Milton Hershey was born 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 and
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
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.
Laura
*** THE END ***
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