Today, 122 years ago (1894), what we know as The Hershey Company was founded by Milton S. Hershey.

Here is some interesting history from WikiPedia:

After completing an apprenticeship to a confectioner in 1873, Hershey founded a candy shop in Philadelphia. This candy shop was only open for six years, after which Hershey apprenticed with another confectioner in Denver, where he learned to make caramel.[6] After another failed business attempt in New York, Hershey returned to Pennsylvania, where in 1886 he founded the Lancaster Caramel Company. The use of fresh milk in caramels proved successful,[7]and in 1900, after seeing chocolate-making machines for the first time at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Hershey sold his caramel company for $1,000,000[7] (equal to $28,444,000 today), and began to concentrate on chocolate manufacturing, stating to people who questioned him “Caramels are just a fad, but chocolate is a permanent thing.”

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