Profile of the Day: Milton S. Hershey

Hershey’s chocolate

Love chocolate? On this day in 1857, confectioner Milton S. Hershey, founder of the Hershey Chocolate Company, was born in Derry Township, Pennsylvania.

The Hersheys were members of Pennsylvania’s Mennonite community. The future confectioner grew up speaking Pennsylvania Dutch on his family’s small farm and didn’t receive much schooling beyond the 4th grade. By the age of 14, he became an apprentice to a master confectioner with the aim of opening his own candy shop. In 1883, he started the Lancaster Caramel Company and found huge success with his caramel candies.

It was a visit to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago that sparked Hershey’s interest in chocolate. Taking a risk, he sold the Lancaster Caramel Company and opened the Hershey Chocolate Company. He developed his own formula for milk chocolate, which was a luxury at the time, and produced the first Hershey’s chocolate bar in 1900. Soon after, he began construction on what would become the world’s largest chocolate manufacturing company in the midsts of Pennsylvania’s dairy farmland. With Hershey’s financial support, businesses and houses sprouted around the area forming the company town of Hershey, Pennsylvania.

With no children of his own, Hershey spent much of his wealth on philanthropic endeavors. He died on October 13, 1945 at the age of 88.

Explore Milton Hershey’s family tree on Geni and share how you’re related!
 

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Image: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration