Sept. 16 – 24, 2018
Lancaster, PA
This week found us in the heart of the Amish country – Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Our campground for the week was Country Acres RV Park. This lovely, quiet RV park was just outside of town on Route 30 but convenient to everything. The sites were large, level, gravel sites with a country feel. Behind our pull-thru site was a large Amish-owned corn field.
Hershey, Pennsylvania
For our first outing on a very wet, dreary day we opted to drive to Hershey, Pennsylvania to investigate the Hershey Story. I really expected this to be an in-depth presentation on chocolate making. Instead the museum focuses on Milton S. Hershey’s life, failures, and accomplishments.
Milton Snavely Hershey was born on September 13, 1857, in Derry Township, Pennsylvania. He was the only surviving child of Veronica “Fanny” Snavely and Henry Hershey. Born on a farm outside of Derry Church, Pennsylvania—a small farming community in the central part of the state—Hershey spent the early years of his childhood trailing his father, a dreamer who always had his eye out for the next big opportunity. But Henry Hershey lacked the perseverance and work ethic to stick anything out.
By 1867, Hershey’s father had largely cut himself out of the family picture. The details around his parents’ separation are cloudy, but it’s largely believed that Fanny, the daughter of a Mennonite clergyman, had grown tired of her husband’s failures.
With Hershey’s upbringing left to her, the strict Fanny instilled in her son an appreciation for hard work. At the age of 14, Hershey, who’d dropped out of school the year before, expressed an interest in candy making and began apprenticing with a master confectioner in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Four years later, Hershey borrowed $150 from his aunt and set up his own candy shop in the heart of Philadelphia.
For five long years Hershey poured his sweat and time into the business. But success eluded him. Finally, he closed shop and headed west, reuniting with his father in Denver, where he found work with a confectioner. It was there that he discovered caramel and how fresh milk could be used to make it.
But the entrepreneur in Hershey wasn’t content to work for someone else, and he struck out on his own again, first in Chicago and later in New York City. In both cases, Hershey again failed. In 1883, he returned to Lancaster and, still convinced he could build a successful candy company, started the Lancaster Caramel Company.
At the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, Hershey got an up-close look at the art of chocolate making. He was immediately hooked. While his caramel business boomed, Hershey started the Hershey Chocolate Company.
His fascination quickly became focused on milk chocolate, considered a delicacy and largely the domain of the Swiss. Hershey was determined to find a new formula that would allow him to mass-produce and mass-distribute milk chocolate candy.
In 1900 he sold the Lancaster Caramel Company for an astonishing $1 million. Three years later he began building a mammoth and modern candy-making facility in Derry Church. It opened in 1905, setting a new course for Hershey and the candy industry.
Quickly, the Hershey Chocolate Company’s success far exceeded that of its founder’s previous venture. His winning ideas included the Hershey Kiss in 1907, which the company’s founder named himself. The trademark foil wrapper was added in 1924.
As the company grew and Hershey’s wealth expanded, so did his vision for creating a model community in his home region. In the town that came to be known as Hershey, Pennsylvania, Hershey built schools, parks, churches, recreational facilities and housing for his employees. He even added a trolley system for his workers.
At his side for much of this philanthropy was his wife, Catherine, whom he’d married in 1898. Unable to have children of their own, the Hersheys focused a good portion of their giving on endeavors that affected kids. In 1909 the couple opened the Hershey Industrial School, a facility for orphaned boys. It has since become a landing spot for girls as well and is now known as the Milton Hershey School.
In 1918, three years after Catherine’s unexpected death, Hershey transferred much of his wealth, which included his ownership of the Hershey Chocolate Company, to the Hershey Trust, which funds the Hershey School.
Following his wife Catherine’s death, Hershey never remarried and supposedly carried a picture of his late wife wherever he traveled. In keeping with the work ethic his mother instilled in him, Hershey continued to work well into his 80s. He died in Hershey, Pennsylvania, on October 13, 1945. — Milton Hershey Biography
Mr. Hershey’s legacy did not reside in the United States alone. He also had a personal and professional interest in Cuba which the new special exhibit “Mr. Hershey’s Cuba” detailed.
To help ensure a steady supply of sugar for his chocolate, Milton Hershey began to acquire land in Cuba in 1916 shortly after the death of Catherine Hershey in March 1915. The outbreak of war in Europe had disrupted the international flow of sugar, especially beet sugar grown primarily in Europe, which made Cuba a sugar hotspot.
While the Cuban land was an investment for the ingredients he needed for his chocolate, the country also became a place of refuge for Mr. Hershey. He spent increasing amounts of time in Cuba in the 1920s and 1930s and purchased several mills. He also built a new mill and town, which he named Central Hershey – “central” is the Cuban term for a sugar mill and its surrounding town.
Central Hershey, completed in 1918 and located about 35 miles east of Havana, included comfortable homes, free public schools, and many of the same amenities found in its Pennsylvania namesake. Once Central Hershey was established, Mr. Hershey purchased Central Rosario in 1920, Central Carman and Central San Antonio in 1925, and Central Jesus Maria in 1927.
At its height, the Hershey Cuban holdings included 60,000 acres, five raw sugar mills, a peanut oil plant, a henequen plant (an agave plant species), four electric plants, and a standard gauge railroad with 251 miles of track. At Central Rosario, Hershey founded an orphan school known as the Hershey Agricultural School. Like the Hershey Industrial School (HIS) in Pennsylvania, now known as Milton Hershey School, the Cuban school prepared young boys for careers in agriculture or industry.
While Mr. Hershey owned a large amount of land, his presence and manner of doing business in Cuba was in sharp contrast to most foreign businessmen who exploited the country and its people. Cuba honored Milton Hershey with many awards, including the highest honor the country could bestow: the Grand Cross of the National Order of the Carlos Manuel de Cespedes.
Hershey’s Cuban holdings were eventually sold in 1946 to the Cuban Atlantic Sugar Company. Central Hershey was renamed Camilo Cienfuegos in 1959 to honor the Cuban revolutionary who fought with Fidel Castro. — Hershey in Cuba
Our visit to the Hershey Story really opened my eyes concerning Mr. Hershey and his on-going legacy.
From Chocolate to Cheese
One of the takeaways of the Canadian portion of our journey was the love of cheese curds – something our U.S. grocery stores rarely carry. An internet search revealed September Farm Cheese in nearby Honey Brook, Pennsylvania and their variety of cheese curds (among other tasty items). Consequently a stop at September Farms was mandatory. Cheese curds – check. Block cheese – check. Meats – check. Bakery items – check. Lunch at their sandwich shop – check.
Learning about the Amish
The next day we took an Amish Farm and House tour. This tour combined a bus tour through the Amish countryside with a stop at an Amish store and a guided house/farm tour. As we rode through the beautiful country-side past houses with freshly laundered clothes hanging from clotheslines and one-room school houses with children outside playing at recess, we learned a lot about Amish way of life. We observed power lines attached to Amish places of business but not to their homes. Our guide explained that the Amish are very careful about what they allow into their homes and feel power lines connect them too closely to the outside world. We also observed the use of some motorized equipment. Our guide explained that some motorized equipment can be used for certain tasks like harvesting or mowing but may not be used for riding. That’s why such equipment does not have rubber tires. The two main modes of transportation for the Amish are the horse and buggy and the scooter (the Amish in Lancaster are not allowed to ride bicycles). We passed quite a few on our tour.
Our tour stopped briefly at an Amish farm and store where Amish-made handcrafts including gorgeous quilts were sold.
Following the bus tour we took a guided tour of an Amish farmhouse.
In 1954, the play, “Plain and Fancy” was a smash hit on Broadway. The Broadway hit drew a spotlight as the play was featured around the Amish lifestyle and their home: Lancaster County. This was the tipping point of a tourist boom the progressively grew from 25,000 annual visitors to 2,000,000 by 1960. Due to the increase of tourists and invasion of privacy of the Amish, Lancaster-local Adolph Neuber believe that there should be a place to accurately learn about the Amish, while respecting their privacy. An Amish family opened their home and property to visitors for tours. — tripadvisor.com
We then were free to wander the 15 acre farm which included a one-room school house, a scooter run, and a small animal pen.
Sight & Sound Theatre
On our RV trip last year we had attended a production of “Moses” at the Sight & Sound Theatre in Branson, Missouri. That production was awesome so when we discovered that Lancaster also had a Sight & Sound Theatre we had to go. The production here was “Jesus”. If you’ve never been to one of these Biblical shows, you need to add it to your bucket list. The stage surrounds you on 3 sides and all of their productions include live animals – camels, horse, donkeys, goats, birds – to name a few. Definitely a top-notch, moving experience.
Time to move on
We learned and experienced a lot here in Pennsylvania but it’s time for us to pack up and move on. Next up – West Virginia. Be sure to check back.
