Friday, July 24, 2009 8:51 PM CDT
USA's Yesterdays: Chocolate king Milton Hershey a benevolent despot
By Hal Malehorn
It seems unlikely that anything associated with America’s beloved chocolate maker could ever leave a sour taste in anyone’s mouth
But that’s what happened in 2002, a half-century after Milton Hershey’s death. In that year placards of protest sprouted all around the otherwise peaceful town of Hershey, Pa.
“Save Our Town,” some signs pleaded, while others read “Stop the Sale.” Still others asked, “What Would Milton Do?”
Nearly 100 years before that pained outcry, Milton Hershey had bequeathed a fortune to the Milton Hershey School, a residential institution for orphans. Control of the school’s huge endowment lay with its board of trustees.
Over the years, the market value of Hershey stock had soared to $10 billion, far more than was needed to care for the youngsters enrolled.
But now, the trustees proposed to sell the entire Hershey enterprise, ostensibly to protect the company’s stocks against vagaries of the marketplace.
Unhappily, this proposal riled the townspeople, most of whom worked in nearby Hershey-owned factories and farms. In fact, to voice their strong objections, several hundred villagers crowded into the meeting hall where the matter was being discussed.
In sum, following acrimonious debate, the sale died a-borning, and the Hershey School went on as before.
Of course, long before then, on Sept. 13, 1857, in York County, Pa., no one would have suspected such a turn of events when Fanny Hershey gave birth to Milton.
Of more immediate concern to the Hershey clan then was the economic Panic of 1857, which forced the elder Hershey to sell all he owned to pay his creditors. Indeed, the family was so poor that Fanny “stripped” the neighbors’ cows to get what little milk was left.
Following a brief fling in the oil business around Titusville, Pa., Henry Hershey transported the family back to the ancestral homestead. Daughter of a bishop, Fanny was used to status and wealth. Flighty Henry did his fruitless best to provide.
In his youth Milton moved from school to school as his itinerant father sought a more reliable livelihood. Completing grade school in 1870, the lad worked in a sweet shop. There, Milton learned to make hard candies, and soon branched out on his own.
Unhappily, after six years of concocting confections, Milton’s little operation went broke, prompting him to entrain for Colorado to join his father, who was hoping to get rich mining silver. In Denver, Milton found work in a caramel shop.
Unsuccessful candy-making ventures in New York City followed, forcing the young Hershey back to Lancaster, Pa. There, in spite of recurring setbacks, he finally established a dependable clientele for his caramels.
In fact, by the early 1890s, Hershey was employing 1,400 workers in a huge building that produced enormous quantities of assembly-line goodies.
A trip to Chicago’s Columbian Exposition in 1893 gave Hershey yet another idea: making chocolate. An exhibit there featured a German production line converting cocoa beans into chocolate bars. Hershey studied the machines and tasted the product. Recognizing the potential for European-style chocolate in America, he purchased all the equipment he had seen at the fair.
Returning to Lancaster, Hershey sold his caramel business, supremely confident that chocolate was a wiser investment.
After luring workers from other chocolate-making concerns, Hershey set them to work at his homestead laboratory experimenting with flavorings, temperatures, sources of milk, types of cacao. Eventually Hershey was satisfied they had found the perfect mix.
Hershey promptly bought up a huge acreage of rural farmland. Where others saw only an empty landscape, Milton Hershey envisioned dairy farms to provide milk for his product, a huge factory to manufacture it, and a utopian community to accommodate his workers.
While the six-acre factory was slowly rising from its foundation, quarrymen were mining local limestone to be extracted for erecting homes and crushing into gravel for the community’s thoroughfares.
Hired city planners began laying out water lines, trolley routes and curving streets. The main boulevards were labeled (appropriately enough) Cocoa and Chocolate, while others reflected sources of cacao (Java, Caracas, Granada and Ceylon)
The most prominent spot in the region was called High Point, where the Hershey mansion would be built.
As the hundreds of workers were attracted to the factory and the town (which, by overwhelming consensus was christened “Hershey”), residents developed a considerable affection for their benevolent despot.
After all, the “Old Man” would eat lunch with his laborers, buy an employee a suit, or pay for a needy child’s education. He never punished an honest mistake, even when it cost him money.
But all was not perfect in Eden. Milton Hershey sometimes had a short fuse. He chastised workers for imbibing alcohol, when he himself drank. He sometimes dismissed men without explanation. And he was overly conscious of his social status. But, all in all, his workers remained loyal and willing — even if a wee bit wary.
Ever the idealist, Hershey equipped all the local homes with electricity, indoor plumbing and central heat. Workers could purchase their residences at a reasonable price. Their workplace was of one story, facilitating evacuation in an emergency. And the village had neither cemetery nor jail.
In explanation, Hershey said, “I never could see what happiness a rich man gets from a life of acquisition only.” This attitude led to the incorporation of the school for orphans, which taught youngsters basic trades, farming, “the habits of economy and industry,” and “at all times, to speak the truth.”
His wife’s premature death in 1915 seemed to change Milton’s temperament, for he now was more aggressive and impatient. Still, the Hershey operation expanded, with 31 buildings now involved in production, and 75 herds producing the milk.
However, Hershey lost money investing in sugar futures, and he had troubles with the union. Nevertheless, he established a model village in Cuba for his cane-cutters there.
Milton Hershey died Oct. 11, 1945, beloved by the community, the orphans taken care of, his fortune largely gone. And while his life had not been perfect, he had left behind him numerous philanthropies, and a town that continued as it had begun, “the sweetest place on earth.”
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