The "One More Sweet Talk About Mr. Milton Hershey" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Sometime in May of 1898 that Milton Hershey, who at the time was a resident of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, married a young girl named Catherine Sweeney who grew up in Jamestown, New York.  And now, about 125 years after their marriage, Lancaster Historical Society in Lancaster, Pennsylvania will host an exhibit of photographs that highlight Milton Hershey's personal, professional and philanthropic connections to Lancaster city and county.  The exhibit, which will be on display in the Stoudt Gallery of  The Lancaster County Historical Society and will continue on display until the end of June of 2023.  Milton Hershey was born in Derry Township, Dauphin County, Pennsyvania on September 13, 1857.  He was the son of Henry and Veronica Hershey.  He left Dauphin County with his family at the age of eight and spent the next 6 years on a farm in Bart Township, Lancaster County.   He spent much of his childhood in Lancaster County where he achieved his first business success.  In 1871 he and his mother moved to Lancaster where Milton spent a four-year apprenticeship with confectioner Joseph Royer.  It was at Royer's Ice Cream Parlor and Garden that Milton not only learned how to make candy, but how to run a business and attract with customers.  He worked at Royer's, which was located at 50-52 West King Street in Lancaster, for four years, working with confectioner Joseph Royer.   At the completion of his apprenticeship with Mr. Royer, eighteen year old Milton Hershey established his first candy-making business in Philadelphia.  After failing at not only Philadelphia, but also a stint in New York City, Milton returned to Lancaster in 1886.  It was at this time that he opened his very successful Lancaster Caramel Company.  In 1894 he established the Hershey Chocolate Company as a subsidiary of the caramel company to produce baking chocolate, cocoa and sweet chocolate coatings for caramels.  In 1898 he married Catherine Sweeney and the couple took up residence in Lancaster at 222 S. Queen Street.  Two years later he sold the caramel business for $1 million to the American Caramel Company so he could concentrate on the manufacture of chocolate and cocoa.  Mr. Hershey erected what would become the largest chocolate factory in the world in the new town known as Hershey.  The connections that Hershey established while in Lancaster helped to mold the character and lay the foundation for his future successes.  If you are a candy lover, I'm pretty sure that you have had a Hershey bar sometime in your life.  And, Lancaster was one of the locations where Mr. Hershey lived as he made his way up the ladder to the top of the chocolate world.  Check out some of the other stories I have written about Mr. Hershey in the past by typing in "Hershey" in the box at the top left of this page.  It was another extraordinary in the life of an ordinary guy.