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American bread was flavorless and heavy. He missed the light, flavorful
breads of Vienna made from quality yeast, and he noticed there was
very little commercial yeast production in the United States. While in
New York, Charles met and married a young Prussian girl, 18-year-old
Henriette Robertson, before returning with her to Hungary.
A year later, Charles and his brother Maximilian immigrated to
the United States and found work at a New York distillery using the
Hungarian process of fermenting alcohol for which Charles later received
the U.S. patent. Encouraged to move to Cincinnati, they planned to run
a distillery and mass produce and sell compressed yeast. James W. Gaff,
of the successful T& J. W. Gaff Company distillery in Aurora, Indiana,
sensed a worthy investment and financed the enterprise to the tune of
$40,000.
The first plant was opened under the name Gaff, Fleischmann &
Company in Riverside, Ohio, where the production of paper-wrapped
cakes of compressed yeast was done by hand. The cakes were delivered to
customers in baskets and were an instant hit with the foreign population
which had been raised on European yeast. In 1871, the brothers were able
to open another plant in Blissville, Long Island.
What probably assured the Fleischmann family King of Yeast status,
however, was the Centennial Exposition. That year, the brothers joined
30,000 other exhibitors spread out over 256 acres in 190 buildings
in Philadelphia. An incredible ten million people, over one-fifth the
population of the United States at the time, visited the Exposition, where
they were lured by the smell of baking bread to the Model Vienna Bakery.
The company won a prize for excellence and attained international
renown. Yeast sales skyrocketed.
By 1881, Charles Fleischmann had bought out James W. Gaff, and
Charles and Henriette had three children: Betty (age 10), Julius (age
9), and Maximilian Charles Fleischmann (age 4). Not only were the
Fleischmanns making yeast and operating bakeries, they were also distillers
of vinegar and beer and various alcohols, becoming the first producers of
gin in the United States. In addition, the Fleischmanns were innovators in
mass marketing, being early pioneers in couponing, give-away cookbooks,
trade cards, and baking contests.
As the family fortune increased so did the lifestyle of its members.
Besides building an estate in the Catskills, Charles collected artwork,
became an avid yachtsman and collected a stable of racehorses. He passed
on a love for these pleasures to his children, along with a sense of civic and
community philanthropy.
Son of the Yeast King
When Max was a teenager, his father took him on a tour of the factory
and asked what his son found most interesting about the process. Max
mentioned that the great furnaces had caught his eye and from that
day forward, when he wasn’t in school, he was required to shovel coal
into those furnaces. At age 18, he began working in the manufacturing
department, learning the basics of
the business. He also attended Ohio
Military Institute, played semi-
professional baseball in Cincinnati
and became an amateur boxer. In
addition, Max was an outstanding
polo and tennis player.
In 1897, his father died and
his older brother Julius, an astute
businessman, took control of
the company. Max continued
to work in the manufacturing
department but joined up when the
Sarah Hamilton Sherlock Fleischmann shared her husband’s adventures
(Courtesy Santa Barbara Historical Museum)