Robert Stuart

Robert Stuart (November 22, 1852 - January 27, 1926) was an American businessman who was one of the founders of the Quaker Oats Company. Early life Robert Stuart was born in Ingersoll, Canada West on November 22, 1852, the son of John Stuart. His father had opened a mill in Embro, Canada West in the mid-1850s. In 1873, they moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, opening an oatmeal mill there, the North Star Oatmeal Mills. It was considered to be the world's largest at the time. The father and son team later opened a second mill in Chicago, and gained market share in the Midwest, especially in Chicago, Milwaukee, and Detroit. Career Stuart went into partnership with a railroader, George Bruce Douglas Sr., in 1874. In 1885, the Stuarts entered into a business partnership with competitor Henry Parsons Crowell, proprietor of the Quaker Mill Company in Ravenna, Ohio in an attempt to compete against the much larger oatmeal business run by Ferdinand Schumacher, the "Oatmeal King". The next year, Schumacher's largest mill burned down, leaving the uninsured Schumacher in difficult financial circumstances. Thus, he asked to join their business, thus forming the Consolidated Oatmeal Company, with Crowell as president, Stuart as vice-president, and Schumacher as treasurer. The Consolidated Oatmeal Company collapsed in 1888.