Church & Dwight History
 
Church & Dwight is one of the nation's oldest manufacturing companies, founded in 1846 by Dr. Austin Church, a Rochester, New York, physician and his brother-in-law, John Dwight. The first factory was actually the kitchen of the Dwight home. The initial business was headquartered in a modest frame
building over a grocery store in New York City. While Dr. Church handled the production, John Dwight aggressively pursued New York City grocers. Soon the partners found themselves producing and selling a fast growing household staple.

In 1867, when James A. Church joined his father as a member of Church & Co., he brought along with him the ARM & HAMMER trademark that, up until then, had been used to label the mustard produced at his VULCAN SPICE MILLS. 		 
In Roman mythology, Vulcan was the god of fire, especially skilled in fashioning ornaments and arms for the gods. Thus, the arm of Vulcan with hammer in hand about to descend upon an anvil. Since that time, the ARM & HAMMER trademark has become one of the most recognized in the land, a symbol of integrity and a guarantee of quality in the best tradition of the founders.
 

During the first 80 years of its market presence sodium bicarbonate had been a retail and household-oriented chemical. It has only been during the last 65 years that uses for the product have expanded to the current scope it now enjoys. No longer confined to the kitchen, sodium bicarbonate is used the world over in a myriad of applications from personal hygiene to industrial manufacturing.
 
  In 1967 Church & Dwight began construction of its sodium bicarbonate plant in Green River, Wyoming, to take advantage of the natural soda ash reserves in the area. At that time, the company marketed only two products: baking soda and sal soda (a laundry detergent additive).


In 1968 Church & Dwight purchased a small laundry products company named "Tidy House." The plan was to expand sal soda by utilizing expertise in carbonate chemistry and produce an alkaline based, non-phosphate laundry detergent. The timing could not have been better. Just as production geared up the phosphate pollution problem was defined and state-by-state phosphate restrictions were being enacted.

Today the use of bicarbonate of soda is no longer confined to the kitchen. It is used throughout the house, in every phase of housekeeping and personal hygiene. ARM & HAMMER Baking Soda, which was first prepared in a New England village, now is used the world over.