Businessman. He was the co-inventor of the popular confectionery snack "Cracker Jacks". After emigrating to the United States from Germany in 1869, he worked as a farmhand outside of Chicago, Illinois while also selling popcorn, which was a popular snackfood at the time. He founded a popcorn and confection business in 1872 after the Great Chicago Fire. He was later joined by his brother Louis Rueckheim in the business, and together they helped it grow through the 1880s and 1890s. Deciding they wanted to try something new and different for the 1893 Colombian Exposition in Chicago, they combined molasses and peanuts with the popcorn they were selling, a confection that eventually evolved into "Cracker Jacks" (the name of which, in popular but unsubstantiated lore, supposedly came when a customer tasted it and exclaimed "That's a cracker jack!", meaning something excellent). In time the product gained wide popularity, and became associated with the game of professional baseball. The Rueckheim brothers would go on to add several aspects to their most renown product, adding a prize in each box at some point between 1890 and 1912, putting baseball game scorecards on boxes, and in 1914 adding sets of baseball cards. The Crack Jack product was immortalized in the 1908 Tin Pan Alley song "Take Me Out To The Ball Game".
Businessman. He was the co-inventor of the popular confectionery snack "Cracker Jacks". After emigrating to the United States from Germany in 1869, he worked as a farmhand outside of Chicago, Illinois while also selling popcorn, which was a popular snackfood at the time. He founded a popcorn and confection business in 1872 after the Great Chicago Fire. He was later joined by his brother Louis Rueckheim in the business, and together they helped it grow through the 1880s and 1890s. Deciding they wanted to try something new and different for the 1893 Colombian Exposition in Chicago, they combined molasses and peanuts with the popcorn they were selling, a confection that eventually evolved into "Cracker Jacks" (the name of which, in popular but unsubstantiated lore, supposedly came when a customer tasted it and exclaimed "That's a cracker jack!", meaning something excellent). In time the product gained wide popularity, and became associated with the game of professional baseball. The Rueckheim brothers would go on to add several aspects to their most renown product, adding a prize in each box at some point between 1890 and 1912, putting baseball game scorecards on boxes, and in 1914 adding sets of baseball cards. The Crack Jack product was immortalized in the 1908 Tin Pan Alley song "Take Me Out To The Ball Game".
Family Members
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