Yes, THAT Hershey!
This is the story of the man who started the chocolate business. The author (Michael D'Antonio) details his early life and his beginning struggles to find a candy product and then a chocolate product that worked.
He married Catherine, a lady that was ill with a disease that was later classified as syphilis (a disease she had before her marriage.) Because of Catherine's illnesses, the Hershey's had no children.
As the Hershey Company grew, Milton began a utopian town called Hershey where all was well - always. When he died, people quickly noticed that weeds suddenly weren't pulled from gardens and litter wasn't quite as quickly cleared from the streets.
Because Hershey's main product, the Hershey Bar, was only 5 cents, the company continued to do well during the depression and the war. People were willing to spend a nickel.
As the company began making lots of money, Hershey decided to start a school for orphans. Ten boys moved in, under the care of a couple handpicked by Hershey himself. Much of the profits from the chocolate business went to the school. Hershey spent a lot of time there - again, wanting an utopian atmosphere for children who otherwise were alone or poverty-stricken. He set up a trust to guarantee that the school would continue.
Interestingly, the school is still going today with 1700 under-privileged students. Because it runs on Hershey's trust - it has more operating funds than any school in America.
Hershey was an interesting man. He didn't acknowledge God, but trusted himself to build an empire, always trying new things to make more money and expand his business even further. In fact, at the end of his life, his employees indulged him as he attempted to figure out how to combine vegetables with chocolate - as in Hershey Bars with celery.
This is a library book and if you like biographies and American history, I would recommend it.
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