Entrepreneur Project
Milton Hershey

Milton Hershey was born on September 13, 1857 in Derry Township, Pennsylvania. Milton only went to school until fourth grade. Milton and his family were members of the Pennsylvania Mennonite community. Being young in rural Pennsylvania there was plenty of work to be done. Most children helped their families work on the farm. He learned very early about work experience. Milton’s father never stayed in one place too long. He always left their family for long times. As Milton got older he began traveling with his father.

Milton’s first accomplishment was the Lancaster Caramel Company in 1886. It was an outstanding success. He used a recipe he obtained while traveling. His company did very well and everyone knew him as the “candy maker”.

His next accomplishment was Hersheys Chocolate. In the 1900s Milton was determined to find a recipe for milk chocolate. Through trial and error Milton finally found a success. The first Hershey bar was tried in 1900. Other Hershey products including the Hershey kisses were made in 1907. In 1903 Hershey chocolate was the world’s largest chocolate manufacturing company.

His last accomplishment was the town of Hershey, Pennsylvania. In this town there was a public school known as Milton Hershey School. He later then built a park, aka Hershey park which was first opened in 1907 and expanded rapidly since then. Many rides and attractions were added since then.

Milton found a niche by traveling with his father and finding a caramel recipe. This gave him motivation to want to start his own caramel candy company. Living around many farms helped him to start milk chocolate also because milk supply was always there.

Entrepreneur skills that Milton had were trial and error. He would mix many different ingredients together to find his milk chocolate recipe. Sometimes it didn’t work, so he tried different things that he though would make it better. At first his business wasn’t a success, but he got the word out and than it became a huge success. One of the biggest successes in the US.

Milton would fall behind and this would lead him to failure. He would need to find milk to make his milk chocolate when supply was low. He didn’t have enough money to get his candy equipment from New York. After getting his equipment his chocolate factory was restored. His caramel factory was the biggest failure. He was almost 40 years old by the time it finally became