November 3: Fleischmann’s Yeast

Charles Louis Fleischmann, who with his brother Maximilian created the first commercial yeast cake in America and transformed bread-baking, was born in Silesia on this date in 1835. The Fleischmann brothers, along with a financial partner, founded the Fleischmann Yeast Company in Riverside, Cincinnati in 1868 and exhibited their product at a fragrant “Vienna bakery” at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The Exposition, which was visited by ten million people, turned their company into a powerhouse: It became the world’s leading yeast producer and the second largest vinegar producer, and America’s first commercial producer of gin. Fleischmann’s established a research facility in Peekskill, New York in 1900, promoted its yeast cakes during the 1920s and ’30s as a natural laxative and complexion aid, and at the start of World War II produced a packaged yeast that did not require refrigeration and became active mixed with warm water. Charles Fleischmann held numerous patents for yeast-production machinery and established the Market National Bank in Cincinnati. His son Julius, at age 22, became the city’s youngest mayor, serving from 1900 to 1905.
“Bad skin is usually nature punishing you for internal neglect.” —Fleischmann’s yeast ad, 1934