Milton Hershey was born in 1857 in Derry Township, Dauphin County, into a Mennonite family. His schooling was spotty, and he was apprenticed to a candy maker in Lancaster as a teenager.
He tried and failed to build candy businesses in Philadelphia, Chicago and New York before coming back to Lancaster.
The caramel business
In 1886 Hershey started the Lancaster Caramel Company. It made caramels using fresh milk, which kept them soft and chewy. The business grew fast, with large factories in Lancaster and orders from as far away as England. It made Hershey a wealthy man.
Turning to chocolate
At the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Hershey saw German chocolate-making machines and bought them. He began making chocolate coatings for caramels and then chocolate itself.
In 1900 he sold the Lancaster Caramel Company for $1 million, keeping the chocolate side. He built a new factory and a planned town in Derry Township, which became Hershey.
Lancaster County ties
Lancaster County’s dairy farms and skilled workers fit his plans. Today Lititz has its own chocolate history through Wilbur Chocolate, and the region remains a center for candy making.
Hershey died in 1945. His school for orphan children, the Milton Hershey School, still owns the controlling stake in The Hershey Company.