A little background on the man who created the Sweets!

Milton S. Hershey, 1887
Originally uploaded by Hershey Community Archives

Milton Hershey was born on September 13, 1857 on a farm in Pennsylvania. He was an only child growing up. Milton's mother raised him in the strict discipline of the Mennonite faith. His family frequently moved around, thus causing him only to reach the fourth grade. Milton decided to go into the candy making business. His first attempt was in Philadelphia, PA. Unfortunately his first time in Philly, second time in Chicago, and third time in New York all failed. Finally Mr. Hershey returned to Lancaster in 1883 to establish the Lancaster Caramel Company. This became a huge success.

What got Mr. Hershey started on chocolate was his fascination with German chocolate-making machinery. He bought the equipment for his own factory and soon began to produce many varieties
of chocolate. As his chocolate creations grew,
Milton decided to sell his factory to focus solely on his chocolate business. He sold his Lancaster Caramel Company for 1 million dollars...back in 1900!! Mr. Hershey returned to Derry, PA, where he grew up, to build and open a chocolate factory. He knew he could get a fresh supply of milk for his chocolate creations.

At the time milk chocolate was a Swiss luxury product. No one in the United States had started to produce milk chocolate. It took Mr. Hershey several trial and error stages to get the perfect recipe for the milk chocolate that we love today. Hershey's milk chocolate rapidly became the first nationally marketed product of its kind.

As the chocolate company grew and the mass amounts of money began flowing in...Milton Hershey had MANY more plans for his business and the surrounding area that he lived in. Until next time...keep reading! :-)

So where is The Sweetest Place on Earth?

Hi! This will be my first blog about what I consider to be The Sweetest Place on Earth. I recently student taught at Milton Hershey School, PA. For those of you who are not familiar with this school, it is a private school in Hershey, PA founded by Milton S. Hershey himself. He created this school for underprivileged boys and girls from all over the United States. In fact at one time there was at least one student from each state attending the school!


2009 happens to be Hershey's Centennial Year. It is very exciting for the Milton Hershey School because many people will be visiting the town and each of the schools. Teachers from all over the world will have a chance to get information and lesson plans from teachers who have taught or teach at Milton Hershey. The school has created a curriculum instruction team to get these lesson plans together to post online for fellow educators. I think it's a great idea to have these lessons from teachers who have been a part of Milton Hershey for so long. They will be able to pass on their knowledge and history of Hershey to other colleagues. This will only help the history of Milton Hershey (the man, the school and the town) continue to grow and be able to do it in a fun and interesting way. Especially when the school decided to use technology and the Internet to pass along lesson plans across the GLOBE!!