Home of Sliced Bread!

Yes, Chillicothe is the Home of Sliced Bread! It was recently discovered that sliced bread was first offered for sale – ever – in Chillicothe, Missouri. A small story that got front page billing in the Constitution-Tribune 75 years ago about a Chillicothe baker being the first to introduce sliced bread is now making headlines once again. Only this time, readers now know what kind of a profound impact his product has had on the world. And, hopefully, this time around the story will be remembered.

Invented by Iowa inventor, Otto Rohwedder, the bread slicer was put into practice in 1928 in beautiful downtown Chillicothe. A product of the Chillicothe Baking Company, it was sliced on a machine called the Rohwedder Bread Slicer. The massive unit, approximately five feet long and three feet high, was a bread slicing machine. And, nowhere in the world were bakers selling sliced loaves of bread. But, a Chillicothe baker, who was on the verge of bankruptcy, took a chance on the invention and on July 7, 1928, put the first loaves of sliced bread ever made on the shelves of Chillicothe grocery stores. From that moment on, sliced bread became a part of history–a history that began right here, in Chillicothe.

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