Born in Davenport, Iowa, in 1880, the son of Claus and Elizabeth Rohwedder, he was the next to youngest of 6 children. He lived in Davenport until he was 21, attended public schools and apprenticed to a jeweler. He attended Northern Illinois College or Ophthalmology and Otology in Chicago, graduating in 1900, but became a jeweler as a career.
He became the owner of 3 jewelry stores in St. Joseph, MO, and used his work with watches and jewelry to finance his inventions. Convinced he could develop a bread slicing machine, he sold his jewelry stores to fund the development and manufacture of the machine.
In 1927 Rohwedder successfully designed a machine that not only sliced the bread but wrapped it. He applied for patents and sold the first machine to a friend and baker Frank Bench, who installed it at the Chillicothe Baking Company, in Chillicothe, MO, in 1928. The first loaf of sliced bread was sold commercially on July 7, 1928. Sales of the machine to other bakeries increased and sliced bread became available across the country.
A baker in St. Louis bought his second machine and developed a better way to have the machine wrap and keep bread fresh. In 1930 Continental Baking Company introduced Wonder Bread as a sliced bread. By 1932 the availability of standardized slices had boosted sales of 'pop-up" toasters, a 1926 invention of Charles Strite. In 1933 American bakeries, for the first time, produced more sliced than unsliced bread loaves.
Rohwedder sold his patent rights to the Micro-Westco Co. of Bettendorf, IA; he joined the company as vice-president and sales manager of the Rohwedder Bakery Machine Division.
In 1951 Rohwedder at age 71 retired from Micro-Westco Co. and moved with his wife to Albion, Michigan. He died on November 8, 1960.
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