Frank L. Sommer House

Frank Lewis Sommer was born in Pennsylvania in 1852 and came to St. Joseph, Missouri in 1869. He began his career working as a clerk for Townsend & Wood, but left to start his own baking business in 1873, marrying Carrie Pinger the same year. In 1876, F.L. Sommer & Co. invented a revolutionary product. Utilizing baking salt to leaven the cracker, they developed the wafer thin snack which became known as “Saltines.” Sommer presented the saltine crackers at the Buchanan County Fair where it won the premium blue ribbon. Sommer’s popularity soared and the business expanded from being worth $50,000 in 1873 to $400,000 by 1880 with factories across the Midwest.

Frank Lewis Sommer was born in Pennsylvania in 1852 and came to St. Joseph, Missouri in 1869. He began his career working as a clerk for Townsend & Wood, but left to start his own baking business in 1873, marrying Carrie Pinger the same year. In 1876, F.L. Sommer & Co. invented a revolutionary product. Utilizing baking salt to leaven the cracker, they developed the wafer thin snack which became known as “Saltines.” Sommer presented the saltine crackers at the Buchanan County Fair where it won the premium blue ribbon. Sommer’s popularity soared and the business expanded from being worth $50,000 in 1873 to $400,000 by 1880 with factories across the Midwest.

Meanwhile, John D. Richardson, Jr., who was born in Virginia in 1849, came to St. Joseph in 1871. He was a clerk for wholesaler R.L. McDonald & Co. until 1874, then a salesman for Fallis, Trice & Co. until the business was bought out by Townsend, Wyatt, & Co. in 1876. Richardson continued to manage the store for the new company until he and John Townsend joined F.L. Sommer to form Sommer, Richardson & Co. in 1884. The company expanded into the confectionery business, trademarking the “Red Cross Brand Candies” in 1886. John D. Richardson, Jr. served as manager of the factory.

The cracker business became so popular in the late nineteenth century, that several companies began conglomerating. The largest of these conglomerates was formed by Chicago lawyer Adolphus Green, bringing together the midwestern biscuit factories, including Sommer-Richardson, into the American Biscuit Company. In 1898 the remaining biscuit companies merged with American Biscuit Company to form the National Biscuit Company later known as Nabisco. John D. Richardson, Jr. removed to Chicago to become first vice-president of the new company and remained there until retiring to his childhood home in Virginia in 1915. 

F.L. Sommer continued to work for the merging company until his retirement in 1900. His brother, William Sommer, operated the local factory at 202 Main Street from its construction in 1873 until 1912 when he was relocated to the Salt Lake City branch of Nabisco. He retired four years later and returned to St. Joseph. Nabisco continued to operate the local plant until 1935. Its iconic smokestack has defined the downtown skyline for over a century. The Premium brand, so named for F.L. Sommer’s county fair award at the product's origin, remains the top selling brand of saltine crackers to this day.