Faultless Starch/Bon Ami Company - History

History

In 1886, Major Thomas G. Beaham came to Kansas City and bought into a company selling coffee, tea, and spices, which was to become Beaham & Moffit. Later, it was renamed to Faultless Starch Company. After adding Bon Ami products to the line, the company again changed its name to Faultless Starch/Bon Ami Company in 1974.

Major Beaham's first product, dry white starch, earned immediate acceptance among housewives of the late 1880s because it was simple to use and did not require lengthy boiling. Faultless soon became a household word in the Midwest and Southwest, as women found that the product had many uses other than starching clothes, such as adding an elegant finish to embroidery and lace, treating skin irritations and as both a baby powder and a bath powder.

Faultless' popularity was enhanced, particularly in Texas and the Indian Territory, by the Faultless Starch books attached to the boxes of starch. Salesman John Nesbitt took wagonloads of the books into Texas in the 1890s and attached them to the Faultless Starch boxes with rubber bands. The books were designed as a supplement or substitute for school texts and primers and many people actually learned to read by reading the thirty-six books that were published from the 1890s to the 1930s. The books are still traded on auction web sites.

The company is still run by the Beaham family with Gordon T. Beaham, III, the great-grandson of Major Thomas G. Beaham, serving as Chairman and Co-CEO; and Robert B. Beaham, a member of the fifth generation of family members to be active in the business, serving as Vice-Chairman, Treasurer and Co-CEO. David G. Beaham, who served President and Co-CEO, until his death in 2011, was also a member of the fifth generation of family members to serve at Faultless. Carolyn Beaham West, Vice-President and a sibling of Robert and David, serves as head of the Bon Ami brand and as the Director of Sustainability.