Albert May Todd (June 3, 1850 – October 6, 1931), known as "The Peppermint King of

Kalamazoo Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. At the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropolit ...

," was an American chemist, businessman, and politician from the state of

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. A philanthropist and advocate of public ownership of utilities, Todd made his fortune as the founder of the A.M. Todd Company, a world leader in the production of

peppermint oil Peppermint extract is an herbal extract of peppermint (''Mentha × piperita'') made from the essential oils of peppermint leaves. Peppermint is a hybrid of water mint and spearmint and was indigenous to Europe and the Middle East before it became c ...

and other botanical extracts. Todd was also a renowned

bibliophile Bibliophilia or bibliophilism is the love of books. A bibliophile or bookworm is an individual who loves and frequently reads and/or collects books. Profile The classic bibliophile is one who loves to read, admire and collect books, often ama ...

, portions of whose collection now grace the holdings of several American universities. He served one term in the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

Biography

Early years

Albert May Todd was born June 3, 1850, near Nottawa, Michigan, in St. Joseph County, the tenth and last child of Alfred and Mary Ann Hovey Todd, who had come to Michigan from upstate

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

.Martha Lohrstorfer and Catherine Larson
"Albert M. Todd: The Peppermint King,"
Kalamazoo Public Library, 1999; last updated Dec. 13, 2011. The Todd family were farmers of extremely modest means, supporting themselves on 45 arable acres of an 80-acre homestead.John Edwards Todd with George Iru Todd
''The Todd Family in America or the Descendants of Christopher Todd, 1637-1919: Being an Effort to Give an Account, as Fully as Possible of his Descendants.''
Northampton, MA: Gazette Printing Co., 1920; pg. 408. Todd received his primary education in

one-room school One-room schools, or schoolhouses, were commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries, including Prussia, Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain. In most rural and s ...

houses before attending and graduated from

Sturgis High School Sturgis High School is located in Sturgis, Michigan and is part of the Sturgis Public Schools school district. Demographics The demographic breakdown of the 955 students enrolled in the 2018–19 school year was: * Male - 50.1% * Female - 49 ...

in the neighboring town of Sturgis. He later studied chemistry at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

Evanston, Illinois Evanston ( ) is a city, suburb of Chicago. Located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, it is situated on the North Shore along Lake Michigan. Evanston is north of Downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, Wil ...

"The Peppermint King"

Peppermint Peppermint (''Mentha'' × ''piperita'') is a hybrid species of mint, a cross between watermint and spearmint. Indigenous to Europe and the Middle East, the plant is now widely spread and cultivated in many regions of the world.Euro+Med Plantbas ...

was an early agricultural staple in southern Michigan and Todd at an early age was fascinated by the crop, attempting to cultivate it and to distill it. Together with his brother Oliver, Albert Todd began growing mint on a small scale and working to invent and improve new methods for its distillation into peppermint oil — a process which remained crude at that date. After graduation from Northwestern, he traveled to Europe and made a study of mint cultivation on that continent, bringing home varieties of the plant which were in cultivation there. Todd returned to southwestern Michigan where in 1869, at the age of 19, he established the A.M. Todd Company with a view to commercially extracting

flavoring A flavoring (or flavouring), also known as flavor (or flavour) or flavorant, is a food additive used to improve the taste or smell of food. It changes the perceptual impression of food as determined primarily by the chemoreceptors of the gusta ...

s and

essential oil An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile (easily evaporated at normal temperatures) chemical compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils, aetheroleum, or simply as the o ...

s from mint.Rosemary Parker
"Kalamazoo Mint Processor A.M. Todd Passes on 142-year Legacy with Acquisition by Swiss Company," ''Kalamazoo Gazette,'' Sept. 18, 2011.
/ref> In 1875, he marketed the "Crystal White" brand of

, with his own name featured prominently on the label as an assurance of quality. This trademarked product remains in active use into the 21st Century. The A.M. Todd Company was moved to

in 1891. It is estimated that by the early 20th century, 90 percent of the world's supply of peppermint was grown within 75 miles of Kalamazoo, most of which was refined by Todd. Todd's predominance in this field earned him the popular moniker "The Peppermint King of Kalamazoo." To provide a ready supply of raw mint for extraction, Todd established two gigantic plantations, called "Mentha" in Pine Grove Township and "Campaignia" near

Fennville Fennville is a city in Allegan County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,745 at the 2020 census. Located on M-89 on the boundary between Manlius Township to the north and Clyde Township to the south, Fennville is located abo ...

. The latter was the largest mint plantation in the world at that time. In all the company would come to itself grow and harvest approximately 10,000 acres annually planted to peppermint,

spearmint Spearmint, also known as garden mint, common mint, lamb mint and mackerel mint, is a species of mint, ''Mentha spicata'' (, native to Europe and southern temperate Asia, extending from Ireland in the west to southern China in the east. It is nat ...

, and other aromatic herbs. Todd and his company developed scientific methods for testing various qualities of mint

distillate Distillation, or classical distillation, is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and condensation, usually inside an apparatus known as a still. Dry distillation is the heat ...

s which allowed a means of grading the oils and were leaders in developing disease resistant strains following the emergence of the fungal-borne

verticillium wilt Verticillium wilt is a wilt disease affecting over 350 species of eudicot plants. It is caused by six species of ''Verticillium'' fungi: ''V. dahliae'', ''V. albo-atrum'', ''V. longisporum'', ''V. nubilum'', ''V. theobromae'' and ''V. tricorpu ...

in 1924. Todd returned to continue his education in the 1920s and in 1922 he graduated with a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

with honors in Chemistry from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

Political career

Todd's father was a supporter of the

Republican Party Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party. Republican Party may also refer to: Africa *Republican Party (Liberia) * Republican Part ...

— during the 19th Century frequently the more liberal of the two old parties in the United States. Albert consequently cast his first vote for that political organization. The two parties began to realign in the late 1870s, however, with the Republicans coming to favor large commercial interests, high

tariff A tariff is a tax imposed by the government of a country or by a supranational union on imports or exports of goods. Besides being a source of revenue for the government, import duties can also be a form of regulation of foreign trade and poli ...

s on imported goods, and strict adherence to the

gold standard A gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the early 1920s, and from the la ...

. Disheartened by the evolving political line of the Republican Party, Todd first shifted his allegiance to the

Prohibition Party The Prohibition Party (PRO) is a political party in the United States known for its historic opposition to the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages and as an integral part of the temperance movement. It is the oldest existing third party ...

, an organization which advanced a broad reform platform beyond its desire to ban the manufacture and use of alcoholic beverages. He would remain a leading supporter of the

of Michigan for nearly 20 years, even running an unsuccessful campaign for

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

under that party's banner in 1894.Darcy Richardson, ''Others: Third Parties During the Populist Period: Volume 2.'' iUniverse, 2007; pg. 257. Todd won just under 19,000 votes in the 1894 Gubernatorial campaign, discouragingly finishing in fourth place behind the candidates of the Republican, Democratic, and

People's People's, branded as ''People's Viennaline'' until May 2018, and legally ''Altenrhein Luftfahrt GmbH'', is an Austrian airline headquartered in Vienna. It operates scheduled and charter passenger flights mainly from its base at St. Gallen-Altenr ...

parties. Still bitten by the political bug, Todd sought to run for

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

in a special election held in 1895 to fill a vacant Michigan seat — this time attempting to join forces between his Prohibition Party and the People's Party, with which he shared similar views on many issues. The Michigan legislature, dominated by Republicans, immediately passed legislation prohibiting such "fusion," a matter which was ultimately litigated and narrowly resolved in Todd's favor. Despite the legal victory, Todd was narrowly turned back at the polls in the 1895 campaign. Undeterred, Todd again ran in the 1896 campaign for the 3rd Michigan Congressional District seat, winning the combined nominations of the Democratic, Prohibition, and People's Parties in the primary election. This time he would emerge victorious in November, defeating his Republican opponent by 425 votes. Todd's formal election was as a Democrat, with whom he caucused, but most of his time and effort was spent working with members and supporters of the People's Party and their agenda. Todd had since become a strong supporter of

public ownership State ownership, also called government ownership and public ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, or enterprise by the state or a public body representing a community, as opposed to an individual or private party. Public ownershi ...

of utilities, the regulation of the railroads, an opponent of

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...

, and a loosening of the national money supply through the unlimited coinage of silver and worked on behalf of these issues as part of the

Fifty-fifth Congress The 55th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from March 4, 1897, to M ...

.Todd and Todd, ''The Todd Family in America or the Descendants of Christopher Todd, 1637-1919,'' pg. 409. Todd's days in Congress would prove to be limited, however, as in 1898 his bid for re-election would be narrowly defeated at the polls by an energized opposition in the predominantly Republican district. Todd dedicated his efforts to an effort to create a liberal state opposition party to the Republicans, sitting on the State Central Committee of the Michigan Union Silver Party in 1899. Todd remained greatly interested in the question of public ownership of railways and utilities. He would travel to Europe in May 1912 and remain there for more than a year, visiting 13 countries to study their various approaches to the matter of public ownership and regulation of monopolies. He would attempt to propagate these ideas among the public through an organization which he established in 1916, the Public Ownership League of America — a group which he would serve as President and Honorary President until his death in 1931.

Collecting interests

Todd's travels in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

also spurred a lifelong interest in collecting rare books and artwork. At the time of his death, he owned over 11,000 volumes, including

illuminated manuscript An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, the ...

s and

clay tablet In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets (Akkadian ) were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age. Cuneiform characters were imprinted on a wet clay tablet with a stylu ...

s dating to the 23rd century B.C. His art collection included 228

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and por ...

and

porcelain Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises mainl ...

works from all over the world. His donations helped to establish the Kalamazoo Public Museum (now the

Kalamazoo Valley Museum The Kalamazoo Valley Museum is a "hands-on" museum in Kalamazoo, MI, Kalamazoo, Michigan. The museum is largely aimed at families, and focuses on science, technology, and history. The museum is operated by Kalamazoo Valley Community College, and a ...

) in 1927. He also established the A.M. Todd Rare Book Room at the Upjohn Library of

Kalamazoo College Kalamazoo College, also known as Kalamazoo, K College, KC or simply K, is a private liberal arts college in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Founded in 1833 by Baptist ministers as the Michigan and Huron Institute, Kalamazoo is the oldest private college in ...

. Later bequests to the library by Todd's surviving family members restored a significant part of Todd's original collection. Other artwork and manuscripts were placed in collections at

Western Michigan University Western Michigan University (Western Michigan, Western or WMU) is a public research university in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was initially established as Western State Normal School in 1903 by Governor Aaron T. Bliss for the training of teachers ...

and the

Death and legacy

Albert Todd died October 6, 1931, at his home in Kalamazoo. He was 81 years old at the time of his death. Todd was survived by his wife, Augusta Allman Todd, and five children. His body was interred at Mountain Home Cemetery in Kalamazoo. The Todd family is regarded as a notable political family in the state of Michigan.Larry Kestenbaum (ed.)
"Todd Family of Michigan,"
The Political Graveyard, http://www.politicalgraveyard.com/ Two of Albert M. Todd's sons — Albert J. Todd and Paul H. Todd — served as mayors of Kalamazoo. A grandson, Paul H. Todd, Jr., followed in his grandfather's footsteps and won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, in which he served from 1965 to 1966. In addition a nephew,

Laurence Todd Laurence Todd (1882–1957) was an American journalist who worked as a news agency correspondent in Washington, DC. A committed radical, Todd worked as personal secretary to Socialist Party of America, Socialist Congressman Meyer London from 1915 t ...

, was for 30 years the Washington correspondent of the

TASS The Russian News Agency TASS (russian: Информацио́нное аге́нтство Росси́и ТАСС, translit=Informatsionnoye agentstvo Rossii, or Information agency of Russia), abbreviated TASS (russian: ТАСС, label=none) ...

news agency of the Soviet Union, a position which twice put him in the national public spotlight as a subject of Congressional inquiry. The A.M. Todd Company would remain in Kalamazoo and stand as a leader in the production of mint oil for more than a century, ultimately being sold in 2011 to Swiss flavoring giant Wild Flavors GmbH. Wild Flavors was in turn sold to Chicago-based agricultural behemoth

Archer Daniels Midland The Archer-Daniels-Midland Company, commonly known as ADM, is an American multinational food processing and commodities trading corporation founded in 1902 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The company operates more than 270 plants and 42 ...

in July 2014 for $3 billion.Gregory Karp
"ADM Buys Ingredients Company Wild Flavors for About $3 billion,"
''Chicago Tribune,'' July 7, 2014.

Footnotes

Works

''Federal Operation of Transportation Systems: Extracts from Hearings Before the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce of the House of Representatives, Sixty-Fifth Congress, Second Session on H.R. 8172: Statement of Hon. Albert M. Todd, President of the Public Ownership League of America.''
Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1918.
''Municipal Ownership, with a Special Survey of Municipal Gas Plants in America and Europe; Comprising a View of the General Principles of Public Ownership; Its Relation to the Public Welfare: with a Special Study of Gas Works in American and European Cities under Both Public and Private Ownership; a Comparison of Efficiency, Costs, and Rates of Charge; and the Influence of Public Ownership on General Prosperity, Good Government and Democracy.''
Chicago: Public Ownership League of America, 1918.
''Public Ownership of Railroads: Statement of Hon. Albert M. Todd, President of the Public Ownership League of America in the Hearings Before the Committee on Interstate Commerce, United States Senate, 65th Congress, Third Session, February 21, 1919.''
Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1919.
"Relation of Public Ownership to Democracy and Social Justice,"
''Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science in the City of New York,'' vol. 8 (Jan. 1920), pp. 218–247.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Todd, Albert M. 19th-century American chemists 19th-century American politicians Businesspeople from Michigan Philanthropists from Michigan 1850 births 1931 deaths Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Michigan Politicians from Kalamazoo, Michigan Michigan Prohibitionists Northwestern University alumni Activists from Michigan People from St. Joseph County, Michigan