Milton Hershey was Milton Hersheyborn in 1857 on a farm house in Central Pennsylvania to Mennonite parents. (The homestead still stands in Hershey). He had very little formal education and was apprenticed at an early age to a candy maker. He liked the business but struck out to work on his own. He failed several times but never gave up on his dreams. The first candies he made were caramels. He finally made a success with them after making them with milk. When he sold them to an English company he found out that they were coating them with Chocolate before they sold them. After he started making a success he bought his mother a huge home in Lancaster andCatherine Hershey furnished it very elaborately. He then began to travel. But in 1898, Milton astonished everyone by meeting and marrying an Irish Catholic girl in New York. Her name was Catherine. She was everything Milton had been looking for. She brought gaiety, wit, and warmth into his life. Unfortunately, they had no children and so decided to start the Hershey school for disadvantaged children. At the time they reasoned that most families would take in little girls if they lost their parents, but not boys. So, they took in only boys. The boys were given a practical education (farming, factory working) and a formal education. Many times the Hershey's would invite a group The Apostolic Clock of the boys to dine with them. Unfortunately Catherine was struck by a debilitating disease in 1915 and died prematurely. Three years after she died Milton gave his entire personal fortune to the school. However, during the 1930's (the depression) to keep people in the town from suffering from loss of wages, he started extensive building projects in the town. Milton died in 1945 at 88 years of age. In all of our travels, never have I read a life story where someone gave so much back to his community. Milton Hershey was a philanthropist in the truest sense of the word. After finding out about Mr. Hershey, Amy also showed us his extensive collection of Native American artifacts that he had collected. In addition to all of these, the museum features programs for local youths during the summer. When we were there they had people working with kids showing them how to color totem-poles. They have many programs for local teens to volunteer in the museum as guides, assistants, etc. One of the really impressive pieces of the museum is the Working Apostolic Clock done by John Feister. It is one of only 3 working clocks of its kind still working in the world today. This and one other are both located in Central Pennsylvania. The clock stands about 8-10 ft high. There are figures of the apostles that come out at certain times. The most amazing fact of the clock, other than it is still running, is that it was hand-built by a man who had never built a clock in his life. The third clock sits in the Smithsonian Museum but the bureaucrats are still arguing whether to run it or not. We could have spent an entire day in the Museum, but we still had more to see. Want more information on the Museum? Look at on the internet: www.hershey-museum.microserve.net. Amy suggested the Rose Garden with its Butterfly House as a perfect ending to our day. Since it was close to closing time, we got in our truck and quickly proceeded to the Rose Gardens located just in front of the Hotel Hershey. The Rose Gardens had been put in by Mr. Hershey as a memorial to his wife, Catherine. Unfortunately at the time of our visit, the area had been suffering from a drought for quite some time and the flowers were not as outstanding as they might have been, but beautiful none the less. The butterfly house was on the far side of the gardens. It was a mesh-type structure. As we entered the butterfly house where we were regaled with many different species of butterflies. In order to enter the butterfly house it was necessary to go through an air-protected entryway where we were handed plastic sheets showing several different species of butterflies and were instructed that the naturalists inside would help us identifying any species that weren't on the sheet. There is just something so tranquil about being in an area with butterflies. We were able to spot and photograph many species we would never have been able to see otherwise. Just as we were finishing up, a light sprinkle started and we ran for the exit. I am sure if we had had children with us, we could not have missed going to the Zoo, or the Hershey Park, which we had heard from several people were really wonderful. On the way out of town we drove through the Highmeadow Campground which was really beautiful. The only problem with campgrounds that close to tourist attractions is the cost. However, they did feature discount tickets for the various Hershey attractions, so you would have to weigh one against the other. All in all, I would definitely recommend Hershey as a place to see if you get to Central Pennsylvania.

Good Luck! Have Fun! and Stay Safe!

Laura

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