Monsanto Company, was started by John Francis Queeny on November 29, 1901 in St. After 30 years in the pharmaceutical industry, John Francis Queeny, still an employee of Meyer Brothers Drug Company, sank his savings and money borrowed from a Chicago soft drink supplier into a new company to produce products for the food and pharmaceutical industries. He named the company after his wife, whose maiden name was Olga Mendez Monsanto. The incorporation papers are filed on Nov. 29, 1901.
Monsanto Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Pharmacia, is a leading provider of agricultural solutions to growers worldwide. Monsanto's employees provide top-quality, cost-effective and integrated approaches to help farmers improve their productivity and produce better quality foods.
In 1902 the Manufacturing of saccharin began, the company's first product. In 1903 and 1905, the entire saccharin output is shipped to a growing soft drink company in Georgia called Coca-Cola. In 1917, Aspirin production begins. Monsanto becomes the largest U.S. producer until the 1980s. The same year U.S. government files suit over the safety of saccharin. Filed at Monsanto's request as a test case, the suit was dismissed in 1925, ending the government's unsuccessful attempts then to prove saccharin harmful. Stock was offered to the public in 1927 as a means of clearing debts. In 1938 the purchase of Fiberloid Corp. and 50 percent of Shawinigan Resins (100 percent in 1963), both of Springfield, Massachusetts, marks Monsanto's entry into plastics and resins. Fiberloid produced celluloid, the first man-made plastic and a precursor of Saflex plastic interlayer. In 1945 Monsanto started producing insecticides and herbicides at Netro, West Virginia. In 1950 Chemstrand, a joint v!.
enture with American Viscose to produce synthetic fibers, starts up. Chemstrand produced Acrilan acrylic fiber, which was invented by Monsanto, and nylon, which was licensed from DuPont.