Spencer Kellogg's grandfather began milling linseed oil in 1824 in the Mohawk Valley near Amsterdam, New York. Spencer Kellogg moved to Buffalo and, at age 28, built his first linseed oil mill in 1879. By 1894, he constructed a second mill, giving him a total of 36 presses, making his the largest linseed oil plant in the U.S.
The Spencer Kellogg & Sons, Inc. company, was incorporated in 1912 with its headquarters in Buffalo. In 1940, the company operated four flaxseed crushing plants, four soybean crushing plants, one copra crushing plant in Manila, one castorbean crushing plant and one tung oil rectifying and refining plant in Hankow, China.
The Spencer Kellogg company owned its own ships, tank cars and tank stations to support "strategically located" plants. Nearly two-thirds of the company's facilities were required (1940) to "supply specially refined products, many of which were originated in its research laboratories."
Son of Spencer Kellogg, made president of the family business in 1922.
Photos and information taken from "Laboratory Letters," third edition, published by Spencer Kellogg & Sons, Inc, (1940).
