Then and Now: Fleischmann’s Yeast in Spokane

Before gluten-free bread, low-carb fads and paleo diets, wheat fed the Inland Northwest’s settlers.

Wheat was first planted in the fields of Eastern Washington in the 1870s. One of the first businesses powered by the Spokane River was a gristmill to grind wheat into flour for the settlers of Spokane Falls.

During the explosive growth of Spokane in the 1890s and early part of the 20th century, large bakeries produced uniform, sliced loaves of bread for local households. Businessman David Ackerman bought Spokane Bakery Co. in 1906, saying that factory bakeries would “hasten the day when the housewife shall bake no more.”

A critical component in the feasibility of commercial baking was yeast. Before Charles and Maximilian Fleischmann began to produce the first commercial yeast in 1868, bakers had to culture and grow their own leaveners. The Fleischmann brothers perfected dry yeast with consistent, predictable qualities and revolutionized large-scale baking.

Guy S. Andrus operated the Fleischmann’s dealership in Spokane. In 1929, the company began sponsoring the Fleischmann’s Yeast Hour with Rudy Vallée. The brothers then sold out to a large conglomerate.

Early Fleischmann advertisements made bold claims about the virtues of yeast, even eating it by the spoonful. In Boy’s Life magazine in 1938, one ad asked if the reader was “A pimple-faced outcast at 17? Many young people help solve this problem simply by eating Fleischmann’s Yeast.”

Andrus died in 1943.

Jesse Tinsley