© NYPL Digital Collection
- Brooklyn Terminal at Brooklyn Bridge – ID: 1823531 – NYPL Digital Gallery
54 Fulton Street before 1908. Image source: Buffalo 1908, published by the Buffalo Evening News.
Edward Elsworth was the son of a very successful New York City man of the same name. With his family money, Edward ventured into his own entreprenurial waters in 1890 when he purchased Hornby’s Oats from the estate of Alexaner Hornby in Craigville, NY. Only Hornby had perfected the formula for quick-cooking oats, and Elsworth picked a winner because breakfast cereals were beginning to soar in popularity. He moved the entire factory to Lockport, Illinois, close to the source of grain and to Great Lakes shipping. He named his rolled oats product Paw-Nee and it sold very well in the Midwest.
In 1893, the New Yorker looked to Buffalo to expand his production. In his mid-30s by this time, he was tall with graying hair and was considered ‘colorful.’ At 54 Fulton Street, he constructed a wood-framed food mill, a feed mill, and an elevator. Between 1896 and 1908 he added a brick-framed elevator, and appended the buildings for use as storage, laboratory, and offices. [These original buildings survived until 1987 when destroyed by fire.] – Read more@ Western NY Heritage Press
National Magazine, October 1905 - Public Domain - Obtained through Wikipedia Commons
- Quaker Oats Company – Wikipedia
