On September 13, 1857, legendary confectioner, industrialist, and philanthropist Milton Snavely Hershey was born on a farm in Derry Township, Pennsylvania. Raised in a modest Mennonite family, Hershey experienced a series of early business failures in Philadelphia and New York before achieving success in the caramel business and eventually developing a way to mass-produce milk chocolate using fresh milk.
Hershey went on to build a manufacturing empire that reshaped the American confectionery industry. By making milk chocolate affordable and widely available, he helped transform what had largely been a luxury product into an everyday treat. He also built what became the world’s largest chocolate factory and developed a model community around it, with housing, public transportation, parks, and tree-lined streets intended to improve life for workers and their families.
His commercial success was matched by an enduring commitment to philanthropy. Because Milton and his wife, Catherine “Kitty” Hershey, had no children, they established the Hershey Industrial School in 1909 for orphaned boys. In 1918, Hershey transferred the bulk of his Hershey Chocolate Company stock—then valued at about $60 million—to a trust supporting the school. Now known as Milton Hershey School, the institution continues to house and educate children from lower-income families, cementing Hershey’s legacy not only as a business pioneer but also as a major American philanthropist.
