1857 – 1945

The man who brought chocolate bars to the mass market had his roots in Switzerland – but his ancestors came to America more than 150 years before Swiss chocolate became world-famous.

The Herschey family originated in Appenzell in eastern Switzerland. As Mennonites, they were persecuted by the authorities. There is some confusion about the date at which Milton's direct ancestors arrived in America, since many of them shared the same first name and it is not always clear which was which. But one indication is that his great-great-great-great grandfather Christian Herschey arrived in Pennsylvania in 1717, with his wife and grown-up children.

The family were leading figures in the Mennonite community for several generations. Christian was the first Mennonite bishop in Lancaster County; his son Benjamin (1698- 1789) was bishop for 50 years.

Milton had a pious upbringing, and the family was well respected, although his own father was singularly unsuccessful in all his business endeavors. Milton was apprenticed to a candy manufacturer and at the age of 19 decided to strike out on his own. Like his father, he met failure after failure.

But when he learned how to make caramel his affairs took a turn for the better. He established a successful caramel business in Lancaster. Then he became interested in chocolate making and started using it to coat his caramels. He developed a method of mass producing milk chocolate candy, which led to the Hershey Bar.

What was once a luxury product became a treat nearly everyone could afford.

Hershey became an extremely rich man, but he was also a philanthropist. He built a town for his workers, with every facility for education and leisure. He himself had received little education: he built schools to give the next generation greater chances than he had had. He had suffered in his childhood from the prolonged absences of his father and had felt abandoned: he set up an industrial school for orphan boys.

He had no children of his own, and long before he died he made over most of his wealth to the Hershey Trust, to finance his philanthropic endeavors. His legacy continues to thrive today.