LIVING HISTORY
16
HOME & DESIGN
until after Baruch helped arrange for the then 62-year-old
Hosford to remain as caretaker. He retired at 75.
Robert had worked for his father, Joel O. Cheek, a man
with a genuine rags-to-riches story. The elder Cheek started
as a traveling salesman peddling wholesale wares to grocers
in backwoods Kentucky — on horseback. His family
increased by eight sons and a daughter, so he moved them to
Nashville to make ends meet. For years, he continued to slug
it out as a salesman. All the while, he tried to come up with
a better blend of coffee for his customers. When he finally
found a perfect combination, he tested the new brew at the
Maxwell House Hotel.
The blend was so successful, Joel quit his job and went into
the coffee roasting business with his lawyer, John Neal. The
famous hotel allowed the Cheek-Neal Coffee Co. to use its
name for the flagship product. It was the advent of the Age of
Advertising, and Joel understood how mass media might be
used to build a brand. When a product becomes a celebrity
of sorts, everybody wants it. His sales became enormous. He
became a multimillionaire, and he shared the wealth with his
children. Robert, who had been a company vice president,
used some of his proceeds to buy Bay Tree Lodge, and he
shared the vacation spot with his dad.
It should be mentioned that Joel was a religious man, who
believed in treating others as he would like to be treated
himself. In a 1915 speech to leaders of the National Coffee
Roasters Association, he told his audience that it is not
enough for employers to just give people a job. Business
owners should love their employees like family, he insisted.
He said the greatest compliment he ever received was when >>
ROB DOWNEY
After buying the lodge in the 1930s, the Cheek family had a 1,080-foot deep artesian well dug to fill the swimming pool.
THURLOW COLLECTION
Joel Cheek, whose son, Robert, bought the estate, enjoyed sport fishing.