Pillsbury is a company started in 1869 by Charles A. Pillsbury. He bought a flour mill in Minneapolis and by 1872 named it Pillsbury & Co. and purchased more mills. Through many changes, he and his family got Pillsbury to where it is today!
Charles was a flour miller who grew his business into one of the largest food companies in the world, but how did get there?
He was born on December 3, 1842, in Warner, NH, and died on September 17, 1899 in Minneapolis, MN. His parents were George and Margaret Pillsbury, and he was one of three children.
He attended and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1863. Before becoming a flour miller, he worked as a part-time teacher and then as a clerk in Canada at a mercantile enterprise.
Around that time he met his wife Mary Ann Stinson. They married in 1866. Later having four children
Pillsbury started with a few flour mills, today they hope to help make cooking/baking easier for families and parents. They strive to keep their products affordable and convenient.
Today, Pillsbury has over 15,000 recipes on its website. They make crescents, biscuits, pie crusts, cookies, cinnamon rolls, the list goes on. You can recognize their products by the iconic Pillsbury Dough Boy on the packaging. The Doughboy was created in 1965.
Fun Facts:
A can of Pillsbury crescents is sold every 0.18 seconds in the U.S.!
Americans bake over 17,000 batches of their cookies per hour during the holiday season.
4 Million golden fluffy biscuits are made in homes every day.
They had 246 million people visit their website in a year
Works Cited
“Brief Life History of Charles Alfred .” FamilySearch.org. February 18, 2025. https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LC5S-45D/charles-alfred-pillsbury-1842-1899.
"Charles Alfred Pillsbury." Encyclopedia Britannica. November 29, 2024. https://www.britannica.com/money/Charles-Alfred-Pillsbury
About us - pillsbury.com. February 10, 2024. https://www.pillsbury.com/about-us.