Parenting & Family Quote by John Harvey Kellogg

Providence does a lot of reputational heavy lifting here. By opening with "The Lord did not bless us", Kellogg frames infertility as a sacred plot twist, not a personal circumstance. It’s a rhetorical move that launders choice into destiny: if God closed one door, surely He expected Kellogg to open another, preferably with his name on the lintel.

Then comes the pivot to "little waifs" and the carefully curated pity of "whom we thought would be neglected". The phrase reads charitable, but it also quietly claims superior perception and authority: we identified the disposable children, we assessed the market failure of care, we intervened. It’s rescue language with an ownership vibe, reinforced by "gathered up" - as if the children are loose objects needing collection, not people with families, histories, or agency.

Context matters. Kellogg wasn’t just a cereal magnate; he was a leading figure in the Battle Creek health-reform world, where bodily discipline, moral hygiene, and social engineering blurred together. In that era, progressive philanthropy often came packaged with paternalism and a confidence that the right household could fix the wrong child. His wording hints at a benevolent bureaucracy of the private family: the state may fail, birth parents may fail, but our orderly domestic institution will succeed.

The intent is self-justification with a halo. The subtext is control - compassion that doubles as a mandate to curate, reform, and claim.