From Kellogg to College

Black Raspberries we got in Watervliet. They taste like raspberries, but have seeds like blackberries. Each one is a tasty little treat!

Before heading up north for the weekend, we visited Battle Creek. As Seventh-day Adventists, this city has significance to our church history, and we wanted the boys to see it. There is a historic village just outside of downtown that has many homes and buildings that our church founders resided in. They’re such adorable antiques themselves.

At the Welcome Center, they even welcomed Melbee 🙂

One of the tour guides, showed us around the museum that honors Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. He opened the Battle Creek Sanitarium over a century ago. This was a place for health and wellness. He used health divinely inspired advice given him by Ellen White,, and focused on the areas of digestion, exercise, and temperance. He invented many things to help people who visited the sanitarium, and several of his inventions are still used in more modern forms today.

This chair twists side to side and helps work on your core.

This was a light bed. In Michigan, the winter days can be without nice, bright sunshine, so Dr. Kellogg invented this so his patients could still receive good light.

These little contraptions worked on your grip strength. Dayne is showing how the tension can be tightened to make it harder and harder.

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Every morning, the staff of the Sanitarium met on the front lawn for excercises. Band music was played and anyone from the neighborhood was welcome to join in.

If you’ve ever seen a rowing machine, that was an original invention of Dr. Kellogg’s. The Battle Creek Sanitarium had many famous visitors, even though the things they were teaching and promoting were went against what “modern” medicine taught. Dr. Kellogg promoted fresh air for sick patients; on the contrary, many doctors believed fresh air was unhealty, and prescribed sick patients to be in rooms with no ventilation or sunshine. He promoted a lifestyle free from alcohol and tobacco. Those two things were regularly prescribed to help heal people. He promoted a vegetarian diet, and the Sanitarium was known for it’s very tasty meals. Presidents (Taft), First Ladies (Eleanor Roosevelt), sports stars (Babe Ruth), and celebrities (Amelia Earhart) stayed at the BCS.

And lastly, if you’re thinking there has to be a connection between Dr. Kellogg and Kellogg’s cereal, there is! He invented Corn Flakes. One of his patients was having a hard time chewing her food because of her bad teeth. He and his brother worked together to come up with the Corn Flakes recipe. His brother ended up being the one to manufacture and sell the cereal.

Albert took Melbee out for a bathroom break during our tour, and didn’t make it back before the boys and I were done. We were wondering where they’d gone when we looked down the road and saw this!

There is a Sojourner Truth memorial in Battle Creek. The picture on the left shows a copy of the only known signature she ever gave. She lived her final years in Battle Creek, and spent some time at the Sanitarium as well.

We ate at a restaurant known for its healthy, vegetarian food. Our tastebuds agree with all the 5 star Google reviews!!

After leaving Battle Creek, we headed to Hillsdale, MI. Hillsdale College is a college with an excellent reputation. They stand for Constitutionalism and the principles our beautiful country were founded on. They offer many free online courses to anyone who wants to sharpen their knowledge of the Constitution and the philosophers who influced our founders. Their motto is “Educating for Liberty since 1844”.