Governor John Sargent Pillsbury

John Sargent Pillsbury was a founder of Pillsbury Company also referred to as the Father of the University of Minnesota.

John Sargent Pillsbury was born in Sutton, New Hampshire on July 29, 1827. He was educated in the public schools and was learning the painter's trade when, at the age of sixteen, his natural taste for a commercial life made him abandon his proposed calling.

He was a clerk for bis brother George-Alfred Pillsbury in a country store in Warner, N. H., for six or seven years.

He arrived in Minnesota in 1855 and joined in a hardware business with George F. Cross, forming Cross, Pillsbury & Co.

In 1858 he married Mahala Fisk. He served as a city councilman (1858-1864), state senator (1864-1874), and 8th governor of the State of Minnesota. (1876-1882).

He sold the hardware store in 1875 to Janney, Moles, Brooks & Co. to devote himself to flour milling.

In 1878, his nephew Charles Alfred Pillsbury, son of George-Alfred Pillsbury, came to Minneapolis and with him, John-Sargent Pillsbury established the flour milling firm of C. A. Pillsbury & Company. Pillsbury Company became one of the largest flour milling operations in the world.

In 1875, he was elected as the Governor of the State of Minnesota, a position he would hold for three terms (the first and only instance a Governor of Minnesota was given three terms).

He died in Minneapolis, Minn., 18 Oct. 1901.
Governor John Sargent Pillsbury

Charles Alfred Pillsbury

Mr. Pillsbury is a native of New Hampshire, having been born at Warner, Merrimac County on October 3, 1842. His father George Alfred Pillsbury, a shopkeeper.

Charles A. Pillsbury graduated from Dartmouth College at the age of twenty-one. His collegiate course was interrupted somewhat by teaching school as a means of partial self-support while in college.

In 1869 he settled in Minneapolis and bought an interest in a small flour mill at the Falls after suggestion by his uncle John S. Pillsbury.

Under Charles's management, the business grew rapidly and posted a considerable profit within three years. It also received a new name: Charles A. Pillsbury and Co.

He later traveled widely in Europe, becoming familiar with market conditions and investigating new milling techniques. Mr. Pillsbury was among the first to adopt the new invention and reaped a rich harvest on account of the reputation which his celebrated "Pillsbury's Best" attained before the new device came into general use. By 1880 Pillsbury had acquired four other mills, and in 1881 they built the largest single flour mill in the world.

Pillsbury died on September 17, 1899 from a heart ailment
Charles Alfred Pillsbury