You might have heard of Milton Hershey as the creator of Hershey but he didn’t just make Hershey… There was a lot more to his life then just Hershey chocolate.

 

Childhood

Milton was born September 13,1857 in Lancaster , PA he lived with his parents and his younger sister Serena. He started school when he was 7. When Milton was 11 his sister Serena died and 2 years after he stopped school and became an apprentice for a newspaper editor. Milton’s boss was hot – tempered and when Milton got into an argument with his boss  he got hot – tempered too and threw his straw hat into the printing press and jammed the press and he was fired. Milton got a new job as an apprentice at a Ice cream/Garden store. Milton worked at Mr.Royers shop for 4 years. In May 1876 after 4 years of work and learning Milton Hershey thought it was time to go into the candy business himself.

 

Adulthood

Milton Hershey rented a small brick shop on spring garden street in philadelphia were he could live and make candy. In June 1876 Milton put up his sign “ Milton S. Hershey Confectioner’’. Milton decided in 1880 he needed some help so he hired a man named  William Lebkicher (Lebbie). Milton was 25 broke and out of business so when his father Henry Hershey left for chicago in 1883 Milton left to. So Milton decided to rent another candy shop and once again is mother fanny and aunt mattie followed him. Milton also got married to a candy store owner named Kitte.  

 

Later Life

Milton was an apprentice for a caramel maker in Colorado. Milton quit to start his own caramel business with the secret ingredient he learned at his old job which was milk so Milton decided to only sell caramels.His candy was a big hit so when he was 37 he went to England to see how his caramels were being sold. Then Milton was asked to come to a garden party in England. And he saw that a bunch of kids were talking handfuls of chocolate and running away with them when milton decided to follow them he saw that the kids were eating the chocolate and spitting out the middle. This gave Milton an idea. So Milton went to chocolate makers asked how to make chocolate. When Milton came back home to Lancaster he decided to make chocolate. The bank loan him $1,ooo Milton was able to buy a factory. Milton decided he needed more workers (eventually he would need 600 employees). Milton wanted his employees to enjoy their job so Milton  built a town for his employees with a school an amusement park and even places for them to live!

 

Milton had to build trolleys going in and out of the park to carry sugar. Eventually Milton needed more sugar so he built a sugar plant in cuba to import sugar to his park to make chocolate. In 1906 the town officially changed its name to “Hershey.” Milton started producing in 1907 Hershey Kisses. He died 1945 when he was 88 but Milton will always be remembered.

 

Challenges

 

This probably all sounds easy but Milton had  a very hard time making candy. When Milton was just starting his business he walked from Lancaster to philly to ask for more money from his uncles sadly his uncles said I will not share a dime with you and to make things worse his uncles made Milton walk back to Lancaster with no food or money.

 

In April 1894 When Milton’s Business started to go uphill his aunt Mattie died. And 10 years after that Henry Hershey Milton’s father  died in 1904 and to make things even worse Milton’s wife Kitty died in 1915.

 

Impact

Milton did a lot to impact the world. One thing that Milton did was he made a school and home for children and parents who could not afford to take care of their children. Milton also gave children what they wanted witch is chocolate a lot of  kids wanted plain chocolate so that is what Milton hershey gave them.