James Lewis Kraft

James Lewis Kraft (born December 11, 1874 in Stevensville , Ontario , † February 1, 1953 in Chicago , Illinois ) was a Canadian - American entrepreneur and founder of the major food company Kraft Foods (now The Kraft Heinz Company ).

Life

He was probably born on his parents' farm lot 8, concession 10, Bertie Township in southeast Stevensville (now Fort Erie ) in Canada. He was the second of eleven children. His parents, George (* 1843/44) and Minerva Alice Tripp Krafft, were Mennonites who cultivated the tradition of his ancestor Jacob Boehm (approx. 1693–1781). His grandfather Francis Krafft, born in Germany in 1807/08, emigrated to Pennsylvania and moved on to Upper Canada (Ontario), where George was born, and was a farmer in Bertie Township in 1861. James' siblings were William, George Franklin, Charles Herbert, Robert Harvey, Frederick, Norman, John Henry, Sarah Ann, Ivy May, and Florence.

James attended Stevensville School No. 09 and started working in Richard Ferguson's general store at the age of 18 . In 1901/02 he was an accountant here, earning $ 500 a year. In 1902 he went to Buffalo , where he worked as a secretary and treasurer for the Shefford Cheese Company . In 1903 he moved to Chicago , where he ran a branch. There he was pushed out of business by business partners. With the remaining capital of $ 65 he rented a horse called Paddy with a wagon and bought the perishable cheese daily from the wholesalers on South Water Street to sell to local dealers who could not afford it on a daily basis. Within five years he wanted to become the best cheese wholesaler in town. This new business was successful and in 1909 he brought his brothers Charles H., John H., Fred and Norman into the company, which was registered that year under the name JL Kraft & Bros. Co , with James Lewis as President.

On June 2, 1910, he married Pauline Elizabeth Platt from Chicago, with whom he had the daughter Edith Lucile. In 1911 he became an American citizen. Her summer residence was Kraftwood Gardens , on Enterprise Lake in Langlade County .

Own cheese production

In 1914 he started his own cheese production in Stockton (Illinois) , sold around 30 types of cheese under the brand names Kraft and Elkhorn and was represented in most cities in the USA. Cheese was unpopular in the US, with average annual consumption averaging a pound. Cheddar , the most popular type of cheese in the USA at the time, was prone to mold or drying out. The taste was not uniform either, and in many cases it was even severe or bitter.

During his experiments, Kraft discovered that cheese, like milk, can be pasteurized and remains edible if the heating process takes place quickly. Previous attempts resulted in a separation of the cheese into solids and oil. Using trial and error , he developed a process for pasteurizing cheese into so-called process or processed cheese . Carefully packaged, it was resistant to spoilage and could be sent over long distances without refrigeration. In 1916 he received a patent for his process.

In 1915 he was selling canned pasteurized cheese valued at $ 5,000, mostly to India and Asia. In 1916 sales rose to $ 150,000. During World War I, the US government ordered more than 6 million pounds of canned Kraft cheese. After the war, he sold his cheese in five-pound loaves, wrapped in foil and packed in wooden boxes.

In 1919 he expanded his business to Canada. The following year he acquired the AF MacLaren Imperial Cheese Company in Stratford, Ontario, known for its cream cheese . His youngest brother, John Henry, became president of the Kraft-MacLaren Cheese Company . In 1933 he sponsored the weekly radio show Kraft Music Hall , where he also announced new products. In 1947 he introduced the Kraft Television Theater .

Publications

• Adventures in jade. (A record of the search for American jade.) ; H. Holt and company, New York, 1947

Individual evidence

1. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20050430115011/http://www.heritagefdn.on.ca/userfiles/page_attachments/Library/1/1020920_JL_Kraft_ENG.pdf . Accessed: 2018-04-06. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/6yU9DpOBt )
2. ↑ http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~boehm/data/biographies/Biographies.html
3. ↑ http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/CountyAtlas/showtownship2.php?townshipid=Bertie . Person index p. 18f
4. ↑ http://www.kraftfoodsgroup.com/about/history/JLKraftBio.aspx
5. ↑ http://www.antigodailyjournal.com/full.php?id=5303
6. ↑ https://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,890352,00.html