Milton Hershey

“Ja, Milton, come on and be up with ya, now.” His father knocked on the doorpost as he made his way downstairs. “The cows won’t milk themselves, ya know.” The heavy German accent trailed behind him like the wisps of early morning fog outside the snug farmhouse.

Milton sat up quickly, scrubbing the sleep from his eyes. He was eager to finish the morning’s chores. “Today is going to be a ‘gud’ day.” He reminded himself as he hurried out to the barn. It was the last day of 3^rd grade.

Later, he washed up in the small mud-room outside the kitchen and took off his work boots to wiggle his toes. None of the children in the Mennonite village near Derry Church, Pennsylvania wore shoes this late into the spring.

“Slow down.” his mother cautioned, “Ya must chew your food before you swallow it.” She smiled “I know you are excited about the last day of school and all, but ya must eat a good breakfast, now drink your milk and be sure ta use the napkin on your face.”

“Milton, when ya get back home this afternoon and finish the chores, I want to talk with ya.” His Father entered the kitchen and sat down at the head of the table. “I’ll be working out in the fish shed. Ya come and find me now.”

Milton assured his father that he would and promised his mother he would remember his manners. The small family finished their morning meal and paused for morning prayers before all set off for their various duties.

The school day passed with a happy mix of work and joy, Milton soon found himself grabbing his lunch pail for the last time and saying a polite good-by to the teacher. He liked this school about as well as he had any of the other six schools he attended in his short academic career. Milton’s dad was a smart man with a lot of dreams and a lot of chances to make them work. However, the family moved around a lot while trying to find one scheme that would succeed. Milton was grateful for this un-assuming man who taught all the grades in the same one-room school and was sure to see the same students for many years. During the summer, his student’s education would take place on their various farms and homesteads.

Later that afternoon, Milton made his way across the tidy barn yard toward the tin-roofed shed that housed the equipment and holding pools for his dad’s latest endeavor, a trout farm. He was a bit surprised to find his mother already there, deep in conversation with his father. Dusty sunbeams slanted through the slats in the walls and illuminated the area. His father was leaning against the side of a black-topped buggy parked in the middle of an open space. He held his hat in his large work-worn hands.

Why, they have been a prayin, thought Milton. What ever it is, it must be serious.

“We will be sendin’ ya across the state to start ya apprenticeship to Mr. Samuel Ernst, the printer in Gap.” His father spoke directly as was his custom. “Ya will be learning the printer’s trade. It is time ya trained for ya future and printin’ is a gud a way as any. There is a family over toward the river that will be traveling that way in a day or two and ya are to ride with them.”

Milton stood very, very quiet while he let this news wash over him like a cold splash of water. He looked up once at his mother, but saw not only sadness and concern, but a resoluteness that told him argument was out of the question.

Looks like I’ll be a printer’s apprentice. He realized. It might just be a gud thing, I’ll give it a try.

On the day of his departure, his father shook his hand and left for town to pick up some supplies. His mother sat with him on the front porch while they waited for the Yoders to pick him up in their wagon for the ride away from Nine Points.

“Ya know, Milton, that it is a brave thing ya be about to do.” She smiled at her only son. “I’ll be wanting ya to apply ya’self to this. It might be hard work, but remember what the preacher says about God rewarding diligence. He will give ya the grace to do the plans what He has laid out for ya. I know ya are not afraid of hard work. So ya just keep at it and the Good Lord will bring reward in His own timing. You are a gud boy, now here they come. Run along now.”

Young Milton tried to master the printer’s trade. He worked hard at the small newspaper but found it increasingly hard to pay attention. He did learn a lot about business procedures in general and it was a good exposure to the world of commerce. After a year or so, the printer sent Milton back to the family home in Nine Points.

He wasn’t home for long before his mother called him in from the small vegetable garden where he was pulling weeds. She held a letter in her hand and he recognized the look of determination in her eyes.

“Milton, this letter here is from Joseph Royer in Lancaster. He has been looking for a boy to apprentice in his confectionery shop. I spoke with him by letter and he is willing to take ya on.”  She turned to look out the window toward the drying fish ponds. “I’ll not be seeing ya flit and flip until ya just give up. I expect ya can do wond’ful gud things with ya life. And I believe God will show ya the way.” She turned back to her son, “We’ll be telling ya father this evening.”

“Mom, I’ll not be disappointing ya. I won’t quit until I’ve lived up to the grace and gud brains the gud Lord has given me.” Milton answered solemnly.

So, young Milton traveled off again down through the green farm lands to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Candy, he thought as he watched the placid dairy cattle graze among the rolling pastures. Candy, huh.

For the next four years, Milton quickly learned the art of manufacturing and selling candy, in particular caramels. He found that he had a passion and a skill for the sweets. So much so that in 1876—at the age of nineteen—he launched his own business with the help and support of his mother’s Mennonite family.

In spite of help from his supporters, that initial effort failed. But Milton continued to learn and refine his recipes and techniques for the manufacture of caramel and eventually chocolate. His next two attempts to establish his own business in Chicago and then in New York also failed.

True to his promise to God and his mother, he did not give-up. Returning to Lancaster, PA in 1883, he established the Lancaster Caramel Company, which quickly became an outstanding success. It was that business which established Milton S. Hershey as a candy maker and set the stage for future accomplishments. Milton expanded to produce baking chocolate, cocoa and sweet chocolate coating for his caramels under the name of the Hershey Chocolate Company. Four years after his failures in Philadelphia and New York, Milton became one of Lancaster’s most successful businessmen and a millionaire.

His ambitions were never limited to producing chocolate. Hershey built a factory in the farm country of Derry Church, PA where he was born and raised. He built a model town for his employees that included comfortable homes, public transportation, a public school system and recreational and cultural opportunities. Unlike other industrialists of his time, Hershey avoided building a faceless company town with row houses. He wanted a "real home town" with tree-lined streets, single- and two-family brick houses, and manicured lawns. He was concerned about providing adequate recreation and diversions, so he built a park that expanded rapidly over the next several years to include amusement rides, a swimming pool, and a ballroom.

His success never overshadowed his philosophy that an individual is morally obligated to share the fruits of success with others. This belief resulted in significant contributions to society. Together with his wife, Catherine, he established a school for orphan boys—the Hershey Industrial School—that is now known as the Milton Hershey School. Today, the school houses and provides education for whose family lives have been disrupted.

Through the Hershey Trust Company, the School continues to be a direct beneficiary of Hershey Foods' success. In addition, Hershey Trust Company owns 100 percent of the stock of Hershey Entertainment and Resort Company, another firm developed from several smaller businesses established by Milton Hershey.

In 1935, Milton Hershey established The M.S. Hershey Foundation, a small, private charitable foundation to provide educational and cultural opportunities for local residents. The Foundation supports three entities: Hershey Museum and Hershey Gardens, the Hershey Theatre and the Hershey Community Archives.

The Milton S. Hershey Testamentary Trust continues to make an annual contribution to the Derry Township School District, the local public school district.

The growth of the school, the town, and his business were a source of great pride for Milton. He always placed the quality of his product and the well-being of his workers ahead of profits. He never wrote and seldom spoke about his beliefs. Nevertheless, he remained committed to the highest standards of quality, honesty, fairness and integrity. His imagination and drive, his ceaseless labor and his care and concern for others were an inspiration to all who worked with him.

Milton Hershey was both a dreamer and a builder. He persevered through disappointment and trial and had the genius to develop his chocolate business in the right place at the right time. His personal convictions about the obligations of wealth and the quality of life in the town he founded have made the company, community and school a living legacy. Today Hershey's chocolate is known the world over, and the town that bears his name has become the chocolate capital of the world.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

Hebrews 12:1 (New International Version)

Thanks to the following for contributions to this article:

Millie Landis Coyle: Milton Snavely Hershey

Phil Shapiro: The Story of Milton Hershey

Mary Bellis

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