Joel O. Cheek and cousin Christopher T. Cheek began their professional lives as wholesale grocers in 1890. Their grocery business sequed into the coffee business. They established the Nashville Coffee and Manufacturing Company, which sold prepared coffee when most companies merely sold green beans. The Cheeks entered into a partnership with James W. Neal in 1904, and the company became Cheek-Neal Coffee. Under this title the company went national with factories scattered over the United States. Living in Nashville, Tennesssee, the partnership worked to give their coffee the reputation of being above the rest, so they convinced Nashville's premier hotel at the time, the Maxwell House, to use the coffee exclusively in its restaurants, which gave a new name to their coffee: Maxwell House Coffee. Maxwell House Coffee eventually captured one-third of the American coffee market. Joel Cheek sold the company to Postum Company, which would later become General Foods, in 1928. Later - and currently - the brand would be sold under the banner of Kraft.
Joel O. Cheek and cousin Christopher T. Cheek began their professional lives as wholesale grocers in 1890. Their grocery business sequed into the coffee business. They established the Nashville Coffee and Manufacturing Company, which sold prepared coffee when most companies merely sold green beans. The Cheeks entered into a partnership with James W. Neal in 1904, and the company became Cheek-Neal Coffee. Under this title the company went national with factories scattered over the United States. Living in Nashville, Tennesssee, the partnership worked to give their coffee the reputation of being above the rest, so they convinced Nashville's premier hotel at the time, the Maxwell House, to use the coffee exclusively in its restaurants, which gave a new name to their coffee: Maxwell House Coffee. Maxwell House Coffee eventually captured one-third of the American coffee market. Joel Cheek sold the company to Postum Company, which would later become General Foods, in 1928. Later - and currently - the brand would be sold under the banner of Kraft.
Family Members
Siblings
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Records on Ancestry
Advertisement
