Austin Church
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Austin Church (January 8, 1799 – August 7, 1879) was an American medical doctor and a pioneer of bicarbonate of soda manufacturing. He was a co-founder of the company that first developed the product in America from chemical compound salts. His company was the first to use the
Arm & Hammer Arm & Hammer is a brand of baking soda-based consumer products marketed by Church & Dwight, a major American manufacturer of household products. The logo of the brand depicts the ancient symbol of a muscular arm holding a hammer inside a red ci ...
trademark to sell the product as a baking soda. He was a businessman involved with merchandising the soda product in a variety of uses from cooking and cleaning ingredients to health product supplements. As a philanthropist Church was involved with charities across the United States.


Early life

Church was born in
East Haddam, Connecticut East Haddam is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut. The population was 8,875 at the time of the 2020 census. History Until 1650, the area of East Haddam was inhabited by at least three Indigenous peoples: the Wangunk, the Mohegan and the N ...
, on January 8, 1799. He was the son of Oliver Church, a school teacher, and Elizabeth ( Cone) Church. His mother and father died while he was still a child, leaving him an orphan with little means. However, Church was able to finish high school and put himself through
Yale Medical School The Yale School of Medicine is the graduate medical school at Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was founded in 1810 as the Medical Institution of Yale College and formally opened in 1813. The primary te ...
to become a medical doctor. He began his medical career in
Utica, New York Utica () is a city in the Mohawk Valley and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The tenth-most-populous city in New York State, its population was 65,283 in the 2020 U.S. Census. Located on the Mohawk River at the ...
, in 1824. In 1826 he moved to and practiced in Cooperstown, New York, and in 1829 went to
Ithaca, New York Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named ...
.


Career

In 1834, Church began to experiment with sodium carbonate and
carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is trans ...
to try to find a yeast substitute for making bread rise while being baked. Bicarbonate of soda became a replacement for the
potash Potash () includes various mined and manufactured salts that contain potassium in water-soluble form.
then used for baking. Church gave up his medical practice and established a factory to make
pearlash Potassium carbonate is the inorganic compound with the formula K2 CO3. It is a white salt, which is soluble in water. It is deliquescent, often appearing as a damp or wet solid. Potassium carbonate is mainly used in the production of soap and gl ...
and saleratus in
Rochester, New York Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in W ...
. He partnered with his brother-in-law John Dwight in 1846 and started manufacturing baking soda from Dwight's farmhouse kitchen. Church and Dwight called their business John Dwight & Company and in 1847 moved to New York City, just west of 10th Avenue at 25th Street. Their product became the first commercially produced bicarbonate of soda manufactured in the United States. Church and Dwight packaged the product themselves in brightly colored bags for grocery store shelves. The sales increased from of production in 1846 to over a year thirty years later. The factory that produced the baking soda was in
Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, where Church lived for twenty-five years. The main office of the company was on Front Street in Rochester, New York. In the mid-1860s, Church and Dwight showed an interest in their sons becoming partners in their company, but a recent investor in the company objected because he didn't like the idea of them intruding. Church resigned from the company, and founded Church & Company of Massachusetts with his sons in 1867. They used the Arm & Hammer trademark (hammer-wielding arm of
Vulcan Vulcan may refer to: Mythology * Vulcan (mythology), the god of fire, volcanoes, metalworking, and the forge in Roman mythology Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * Vulcan (''Star Trek''), name of a fictional race and their home p ...
the god of fire) from the Vulcan Spice Mills company, which was owned by one of Church's sons. They used the well recognized trademark to sell the Arm & Hammer Baking Soda product for hundreds of uses in cooking and cleaning and marketed it worldwide. Church's soda product was the same as Dwight's product, which he continued selling under the Cow Brand trademark. Church and Dwight remained friends and competed for 29 years. The two firms were joined again in 1896 by the descendants of the founders and became the Church & Dwight Company. The Cow Brand and Arm & Hammer Brand were seen by the public as one and the same, so both logos were used after the merger. For example, they gave away recipe books with both trademarks on the cover. For fifty years, the company was one of the most well-known grocery store supply vendors in the United States. Dwight was the first president of Church and Dwight Company and kept this position until his death in 1903. Arm & Hammer's sales of their product had increased 25 percent a year from 1970 through 1995. There were 300 industrial uses for the soda product in North America by 1995, some of which were for environmental purposes.


Philanthropy

Church was known as a generous contributor to various charities in Brooklyn, one being the New York Association for Improvement of the Poor.


Family

On May 3, 1827, Church married Nancy Dwight; she was the daughter of Elihu Dwight, a physician of South Hadley, Massachusetts. They had two sons and two daughters. Nancy was the older sibling to John Dwight.


Later life and death

Church retired from the bicarbonate of soda manufacturing business in 1876. He lived to celebrate his golden wedding anniversary in 1877. Church died in Brooklyn, New York, on August 7, 1879. His two sons, E. Dwight Church and James Austin Church, managed Church and Dwight Company after his death.


References


Sources

* * * * * * * *


External links


Arm & Hammer Homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Church, Austin 1799 births 1879 deaths People from East Haddam, Connecticut