The Farmer Boy Who Invented Hershey's

in 1881 Milton Hershey returned to his hometown after two failed attempts to open a successful candy store left with no money Hershey approached his uncles for another loan to start up a new business but instead he was turned down insulted and kicked out of the house at a time when chocolate was seen as a luxury for the rich Milton Hershey would leave that house to create the largest chocolate manufacturer in the world and in doing so making it affordable for the masses this is the story of how One Man became the face of the chocolate industry foreign Hershey was born on the 13th of September 1857 in Derry Township Pennsylvania his parents Henry and Fanny Hershey were poor farmers who lived from hand to mouth mostly due to his father's failed business Endeavors when Milton was two years old his father sold the farm to chase the oil boom in Pennsylvania at the time oil was quickly becoming a necessity in the lives of Americans and those who discovered it were becoming rich overnight Henry recklessly spent all his money for the next two years digging for oil until he found himself broke with no luck leaving the Hershey family in extreme poverty around this time Henry's wife Fanny was now pregnant with their second child her two brothers traveled all the way to Pennsylvania to check up on their sister and little nephew what they found when they got there was beyond shocking their sister Fanny looked weak and life as well as her four-year-old son Milton who had been starving for days the two brothers spoke with Henry and offered to help the family if he gave up his oil dream Henry reluctantly agreed and the family moved to Lancaster where the brothers gave them a farm to live on on their new Farm Milton worked alongside his mother to raise chickens and sell eggs while his father planted trees and experimented with dams to stalk fish however Milton saw how the relationship between his parents crumbled and became even worse when his father abandoned the family to fend for themselves as he left to pursue yet another scheme when the winter of 1867 came the cold was so severe that it became very difficult to keep the Hershey Farmhouse warm both Milton and his little sister Serena caught a severe cold and while his mother tried everything she could to restore their health his sister worsened until she developed a terrible fever it was at this point that Fanny realized that what her daughter had wasn't a cold but scarlet fever a deadly disease that claimed the lives of thousands of children at the time and Serena was no exception at the age of four Serena Hershey passed away this tragedy proved to be a turning point in Milton's life who at the age of 10 made up his mind to do whatever it took to Make a Better Living for himself and his mother and so a short while later he dropped out of school and started along his journey foreign at the age of 14 Milton landed his first job as an apprentice for a local printer Sam Ernst who was the publisher of a German English newspaper however Milton hated the job he found the work itself to be boring and was often yelled at by the owner who had a bad temper to make matters worse his father had put him under contract with the company for five years after just a few months Milton was fed up so he purposely threw his hat into one of the printing machines causing it to break down and was immediately fired by his boss to his surprise his mom supported his decision she saw that the printing job was her husband's idea and a poor fit for her son's future she came together with her sister Maddie and got Hershey another job at the Lancaster confectionary owned by Joseph Royer it was here where Milton would get his first taste of the candy business candies at the time were created by experimentation and with Traditions passed down from generation to generation recipes were very vague and many of them were not even written down and had to be reproduced by memory as a result the owner didn't trust young Milton with such a complicated process and instead assigned the boy to wash dishes take orders at the counter and deliver ice creams and treats to their customers houses Milton's mother however knew that if her son was to succeed he needed to learn the trade of the most profitable and long-lasting products the shop offered candies she insisted to the owner that he excused Milton from his other duties and only teach him how to make candy she even offered to personally pay the owner for this to which the owner finally agreed Milton was happy he immediately fell in love with the trade and soon discovered his knack for mixing ingredients and making sweets and later learned how and where to buy ingredients as well as setting prices he became familiar with a wide range of sweets such as caramels fudge and peppermints father on the other hand disapproved of him and would often tell him that candy making was a woman's job but Milton paid no attention to his words while his father left the family once more to seek fortune in Chicago and Colorado Milton spent the next four years working for MrRoyer learning the ins and outs of the candy business and after gaining confidence in his knowledge and expertise he and his mother agreed that it was time to open his own shop the only problem was the money Milton had saved up over the years wasn't enough to open a confectionary store luckily his auntie and uncles had his back and loaned him a hundred dollars which was enough for him to open a business with their support Milton Hershey was ready to open his first shop at the age of 19. however it wasn't going to be easy [Applause] in 1876 America was going to hold very first World's Fair in the city of Philadelphia which was 70 miles away from where Hershey lived with news of 37 countries participating and attendance expected to be in the millions Milton decided to open his first confectionary shop at the Philadelphia Spring Garden Street there Milton offered a wide variety of candies ice creams fruits and nuts and although there were many other candy shops around the corner Milton's stand stood out one of the things he did differently was to install an airshoe to carry the candies scent from his basement kitchen to the outside air that way people would catch the smell of his candies and be drawn into his shop as his business began to flourish Milton had to rent a bigger space for his shop however things took a drastic turn when the Trade Fair ended and the long Depression started leading his candy sails to plummet Milton managed to stay afloat selling his candies at a wholesale price to several other shops but then another problem would come his way sugar became too expensive and Milton's shop was now struggling to make a profit as his business continued to lose money Milton had to borrow some loans from his uncles and over the next five years Hershey worked himself so hard that he eventually became ill and bedridden one day he got a letter from his uncles telling him that they wouldn't be loaning him any more money they advised him to close his store and Salvage whatever he could Hershey who is now 24 had no other choice but to file for bankruptcy he had not only lost his business but also his family's faith in him [Music] in 1881 Hershey's father heard about the silver rush in Leadville Colorado and wrote to his son to come join him Milton figured he had nothing to lose so he agreed to join him as they got to Colorado Hershey found out that all the silver they came for was long gone so he ignored his father and found work at a candy store in Denver the store specialized in caramels but instead of using paraffin which was the common practice of the time the store owner used fresh milk vanilla and sugar the result was a sweet smooth and soft caramel with a longer shelf life Hershey was so impressed with the process that he stayed and worked at the store for a year until he had practiced and memorized the process once he was ready to move on he decided he was going to open a new shop in one of the most competitive cities in America New York he went back to his uncles hoping for another loan but to his disappointment they rejected him and wanted no part of his Endeavors however his aunt Maddie took a bet on Hershey and loaned him enough money to set up his new shop upon arriving in New York City he wasted no time in finding a job and started working at the hyler's candies shop who ran two successful stores in town once he learned about the local supplies and got a taste of the city he opened his second shop in 1884 and set himself apart by offering his Denver style caramels his business proved to be successful and New Yorkers were hooked on his caramels as sales began to improve he was later persuaded by his father to add cough drops into his shop but his decision to start selling cough drops meant he was challenging an already established brand in the city Smith Brothers Cough Drps which were loved by New Yorkers and they didn't take the challenge lightly during the next couple of years Milton's business slowly began to struggle mainly due to the competition in the city accumulating more debts until eventually filing for bankruptcy in 1886 once again Milton had failed however he didn't lose hope as he knew what he needed to do this time he would focus on one thing caramels [Music] now if you enjoy listening to these stories of Building Wealth then you might like to hear about our video's sponsor Public public is the investment platform that helps people be better investors on public you can find thousands of stocks and ETFs along with more than 30 cryptos such as Bitcoin cardano ethereum and also newer coins like apecoin what I love about public is that they will soon be featuring even more assets including Blue Chip nfts where you'd be able to buy in shares such as this original Banksy painting or this pair of game worn sneakers from Michael Jordan this is great because no other platform offers all 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they told him that he was no different from his father and that he had now become the black sheep of the family with nowhere else to go Milton turned to his former accountant William lebkicker who loaned him enough money to get back on his feet and help start his business using the leftover supplies from his New York shop he started to make caramels again and began selling them with a hand basket on the streets of Lancaster using fresh milk and all the new tricks he learned along the way Milton was able to create the perfect caramel that customers loved he he later established the Lancaster caramel company and as his sales began to grow Milton reinvested all the money he earned into renting a push cart and later a small place for production although Milton's Aunt Maddie had turned him down for another loan she had a change of heart after seeing the little progress Milton had made and was able to loan Milton another seven hundred dollars to buy equipment only this time he had to repay it in 90 days As Time passed Hershey's little business wasn't going as expected and was far away from repaying the money as he began to question himself as to what he should do next a British importer found Hershey's caramel and was really impressed by the unique taste it had after learning about its month-long shelf life he immediately placed a large order and promised to pay Hershey if the candy made it to London in good condition the only problem was Milton couldn't even afford to produce the caramels and ship them out in the first place so he walked down to his bank and even though he had the pressure of a 700 loan he asked the bank for an additional one thousand dollars initially the officer rejected him but after taking a look at his tiny wagon maker he was really impressed with how he was able to make such delicious caramels with such modest means knowing that the bank wouldn't loan him the money the officer personally signed the loan for him immediately after Hershey hired a few hands to help him complete the order and was able to ship his caramels out the following week Milton heard nothing over the next few days and Drw increasingly impatient he knew that if he didn't hear back from the British importer his business would fail once again just days before the loan was due Hershey received a letter inside was a check for 500 British pounds which would be about 65 thousand dollars in today's currency Milton was overwhelmed finally he was able to pay off all of his debts and his worries were over from there sales of his proprietary caramels Hershey's Crystal a took off while most of his sales came from Europe at the time he slowly began to expand in the U. S and by 1894 Milton's company had grown to several factories with thousands of workers and was bringing in over a million dollars in sales he became one of the richest and most well-respected men in Lancaster with a strong team in place taking over production Milton was now in his 30s with more time on his hands and eventually grew Restless on one occasion he visited the Colombian Exposition in Chicago to check out some of the world's newest inventions unbeknownst to Milton this trip would forever change his life [Music] during his visit to the exposition Hershey witnessed J.

M Lehman's demonstration of chocolate rolling Machinery from Germany at the time chocolate was considered a luxury that most people couldn't afford but Lehman's demonstration proved to everyone that chocolate could be mass produced and therefore had the potential to be cheap sensing an opportunity Hershey offered to buy Lehman's entire equipment setup which Lehman gladly accepted immediately after returning to Lancaster Hershey began experimenting with manufacturing sweet chocolate baking chocolate and other cocoa products and soon Incorporated the Hershey Chocolate Company as a subsidiary of his caramel business using his old formula of fresh milk as he did with his caramels Milton did the same with his chocolate products and people loved it during the next few years Hershey kept adding more and more varieties of sweets until he eventually had over a hundred different products to offer however he later noticed that chocolate sales were slowly spreading across Europe and eating into his caramel business share at that point Hershey believed that caramel had peaked and was fast becoming a thing of the past with that in mind he was ready to make one of the riskiest business decisions of his life he was going to sell his caramel business and devote his Focus solely to chocolate in 1900 he sold his business to another competitor for a sum of one million dollars and immediately after he ordered the construction of a massive factory with high-tech machinery for his new company as construction on his new Factory began Hershey instructed some of his most trusted employees to go and work for some of his competitors so that they might learn their methods most of these people had to travel out of the country since no other company in America at the time was successfully Mass producing milk chocolate only the Swiss were believed to have mastered the process and they had managed to keep it a secret While most of his employees returned with no success Hershey had other problems to deal with in the early 1900s political corruption was on the rise in Lancaster and Hershey made the difficult decision to move away from his business town he bought over 1200 Acres of empty Farmland in Derry church and began developing a whole new town from the ground up for himself and his workers but as the walls of his six acre Factory began to rise by the end of 1903 Hershey and his men still didn't know how to mass produce milk chocolate all of their attempts up to that point had failed unbeknownst to Milton the answer was right beside him the whole time in Lancaster Hershey hired a previous employee from his caramel business in Lancaster Johnny schmalbach who on his very first attempt found a way to warm and condense the milk without burning it creating a mild tasting milk chocolate that tasted sweet with a subtle sour note not only that but his process of using condensed milk instead of powdered milk allowed the chocolate to be stored for months without spoiling meaning it could be mass produced and therefore less expensive little did Johnny know he had just displayed out the formula that Hershey Chocolate was built on although Milton had been selling his iconic chocolate bars since 1900 he could finally Mass produce them at a lower price 5 cents each which made them affordable to the masses and available in almost every store in the country by 1906 Hershey Chocolate topped a million dollars in sales and during the next two years Hershey would introduce two more products that are still synonymous with the company today Hershey's kisses and Hershey's chocolate bars with almonds these two signature products along with Hershey's original bar drove the company to Heights Beyond Milton's wildest imagination making millions along the way his Factory soon tripled in size becoming the largest Factory in the world but as his sails grew at a blistering pace so did his chocolate City the town of Hershey grew to include modern homes with electricity schools hospitals churches amusement parks and many other entertainment sites such as a zoo and an open-air theater since Hershey and his wife couldn't have children of their own they also decided to establish the Hershey industrial School in 1909 which specialized in serving poor orphan boys from ages 4 to 18. Milton later transferred the majority of his assets and control of the company to the Milton Hershey School as it is called today which Now controls 40 percent of Hershey's stock making it one of the wealthiest private schools in the U. S however while Milton's company thrived the health of his wife Kitty began to worsen he had already lost his father and Aunt Maddie right before his chocolate business took off and had grown even closer to his mom and his wife despite all his wealth and having the best doctors within his reach it wasn't enough to save his wife and in 1915 Catherine died of pneumonia after her passing Hershey couldn't bear to stay at home so he threw himself into his work instead eventually he'd decided to take a much needed vacation and travel to Cuba there he immediately fell in love with the people and the community and later found out about the Abundant Sugar Land the country possessed it was here that Hershey discovered his next goal he was going to build a sugar mill in Cuba and in doing so build an entire town and Community just like he previously did in Derry church with that in mind Hershey built the most advanced Sugar Mill there was along with modern houses schools and health clinics for his new workers because of this Hershey not only had the benefit of bringing fresh milk from the Farmland of Derry church but he could also export his own sugar at an affordable price when the first world war broke out in 1914 sugar suddenly became scarce and very expensive and while many other companies were struggling to stay in place Hershey managed to survive the war by using his own resources and even made a contract with the U.

S Army to supply huge quantities of cacao and chocolate bars for their soldiers expanding the Hershey brand around the world by the end of the war Hershey's chocolates surpassed 20 million dollars in annual sales but shortly after Milton faced yet another tragedy his supportive mother Fanny passed away in 1920. it was a tough period for Milton who at the time was facing Fierce competition like never before as Milton saw how other chocolate brands picked up market shares by spending heavily on ads he carried on focusing on selling only a few products his sales continued to soar until they reached an astonishing 41 million dollars by 1929. Hershey continued to run the company until 1944 when he retired as CEO at the age of 87.