlash and saleratus in Rochester, New York. [1] He partnered with his brother-in-law John Dwight in 1846 and started manufacturing baking soda from Dwight's farmhouse kitchen. [3] [4] Church and Dwight called their business John Dwight & Company and in 1847 moved to New York City, just west of 10th Avenue at 25th Street. [1] [3] Their product became the first commercially produced bicarbonate of soda manufactured in the United States. [5] [6]

Church and Dwight packaged the product themselves in one-pound (450 g) brightly colored bags for grocery store shelves. [7] The sales increased from 1 short ton (910 kg) of production in 1846 to over 10,000 short tons (9,100,000 kg) a year thirty years later. The factory that produced the baking soda was in Brooklyn, where Church lived for twenty-five years. The main office of the company was on Front Street in Rochester, New York. [2] In the mid-1860s, Church and Dwight showed an interest in their sons becoming partners in their company, but a recent investor in the company objected because he did not like the idea of them intruding. [8] Church resigned from the company, and founded Church & Company of Massachusetts with his sons in 1867. They used the Arm & Hammer trademark (hammer-wielding arm of Vulcan the god of fire) [9] from the Vulcan Spice Mills company, which was owned by one of Church's sons. [10] [11] [12] They used the well recognized trademark to sell the Arm & Hammer Baking Soda product for hundreds of uses in cooking and cleaning and marketed it worldwide. [9] [13]

Church's soda product was the same as Dwight's product, which he continued selling under the Cow Brand trademark. Church and Dwight remained friends and competed for 29 years. [14] The two firms were joined again in 1896 by the descendants of the founders and became the Church & Dwight Company. [4] The Cow Brand and Arm & Hammer Brand were seen by the public as one and the same, so both logos were used after the merger. For example, they gave away recipe books with both trademarks on the cover. For fifty years, the company was one of the most well-known grocery store supply vendors in the United States. Dwight was the first president of Church and Dwight Company and kept this position until his death in 1903. [15] Arm & Hammer's sales of their product had increased 25 percent a year from 1970 through 1995. There were 300 industrial uses for the soda product in North America by 1995, some of which were for environmental purposes. [16]

Philanthropy

Church was known as a generous contributor to various charities in Brooklyn, [17] one being the New York Association for Improvement of the Poor. [2] [18] [19]

Family

On May 3, 1827, Church married Nancy Dwight; she was the daughter of Elihu Dwight, a physician of South Hadley, Massachusetts. [1] They had two sons and two daughters. [1] Nancy was the older sibling to John Dwight. [3]

Later life and death

Church retired from the bicarbonate of soda manufacturing business in 1876. He lived to celebrate his golden wedding anniversary in 1877. [20] Church died in Brooklyn, New York, on August 7, 1879. [1] His two sons, E. Dwight Church and James Austin Church, managed Church and Dwight Company after his death. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sodium bicarbonate</span> Chemical compound

Sodium bicarbonate (IUPAC name: sodium hydrogencarbonate), commonly known as baking soda or bicarbonate of soda, is a chemical compound with the formula NaHCO3. It is a salt composed of a sodium cation (Na+) and a bicarbonate anion (HCO3). Sodium bicarbonate is a white solid that is crystalline, but often appears as a fine powder. It has a slightly salty, alkaline taste resembling that of washing soda (sodium carbonate). The natural mineral form is nahcolite. It is a component of the mineral natron and is found dissolved in many mineral springs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sodium carbonate</span> Chemical compound

Sodium carbonate is the inorganic compound with the formula Na2CO3 and its various hydrates. All forms are white, odourless, water-soluble salts that yield alkaline solutions in water. Historically, it was extracted from the ashes of plants grown in sodium-rich soils. Because the ashes of these sodium-rich plants were noticeably different from ashes of wood, sodium carbonate became known as "soda ash". It is produced in large quantities from sodium chloride and limestone by the Solvay process, as well as by carbonating sodium hydroxide which is made using the Chlor-alkali process.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baking powder</span> Dry chemical leavening agent

Baking powder is a dry chemical leavening agent, a mixture of a carbonate or bicarbonate and a weak acid. The base and acid are prevented from reacting prematurely by the inclusion of a buffer such as cornstarch. Baking powder is used to increase the volume and lighten the texture of baked goods. It works by releasing carbon dioxide gas into a batter or dough through an acid–base reaction, causing bubbles in the wet mixture to expand and thus leavening the mixture. The first single-acting baking powder, which releases carbon dioxide at room temperature as soon as it is dampened, was developed by food manufacturer Alfred Bird in England in 1843. The first double-acting baking powder, which releases some carbon dioxide when dampened, and later releases more of the gas when heated by baking, was first developed by Eben Norton Horsford in the U.S. in the 1860s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Potassium bicarbonate</span> Chemical compound

Potassium bicarbonate (IUPAC name: potassium hydrogencarbonate, also known as potassium acid carbonate) is the inorganic compound with the chemical formula KHCO3. It is a white solid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ammonium bicarbonate</span> Chemical compound

Ammonium bicarbonate is an inorganic compound with formula (NH4)HCO3. The compound has many names, reflecting its long history. Chemically speaking, it is the bicarbonate salt of the ammonium ion. It is a colourless solid that degrades readily to carbon dioxide, water and ammonia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soda bread</span> Wheat bread leavened with baking soda

Soda bread is a variety of quick bread traditionally made in a variety of cuisines in which sodium bicarbonate is used as a leavening agent instead of the traditional yeast. The ingredients of traditional soda bread are flour, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk. The buttermilk in the dough contains lactic acid, which reacts with the baking soda to form tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide. Other ingredients can be added, such as butter, egg, raisins, or nuts. An advantage of quick breads is their ability to be prepared quickly and reliably, without requiring the time-consuming skilled labor and temperature control needed for traditional yeast breads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drake's Cakes</span> Brand of American baked goods

Drake's is a brand of American baked goods. The company was founded by Newman E. Drake in 1896 in Harlem, New York, as The N.E. Drake Baking Company, but it is now owned by McKee Foods. The company makes snack cake products such as Devil Dogs, Funny Bones, Coffee Cakes, Ring Dings, and Yodels. Drake's has traditionally been marketed primarily in the Northeastern U.S., but it expanded to the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern U.S. regions in 2016. The products are made under the Orthodox Union kosher certification guidelines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Club soda</span> Carbonated water

Club soda is a manufactured form of carbonated water, commonly used as a drink mixer. Sodium bicarbonate, potassium sulfate, potassium bicarbonate, potassium citrate, or sodium citrate is artificially added to replicate constituents commonly found in natural mineral waters and offset the acidity of introducing carbon dioxide gas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arm & Hammer</span> Brand of baking soda products

Arm & Hammer is a brand of baking soda-based consumer products marketed by Church & Dwight, a major American manufacturer of household products. The logo of the brand depicts the ancient symbol of a muscular arm holding a hammer inside a red circle with the brand name and slogan. Originally associated solely with baking soda and washing soda, the company began to expand the brand to other products in the 1970s by using baking soda as a deodorizing ingredient. The new products included toothpaste, laundry detergent, underarm deodorant, and cat litter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church & Dwight</span> Company in Ewing, United States

Church & Dwight is an American consumer goods company focusing on personal care, household products, and specialty products. The company was founded in 1847 and is headquartered in Ewing, New Jersey. It is the parent company of well-known brands such as Arm & Hammer, Trojan, OxiClean, and First Response. In 2022, Church & Dwight reported annual revenue of $5.4 billion. The company's products and services include a wide range of consumer goods, including laundry detergent, air fresheners, baking soda, condoms, pregnancy tests, and oral hygiene products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quick bread</span> Bread leavened with agents other than yeast

Quick bread is any bread leavened with a chemical leavening agent rather than a biological one like yeast or sourdough starter. An advantage of quick breads is their ability to be prepared quickly and reliably, without requiring the time-consuming skilled labor and the climate control needed for traditional yeast breads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mentadent</span> Toothpaste brand of Unilever

Mentadent is a brand name for a line of dental products manufactured by Unilever for its home and international markets excluding the United States and Canada where the company sold its rights to the brand to Church & Dwight Company in 2003.

Arm and hammer is a symbol of industry, and the god Vulcan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carter-Wallace</span> American personal care company

Carter-Wallace was a personal care company headquartered in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of Carter Products and Wallace Laboratories. The company has a research facility in Cranbury, New Jersey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arm and hammer</span> Symbol of an arm holding a hammer

The arm and hammer is a symbol consisting of a muscular arm holding a hammer. Used in ancient times as a symbol of the god Vulcan, it came to be known as a symbol of industry, for example blacksmithing and gold-beating. It has been used as a symbol by many different kinds of organizations, including banks, local government, and socialist political parties.

Elihu Dwight Church was an American rare book collector and philanthropist.

Henry Church was an American writer and patron of the arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bond Bread</span> Brand name bread

Bond Bread was a product of General Baking Company. The name comes from the term bond, meaning 'a promise or guarantee of repayment of debt'. The company used the name as a way to say its purity of ingredients were guaranteed like it was home-made bread.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Phillips Hall</span> American inventor (1864–1939)

William Phillips Hall was a lay evangelist, railroad transportation executive, and electrical engineer. He founded the Hall Signal Company, headquartered in New York City, and invented signal mechanisms to improve railroad safety. He was involved with many other companies worldwide related to the railroad industry, and participated in various new reform and religious movements.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Yale University 1859, p. 412.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Hall 1895, p. 141.
  3. 1 2 3 Jorgensen 1994, p. 16.
  4. 1 2 "Baking Soda first made in South Hadley in 1846". The Boston Globe. Boston, Massachusetts. October 28, 1926. p. 31 via Newspapers.com Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg . Dr. Church started the manufacture of bicarbonate of soda in this country, the first factory being the kitchen of his home.
  5. "Church & Dwight Co". Syracuse Herald-Journal . Syracuse, New York. March 20, 1939. p. D13 via Newspapers.com Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg . Nearly a century ago Dr. Austin Church and John Dwight joined to produce the first bicarbonate made in the Western Hemisphere.
  6. "Baking Soda / The household 'geni' in a box". Logansport Pharos-Tribune. Logansport, Indiana. September 28, 1984. p. 6 via Newspapers.com Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg . Bicarbonate of sada has been made in America since 1839. Prior to that it was imported and expensive. Rochester, N.Y., is where made-in-America baking soda first was concocted by Dr. Austin Church. He teamed up about seven years later with his brother-in-law, John Dwight, in New York City in what became a multi-million dollar company.
  7. Allen, Ida Bailey (October 14, 1961). "Ordinary Baking Soda Kitchen Fire-Fighter". Tyrone Daily Herald. Tyrone, Pennsylvania. United Press International. p. 5 via Newspapers.com Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg .
  8. Williams 2017, p. 66.
  9. 1 2 Moore, Connie (November 23, 2008). "Baking soda helps make the cake". Springfield News-Sun. Springfield, Ohio. p. C9 via Newspapers.com Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg .
  10. "What is the origin of the Arm & Hammer trademark". Alton Evening Telegraph. Alton, Illinois. January 6, 1947. p. 4 via Newspapers.com Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg . Q. What is the origin of the Arm & Hammer trade-mark used on boxes of baking soda? A.The firm of Church and Sons was established by Dr. Austin Church and two sons to produce soda in about 1846. One of the sons had owned the Vulcan Spice Mills which had the arm and hammer trade-mark. This was adopted by the new firm.
  11. Rice 1994, p. 55.
  12. Grant 2005, p. 78.
  13. Douglas, Anne (December 28, 1979). "Grandma's wonder products are still going strong". Detroit Free Press. Detroit, Michigan. p. 17 via Newspapers.com Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg .
  14. Williams 2017, p. 67.
  15. White 1935, p. 310.
  16. Hamlin, Suzanne (January 10, 1996). "The powder and the Glory". The Charlotte Observer. Charlotte, North Carolina. p. 39 via Newspapers.com Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg .
  17. "The late Austin Church, M.D." Democrat and Chronicle . Rockchester, New York. August 11, 1879. p. 4 via Newspapers.com Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg . He was a member of the American Institute and of the New York Association for the Improvement of the Poor.
  18. "Austin Church, M.D." New York Daily Herald . New York, New York. August 9, 1879. p. 10 via Newspapers.com Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg . ...charity among the sick during the cholera epidemic in 1832...
  19. "Dr. Austin Church". Brooklyn Daily Eagle . Brooklyn, New York. August 8, 1879. p. 4 via Newspapers.com Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg . He was a member of the American Institute and of the New York Association for the Improvement of the Poor.
  20. Herringshaw 1904, p. 215.

Sources