George Washington (inventor)
He dabbled in several technical fields before hitting upon manufacturing an adapted version of the nascent instant coffee, during a sojourn in Central America in 1906 or 1907.
The success of his company made Washington wealthy, and he lived in a mansion in Brooklyn and then moved to a country estate in New Jersey in 1927.
[II][2][3][4] Following then-current nationality law, which considered fatherhood primary, Washington was a British subject until he was naturalized as an American in May 1918.
[3] In December 1895, Washington married Angeline Céline Virginie (later, just "Lina") Van Nieuwenhuyse (born 1876), also from Belgium.
Washington returned to New York City after only a period of about a year[1] in Guatemala, and then began pursuing the main part of his career in coffee manufacture.
After his coffee business was established in 1910, Washington resided at a Park Slope mansion, occupying half of a city block, at 47 Prospect Park West in Brooklyn,[5] and also at an 18-bedroom country home, later known as "Washington Lodge", on a 40-acre waterfront estate at 287 South Country Road in Brookhaven, New York, near Bellport in Suffolk County, which included the largest concrete swimming pool in New York at the time.
[14][15][16][17] In 1938, Washington's younger sister, Mrs. Kenneth Merkel, along with her husband and son, moved to the estate on South Country Road.
[28] Recently, the Washington Lodge estate was divided, and there have been conservation projects by local nonprofits and Bellport resident Isabella Rossellini.
[1] Washington's name was briefly put forward for the 1920 presidential election in South Dakota's preference primary for the "American Party", although papers were filed too late to be valid.
And when you come to think of it, that American Party stuff is good campaign dope this year, what with all the Bolsheviki and the Government after the Reds and the row about the League of Nations, and all that.
We've been overlooking something for sure.George Washington held over two dozen patents, in the fields of hydrocarbon lamps, cameras, and food processing.
The company later moved operations to New Jersey, acquiring the land for the new plant at 45 East Hanover Avenue in Morris Plains in 1927.
A different avenue for promotion came when the company sponsored The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes radio series on NBC and its Blue Network from 1930 to 1935, which started with Dr. Watson welcoming listeners to his recollections told by "a blazing fire and a cup of G Washington brewing.
In November 1918, he contracted with the company for the use of his trade secrets in the manufacture of the coffee, and a month later gave a four-fifths stake in this to his immediate family.
[37] E.F. Holbrook, the head of the coffee section of the U.S. War Department at the time, also considered it an important aid in recovery from mustard gas.
[6] New, smaller producers also sprung up to meet the incredible level of demand from the Army, which in the final period of the war was six times the national supply.
It takes only a minute to light my little oil heater and make some George Washington Coffee ... Every night I offer up a special petition to the health and well-being of Mr. Washington.American emergency rations in World War I consisted of a quarter ounce (7 grams) packet of double-strength instant coffee, packed one per man in containers with multiple types of foods meant for twenty-four men.
[40] In Washington's final years, he sold the "Franklin Farms" property, and lived in a home on New Vernon Road in Mendham.
This brand was sold by American Home Products in 2000, and, after passing through a couple of intermediaries, has been run by Homestat Farm, Ltd. since 2001.
