We can also follow the career of William K. Kellogg of breakfast cereal fame, who first appears as a bookkeeper, residing at 107 Champion. In 1887 he is shown again as a bookkeeper, but now for the Health Publishing Co. residing at 349 Champion. Somewhere between 1889 and 1890 he moved again, but this time to 246 Champion. In 1891 he appears as the business manager of the Good Health Publishing Co. William Sadler worked with him during this period. In 1895 W. K. Kellogg is shown as the manager of the Modern Medicine Co. at 65 Washington. These were all enterprises of John Harvey Kellogg. William Kellogg continued to rise in importance on the Battle Creek scene until, in 1906, he organized the breakfast food company which bore his name, and became an important contributor to the region’s economy.

Lena Kellogg appears in the City Directory twice, both times as a nurse at the Sanitarium, first in 1893 and again in 1897. Her sister Anna first appears in 1897 and continues until 1904, when she removes to Paris, Illinois. This may be where the parents of the girls then lived, for Lena and William Sadler were married in Paris in 1897 when Lena was twenty-two years old. Many of the Kelloggs were highly mobile.

Wilfred first appears in the 1896 City Directory at the age of twenty as a clerk for the Modern Medicine Publishing Co., residing in the South Hall of the Sanitarium, and working for his uncle William K. Kellogg. Wilfred’s father died in Lancaster, Massachusetts on May 18, 1896 at the early age of 49. Wilfred’s mother Emma first appears in 1897. Apparently Emma and her children moved to Battle Creek after the death of the husband and father.

Children were not listed in City Directories until they came of age. Some may have married or moved away, and thus never appear. The table shows the business positions of Wilfred, his home address, which continued for many years to be his mother’s address, together with his siblings who were listed. Apparently Wilfred did not move into his own residence independent of his mother until 1911, when he was thirty-five years old. By that time he had important managerial positions with his uncle, William Keith. He married Anna Bell the following year.

The listings suggest that Wilfred was an ever larger figure on the Battle Creek scene. He was promoted to increasing levels of responsibility in commercial activities. The listings also show that he was working for both John Harvey Kellogg and William Keith Kellogg after 1906, the year William Keith separated from John Harvey. But appearances can be deceiving. I have copies of a series of letters written by Wilfred to his uncle W. K. Kellogg which clearly show he had serious personal problems. His letters are in the files of the W. K. Kellogg foundation in Battle Creek. The letters first appear when W. K. Kellogg started his own operation for breakfast foods in 1906. Previous letters from Wilfred would have been in the files of the Sanitarium operations, now lost, or scattered in various archives.

13 - A Strange Myth ~181~

This letter is informative in a number of ways:

1. Wilfred must have had a fairly responsible position. Effie was in charge of accounting; Len of the warehouse, probably including shipping and receiving. Other personnel, including Neilson, Covert, and Goff, apparently reported to Wilfred.

2. Wilfred’s problem is mental, not physical. He is asking for relief from the pressures of the job. He is a highly nervous individual. He believes that if he is given extended period for recovery, after a year or two, he will be normal again. He does not fail to mention that Dr. Read advises an out-of-town vacation.

3. He does not seem to hesitate in making this unusual request. There is an attitude, or tone, about the letter which suggests he is accustomed to such liberty, and that W. K. Kellogg will not immediately reject such outrageous request. One possible psychology is that he was spoiled by his mother, and perhaps by the Kellogg clan in general.

4. He is thirty years old, and should have grown beyond youthful pampering.

13 - A Strange Myth ~182~

5. He seems to be a good organizer, apparently a talent that ran in the Kellogg line.

6. His actual job is not reflected in the Battle Creek City Directory. He apparently is responsible for several executive assignments, including insurance for the Sanitas Food Co. and the Battle Creek Sanitarium Co., as well as other executive duties. He speaks to W. K. Kellogg as though this were an acceptable arrangement among the several business firms in Battle Creek. Two years later a shorter letter offers additional insight, with the same psychology.

August 17, ‘08

Mr. W. K. Kellogg

If the matter could be arranged without serious inconvenience, I would very much appreciate a leave of absence during September. I have an invitation from my friend Dr. Prince to spend some time with him, perhaps repeating our Moose Head Lake, Me., trip of some years ago. I haven’t been feeling at my best for some time, and on this account am somewhat anxious to make the trip, feeling sure that it will put me on my feet as it did before.

Affairs in the office are running with reasonable smoothness and I believe could be handled satisfactorily during my absence. The judge advises me that official matters can be taken care of by the election of some other member of the Board as temporary Secretary and Treasurer. French is familiar with the details of stock transfers, etc., and would be able to handle this without assistance.

I would arrange to be back in ample time to look after the October dividends. I shall be grateful for anything you can do for me along the line of this request.

W.C.K.

1. Here we see a definite attitude of executive privilege. Wilfred again does not consider it extraordinary to ask for the time off.

2. Again, his difficulties are mental. He has not been feeling at his best for some little time. Again this letter, with the previous one, suggests a habit of pampering.

3. He is definitely in an important position with the corn flakes company. He is a member of the Board, and is handling stock issues, transfers, etc. He would be back in time to handle the October dividend.

W. C., who married Smith’s daughter Anna, has sold out his properties here in Battle Creek, and is going to Chicago to engage in Sanitarium work with the Sadlers

Rev. George C. Tenney, Chaplain of the Sanitarium, officiated at the double wedding of Wilfred Custer Kellogg of Battle Creek and Miss Anna Kellogg, and of Sarah Willmer of La Grange, Ill. and of Edward Van Bond of Dallas, Texas, which took place Wednesday evening at the residence of Dr. and Mrs. Sadler of La Grange. Mrs. Sadler

13 - A Strange Myth ~185~

being a sister of Miss Kellogg who has made her home there for some time as has Miss Willmer, the young ladies being close friends. Mr. and Mrs. Kellogg will return to this city to reside and will be at home at 64 Oaklawn Avenue after Nov. 1. Mr. Kellogg is known extensively in the West End, is secretary of the Battle Creek Sanitarium Co., Ltd., and also secretary-treasurer of the Battle Creek Optical Co.

A similar notice appeared in the Battle Creek Inquirer on the same day. 

Wilfred Custer Kellogg of Battle Creek was one of the principals of a double wedding which was solemnized last evening at La Grange, Indiana (sic), when he was married to Miss Anna Kellogg. Miss Sarah Willmer of La Grange and Edward Van Bond of Dallas, Texas were the other bridal pair. The two young women have been close friends for many years, and have made their home during recent years with Miss Kellogg’s brother-in-law and sister, Dr. and Mrs. William Samuel Sadler, of La Grange, at whose residence the double wedding was celebrated at 8 o’clock last evening. Miss Kellogg is the daughter of Smith M. Kellogg of Pomona, Cal. Mr. Kellogg and his bride will make their home at 64 Oaklawn avenue after Nov. 1. He is secretary and treasurer of the Battle Creek Optical company and secretary of the Battle Creek Sanitarium Company, Ltd. He is one of the city’s most promising young business men, and everyone will be deeply interested in his marriage with one of Illinois’ fairest daughters.

~186~ The Birth of a Divine Revelation

I inquired of several people who knew Wilfred. What kind of man was he? When I suggested that he might have been the spiritual conduit for The Urantia Papers I invariable met with laughter, not laughter of derision but of amusement.

All considered it ludicrous that he was anything but a good office man. Jim Mills, President of the Urantia Brotherhood for several years, first met Wilfred in 1951, when Jim became a strong believer in The Urantia Papers, and a late-comer to the Forum. In a letter to me dated April 29, 1993 Jim described Wilfred as a small man, perhaps five feet, seven inches in height, slender build, wearing the conventional business suit of the period.

My first impression of him included a certain humility of manner and expression. He was definitely not an extrovert. The expression hard-nosed business man in the terminology of the time was and is, in my opinion, totally inapplicable. He was indeed, a gentleman.

His responsibilities in the early 1950’s included, apparently, the custody and safe-keeping of the press-proof copies of The Urantia Papers. When one wished to read some papers, they phoned 533 and left their request, including time of anticipated arrival and departure. Upon arrival they often would be met by Mr. Kellogg, papers in hand, who always said, “If I can be of any further help, please let me know.”

During the reading process Mr. Kellogg might be observed occasionally passing by the door of the reader’s sanctuary, but he never entered or indulged in frivolous conversation. His movements were very quiet and self-effacing. He seemed to be very conscious of the reader’s concentration, making every effort to see that neither he nor others would break into it.

As I came to know him better I was greatly impressed with his respect for his fellow human beings and his desire to serve them, which, in no way detracted anything from his own sense of self-consciousness. I felt a good man truly applied to him.

. . . In concluding a few notes about Wilfred Kellogg, he was definitely an individual. His devotion to the papers was all-inclusive. He was humble but forceful. He had no patience with the dilettante, especially in reference to the revelation.

13 - A Strange Myth ~187~

Several attributes of character can be deduced from Wilfred’s personal choices. He did not marry until he was thirty-six years old. Then he married a first cousin, one year his junior. He lived with his mother until age thirty-five, one year before his departure from Battle Creek, certainly not unheard of, but definitely a retiring personality who did not feel a call to strike out on his own. He never had ambitions to make conquests, whether in artistic creative fields, in business, or with the fair sex. Environmental pressures made him uneasy; he needed time off to recuperate. By thirty-seven years of age he did not have sufficient personal funds to buy a home. He went to a sister-in-law and cousin, to help him, not to a bank or financing office. And even that became an aborted effort. His real estate ownership in La Grange did not last more than five months. Perhaps the family tried to get him to be a man, to exert some self initiative. If so, they failed.

He never did exhibit self ambitions, even to the end of his life, more than as an office manager. Sadler may have offered him that position as a personal favor. He lived with the Sadlers until circumstances forced him out of that household when he was sixty-four years old.

Sadler described the Sleeping Subject as a hard-boiled business man, member of the board of trade and stock exchange. Wilfred most definitely was not a hard-boiled businessman. He declined to join his uncle in hard-boiled business decisions. Wilfred was never a member of the Chicago Board of Trade, nor was he a stock broker, although he handled the issue and transfer of stock for his uncle, an executive position, not a stock trade position. Wilfred could not have been the Sleeping Subject on these grounds.

Sadler also described the Sleeping Subject as approaching middle age. In 1908 Wilfred was thirty-two years old. We do not apply the descriptive phrase “middle age” to anyone forty years of age or less. Usually it is reserved for someone fifty or older. In 1908 Wilfred was not even approaching middle age. Therefore Wilfred could not have been the Sleeping Subject on those grounds.

Wilfred was busy in Battle Creek in 1908, the year Sadler first met the Sleeping Subject. He lived with his mother, and was manager of the Sales Department of the Battle Creek Sanitarium Company. He was not then a stock broker, or in any other business activity in Chicago or La Grange, nor did he live in Chicago or La Grange. Wilfred could not have been the Sleeping Subject on those grounds.

For his book Martin Gardner failed to do the research necessary to demonstrate these several items which deny Wilfred as the Sleeping Subject. He based his conclusions mostly on rumor and speculation, a pathetic choice for one with his reputation. Furthermore, Gardner had other information available which showed that Wilfred could not have been the Sleeping Subject.

Gardner has access to the files of Harold Sherman. Those files, although closed to the general public until the year 2,000, were opened to him by Martha Sherman as a personal favor. They contained many letters which Harry J. Loose wrote to Sherman. In those letters Loose gave items of information which should have convinced Gardner that Wilfred was not the Sleeping Subject.

~188~ The Birth of a Divine Revelation

In a letter dated October 21, 1942 Loose states that, at one time, there were seventeen Contact Commissioners, those who dealt directly with the Sleeping Subject in the early days. They would have included Sadler and his family, together with the Kelloggs, medical and psychology consultants, magicians to test methods by which the Sleeping Subject might have performed the observed feats, or others who might shed light on the strange behavior of the man during the night vigils. In that letter Loose states about the wife of the Sleeping Subject:

. . . the phone was direct from her to Sadler’s home phone and it lay between Christy and the Kelloggs to go through the phone lists of the Contact Commissioners and call them and tell them to hurry to the home of the instrument.

The wife of the Sleeping Subject would be awakened by his strange behavior, whereupon she would call the Sadlers, regardless of the time of night. William Sadler and the Sleeping Subject felt the episodes were so important to understand his affliction they were willing to pay the phone company for a direct tie line to Sadler’s phone.

A group of people numbering more than four or five certainly must have been involved in observation of the Sleeping Subject during these episodes. One can remember the telephone number of four or five people out of one’s head. If Anna and Wilfred Kellogg shared the call responsibility with Christy, Sadler’s adopted daughter and stenographer for the night sessions, the list must have included at least ten or twelve, or perhaps more, people. The knowledge that so many people were willing to arise from their beds in the middle of the night to attend these unusual sessions is highly informative. This was not an ordinary phenomenon.

Furthermore, there was an urgency about getting to the home of the Sleeping Subject. The task of making telephone contact with the many Contact Commissioners was not left to one person. The job was shared to save time. Obviously, Wilfred could not have been the Sleeping Subject if he were calling other people to hurry to the home of the Sleeping Subject. But Gardner chose to suppress this item of information; he did not inform his readers about it.

He censored vital information to avoid exposing his theory. Furthermore, Sadler said the lease of the Sleeping Subject expired that fall, the fall of 1908, and that he moved into an apartment in the same block. Here Sadler clearly distinguishes the physical locations of the Sleeping Subject outside the household locations of the Sadlers. Wilfred, when he came to La Grange in 1912, actually lived with the Sadlers, in their Victorian house, not in an apartment in the same block. Wilfred could not have been the Sleeping Subject on those grounds.

It truly would be ridiculous, and pathetic, for any one to suppose that Wilfred Kellogg had anything whatsoever to do with the delivery of a divine revelation.

13 - A Strange Myth ~189~

Notes taken Dec 1-2, 1993

Research notes and assistance by Harold Wolff, — 12\02\93 Frank L. Borwell lived at 204 S. Spring St. approximately 1/2 mile from 56 6th St. His house was built in 1896 designed by an architect named Howard Shaw. Howard Shaw was the son of Theodore Shaw who lived on Perry Ave in Chicago, location of many of the wealthy of Chicago. Theodore Shaw was an associate of Frank Borwell as a Commission Merchant dealing in groceries. Borwell died in 1914 or 1915.