ABSTRACT
The Ralston Purina Company was founded in 1894 as the Robinson-Danforth Commission, a horse-and mule-feed business. Using $12,000 in borrowed capital, William H. Danforth, the company’s founder, began selling feed near the company’s modern-day headquarters on the banks of the Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri. In the early 1900s Danforth began selling a whole-wheat breakfast cereal under the Purina label.
