George Constant Louis Washington
| George Constant Louis Washington | |
|---|---|
| Born |
May 20, 1871 Kortrijk, Belgium |
| Died | March 29, 1946 (aged 74) Mendham, New Jersey |
| Education | University of Bonn |
| Known for | G. Washington Coffee Company |
| Children | George Washington, Jr. |
George Constant Louis Washington (May 20, 1871 – March 29, 1946) was an American inventor and businessman of Anglo-Belgian origin. He is best remembered for his invention of an early instant coffee process and for the company he founded to mass-produce it, the G. Washington Coffee Company.
An emigrant from his native Belgium, he arrived in the New York area in 1897 and dabbled in several technical fields before hitting upon instant coffee manufacture during a sojourn in Central America in 1906 or 1907. He began selling his coffee in 1909 and founded a company to manufacture it in 1910. Based in New York and New Jersey, his company prospered and became an important military supplier during World War I. The company's products were also advertised in New York newspapers and on the radio. The success of his company made Washington wealthy, and he lived in a mansion in Brooklyn and then moved to a country estate in New Jersey in 1927. In that same year, he lost a dispute with the tax authorities. Washington was married and had three children.
Washington's company was sold to American Home Products in 1943, shortly before his death. Though the coffee brand was discontinued by 1961, Washington's name is still used today in the product G. Washington's Seasoning & Broth.
George Washington was born in Kortrijk, Belgium to Jean Guillaume Washington (John William Washington) of England and Marie Louise Tant of Belgium, on May 20, 1871.Following then-current nationality law, which considered fatherhood primary, Washington was a British subject until he was naturalized as an American in May 1918. At least six siblings in the family also settled in different parts of the United States and Central America. A number of accounts claim a relation to U.S. President George Washington, but this is not clearly explained.
Washington came to reside in Brussels and also attained a degree in chemistry at the University of Bonn in Germany. In December 1895, Washington married Angeline Céline Virginie (later, just "Lina") Van Nieuwenhuyse (born 1876), also from Belgium. The US Census of 1900 records that Lina, like her husband, had English and Belgian ancestry (a Belgian father and an English mother). The Washingtons' arrival in the United States on a ship from Antwerp, Belgium, on October 6, 1896, was recorded at Ellis Island, though the 1900 US Census states that they emigrated to the United States in 1897. The Washingtons settled in the New York area, where they had three children: Louisa Washington (born May 1897), Irene Washington (born May 1898), and George Washington Jr. (born August 1899).
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