AKRON, Ohio – Akron’s legacy in the rubber and toy manufacturing industries are well known, but soon the city will celebrate one of its lesser-known claims to fame with the inaugural Akron Oatmeal Festival.

Akron’s own Ferdinand Schumacher’s innovative 1850s oat mill was a catalyst for the breakfast staple’s rise in popularity nationwide. Schumacher, who was known as “The Oatmeal King,” founded the F. Schumacher Milling Company. There, he invented a machine to cut oats, which he packaged for sale. In the 1870s, he launched fast-cooking rolled oats by presoaking them and then flattening them between rollers to create oat flakes, according to the Historical Marker Database website . Schumacher’s milling company later merged with Quaker Oats, according to the Ohio Memory website .

The f

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