#Hershey July 8

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In America there is a name synonymous with chocolate and it is HERSHEY.

The founder of this candy making company was Milton Hershey. His life is a fascinating portrait of hard work, perseverance, and a dream to create a fantastic community where people could work, live, and play. He was raised in the Mennonite faith and left school at the age of 14. He would apprentice for five years in the candy making business. He would eventually go out and attempt to create his own businesses only to fail multiple times.

He eventually succeeded by forming the Lancaster (PA) Carmel Company in 1883. The company prospered by not only making Carmel candies but in 1893 began making a variety of chocolate concoctions. The chocolate business grew and Hershey sold the Lancaster Carmel Company for One Million Dollars in 1900 and began building a new factory in Derry Township (PA) which he called HERSHEY Park and would become the home of the Hershey Company

Excited by the potential of milk chocolate, which at that time was a Swiss luxury product, Milton Hershey determined to develop a formula for milk chocolate and market and sell it to the American public. Through trial and error he created his own formula for milk chocolate. In 1903 he began construction on what was to become the world’s largest chocolate manufacturing plant. The facility, completed in 1905, was designed to manufacture chocolate using the latest mass production techniques. Hershey’s milk chocolate quickly became the first nationally marketed product of its kind.

Hershey envisioned a complete new community around his factory. He built a model town for his employees that included comfortable homes, an inexpensive public transportation system, a quality public school system and extensive recreational and cultural opportunities. Unlike other industrialists of his time, Hershey avoided building a faceless company town with row houses. He wanted a “real home town” with tree-lined streets, single- and two-family brick houses, and manicured lawns. He was concerned about providing adequate recreation and diversions, so he built a park that opened on May 30, 1906, and expanded rapidly over the next several years. Amusement rides, a swimming pool, and a ballroom were added. Soon, trolley cars and trains were bringing thousands of out-of-town visitors to the park.

There is a 44 minute bio on Milton S Hershey’s life that I located on YouTube.