The Hershey Company: Unveiled
The Hershey Company began with an idea from a very creative man named Milton Hershey. Hershey was born on September 13, 1857, in a farmhouse near the Central Pennsylvania village of Derry Church and grew up lacking a formal education. After being a printer’s apprentice, Milton later became an apprentice to a candy-maker in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It was until then when candy-making became his biggest passion.
In 1876, when Milton was only eighteen-years old, he opened his own candy shop in Philadelphia. However, the shop was closed after six years and Milton moved to Denver, Colorado, where he worked with a caramel manufacturer and learned caramel-making. In 1886, Milton moved back to Lancaster, Pennsylvania and started the Lancaster Caramel Company. At an International Exposition in 1893, Milton Hershey bought German chocolate-making machinery and began making his chocolate-coated caramels. In 1894, Milton started the Hershey Chocolate Company in Derry Church, PA (now known as Hershey, PA) because of the easy access to the fresh milk he would need for his milk chocolate. There he produced Hershey chocolate caramels, breakfast cocoa, sweet chocolate and baking chocolate. He then sold his caramel business and focused on chocolate-making.
Milton Hershey, being a true giver at heart, wanted to be the first to make milk chocolate because he felt everyone should enjoy it. After working on a recipe for milk chocolate, three years later, in 1990, Milton Hershey’s goal was accomplished. It was an instant success. Chocolate was only enjoyed by the wealthy, at that time, but with Hershey’s chocolate it was affordable, last long, and tasted good. His company soon became the largest chocolate factory in the ...