Milton S. Hershey

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Milton Hershey (1915)

Milton Snavely Hershey (born September 13, 1857 in Derry Church , Pennsylvania , † October 13, 1945 in Hershey , Pennsylvania) was an American entrepreneur. He became famous as the founder of the Hershey Chocolate Company and the factory town of Hershey, Pennsylvania .

Early life

Hershey was born on a farm near Derry Church, Pennsylvania, and was the only surviving child of Henry H. Hershey and Veronica Buckwalter Snavely (called "Fanny"), descendants of Swiss Mennonites who moved to Pennsylvania in the early 18th century emigrated. Their family name Hirschi was later Anglicized to Hershey.

Due to the frequent relocation of his family, he dropped out of school after the fourth grade and was apprenticed to a painter in Lancaster , Pennsylvania, where he was soon dismissed due to lack of interest. After a four-year apprenticeship at a candy maker in Lancaster, he started his first own candy company in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania. This first attempt to found his own company failed, as did the two subsequent ones in Chicago and New York . His mother's family funded most of these failed entrepreneurship ventures in the candy industry.

Lancaster Caramel Company

Back in Lancaster, Hershey founded the Lancaster Caramel Company in 1883 , which quickly became a huge success; he was helped by using a caramel recipe that he had found on previous trips. This company established him as a candy manufacturer and was the basis for later services. Hershey was so enthusiastic about the German chocolate making machines presented at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 that he bought the equipment for his Lancaster factory and soon after began to make a large number of different chocolate creations himself. Despite the success of his operation, Hershey believed that the chocolate industry had more potential than just producing caramel, so in 1900 he sold the Lancaster Caramel Company for $ 1 million , but retained the chocolate branch and chocolate production rights.

Hershey Chocolate

By winning the sale of Lancaster Caramel, Hershey purchased approximately 160 km² of undeveloped land north of Lancaster near his birthplace, Derry Church, because there he could produce the large quantities of fresh milk that was needed to perfect and make good milk chocolate. The great potential of milk chocolate, which was then considered a Swiss luxury good, prompted Hershey to develop a recipe for milk chocolate, to market it and to sell it to the American public. By trying it out, he refined his chocolate recipe to such an extent that in 1903 he began to build what would later become the world's largest chocolate factory. The plant was completed in 1905 and had the purpose of producing chocolate using the latest mass processing techniques, which was extremely quick and made Hershey the first national chocolate manufacturer.

The factory, which was actually surrounded by farmland, was quickly surrounded by houses, shops, churches and modern infrastructure for transport purposes with Hershey's help , but he continued to use the adjacent farmland to meet his enormous demand for fresh milk, which was needed for mass production . Hershey was not satisfied with his success, but tried to refine the process of chocolate production and increase its effectiveness; he was also a pioneer in the field of cocoa, which he also added to the product line.

The city of Hershey

Hershey envisaged the design of an entire parish around the factory. He built a city with cozy houses, cheap public transport, a first class public school system, and extensive facilities for recreation or cultural satisfaction. Hershey avoided building a characterless, terraced factory town because he envisioned a town where residents would feel comfortable with brick one or two-family houses and tree-lined streets. He was anxious to provide adequate leisure and distraction opportunities, so he built HersheyPark , which opened its doors on April 24, 1907 and grew rapidly over the next few years by providing rides, a swimming pool and a dance hall. Soon after, trams and trains brought thousands of outsiders into the park.

Much of the city was created during the Great Depression as part of Milton Hershey's Great Building Campaign to ensure jobs. During this time, important buildings such as the Hotel Hershey, the Community Center, the Hershey Theater, the HersheyPark Arena and the HersheyPark Stadium were built, which turned the city into a tourist stronghold.

Central Hershey, Cuba

In 1916, Hershey acquired large lands east of Havana in Cuba for the cultivation of sugar cane . Central Hershey was built there until 1918 . ( Central is a Cuban word for a sugar mill with an attached workers' settlement.) In the 1920s, Central Hershey was expanded to include more Centrales and sold in 1946 after the founder's death. After the Cuban Revolution , Central Hershey was nationalized and renamed after the rebel leader Camilo Cienfuegos .

philanthropy

On May 25, 1898, Hershey married Catherine Elizabeth "Kitty" Sweeney. Since the couple could not have children, they decided to share their success with others and do them good, so they founded the Hershey Industrial School in 1909. Catherine died early in 1915, but Hershey never got another marriage.

In 1918, three years after Catherine's death, he donated all of his Hershey Chocolate Company shares to the school as he was immensely proud of the school, the city, and the company. His attitude to prefer the quality of his products and the welfare of his workers to profit did not change in his life. Also in 1918, he gave most of his fortune, including control of the company, to the Milton Hershey School Trust to support the Industrial School. The Trust Fund controls a majority of the voting interests in the Hershey Company in order to maintain control of the company. In 1951 the school was renamed the Milton Hershey School. The Milton Hershey School Trust also controls 100% of the Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Company, which owns many properties, including the Hershey Hotel and HersheyPark.

In 1935, Hershey founded the MS Hershey Foundation, a private charitable foundation that aims to provide education and cultural opportunities for Hershey's residents. The foundation provides donations to three institutions, namely the Hershey Museum and Hershey Gardens, the Hershey Theater, and the Hershey Community Archives.

Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center was founded when the Trust's board of directors confronted the Dauphin County Orphans Court with the cy pres (French: "as close as possible") doctrine. It was a gift from the Milton Hershey School Trust to the Pennsylvania residents, supported by a $ 50 million donation, and on one condition - the hospital had to be built in Hershey. Donations were made by the Trust without considering the public's opinion or hearing, although some individuals received permission from the Attorney General and the Orphan Court to operate in secret. The hospital is a teaching hospital with an annual budget that far exceeds the actual construction costs; it is also part of Penn State University .

Titanic

In April 1912, the Hersheys wanted to take part in the maiden voyage of the British luxury liner RMS Titanic . However, due to urgent business in the USA, Hershey could not wait for the departure in England on April 10th. Instead, the couple took HAPAG's America , which left earlier.

Second World War

Hershey Chocolate supplied the US military with chocolate bars during World War II . These bars were called Ration D Bars and Tropical Chocolate Bars, and it is estimated that between 1940 and 1945 over three billion of these bars were made and distributed to soldiers worldwide. In 1939 the factory was producing 100,000 bars a day, and by the end of the war 24 million bars a week. For its services during the Second World War, the Hershey Chocolate Company received five Army-Navy 'E' Production Awards for the Ration D Bar and the Tropical Chocolate Bar, which both impressively met expectations in terms of quality and number.

death

Milton S. Hershey died on October 13, 1945 at the age of 88 in Hershey Hospital. This happened a year after he left the board.

literature

  • Joel Glenn Brenner: The Emperors of Chocolate: Inside the Broadway Books. 2000.
  • Michael D'Antonio : Hershey: Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams, Simon & Schuster. 2006.
  • Marla Hinkle: Behind The Chocolate Curtain. In: The Morning News. February 8, 2004.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Swissworld.org - Swiss Abroad: Former Emigrants
  2. ↑ Christiane Hanna Henkel: Milton Hershey built a chocolate factory in Pennsylvania. Neue Zürcher Zeitung , August 11, 2018, accessed on November 25, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Nick Miroff: The Cuban town Mr. Hershey built , The Washington Post, May 5, 2015

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hershey, Milton S.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hershey, Milton Snavely (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH September 13, 1857
PLACE OF BIRTH Derry Church , Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH October 13, 1945
Place of death Hershey , Pennsylvania