Post, Charles William

Post, Charles William (1854–1914) cereal manufacturer; born in Springfield, Ill. He dropped out of the University of Illinois and held several jobs until his health failed in 1884. In 1891 he established La Vita Inn in Battle Creek, Mich., an institute for healing by mental suggestion. He began experimenting with breakfast foods and in 1895 invented Postum, a coffee substitute after which he named his company, Postum Cereal Co., Ltd. He also invented Grape Nuts (1897) and Post Toasties (1904). He fought what he called the "tyrannical and dangerous" tactics of union organizers and insisted on an open shop. In 1902 he founded the anti-union Citizen's Industrial Alliance (president, 1905–08) and in 1910 the National Trades' and Workers' Association. In 1914, while recuperating from an appendectomy in his California winter home, he fell into a depression and killed himself.