Milton S. Hershey: Chocolate, Caramels, and a Model Town

Near this spot on September thirteenth, eighteen fifty-seven, Milton Snavely Hershey was born. His early business career was rocky: he failed at candy-making ventures in Philadelphia and New York before founding the Lancaster Caramel Company in eighteen eighty-six, which became a success. He sold it in nineteen hundred for one million dollars, using the proceeds to build something bigger: the Hershey Chocolate Company.

In nineteen hundred he introduced milk chocolate to the American mass market. Then he built an entire town around his factory, with schools, parks, and worker housing. With his wife Catherine, he founded the Milton Hershey School in nineteen oh nine and eventually gave it his entire personal fortune.

The boy born on this farm near Derry Church remade American candy and left a school that still serves thousands of children today.