From Our Past

Fun Facts from my research, This Week in History, etc.

Milton Hershey

/ sandramervillehart / 3 Comments

Milton Hershey was born in Derry Township, Pennsylvania, in 1857. A few years later, the Civil War started. He heard cannons from miles away at the Battle of Gettysburg.

His parents separated when he was ten. Five years later he became an apprentice for Joseph Royer, a candy maker in Lancaster. He learned to make fudge, peppermint, and caramels and loved being a confectioner.

At nineteen, he borrowed $150 from his aunt and opened a candy business. Though he worked hard, the business failed.

He moved to Denver where he worked for candy maker who used fresh milk to make caramel, furthering his skills. Milton then opened a business in Chicago. It failed. A new business he started in New York failed. He returned to Lancaster in 1883 and launched the Lancaster Caramel Company. This one was a success.

Ten years later, The World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago educated him about making chocolate. He then established Hershey Chocolate Company and focused on a recipe for milk chocolate that was delicious and affordable. In 1900, he sold Lancaster Caramel Company for $1,000,000 to focus on the chocolate.

Hershey built a new candy factory in Derry Church, Pennsylvania, that opened in 1905. There were plenty of dairy farms in the area to supply milk for the chocolate. Yet his factory workers needed a place to live so he built houses, churches, schools, parks, and a post office to establish a new town—Hershey.

Learning from past failures, Hershey focused on one product—a milk chocolate candy bar. His factory made many of them and sold them at prices everyone could afford.

Unable to have children, Milton and his wife, Catherine, established the Hershey Industrial School for orphaned boys. Catherine died in 1915. Three years later, long before his death in 1945, Milton transferred his ownership in Hershey Chocolate Company to Hershey Trust, which funded the school.

When the Great Depression settled over the country, Hershey put his fellow townsmen to work by constructing new offices for his company, a hotel, and a community building. While the rest of the country struggled to make ends meet, the town of Hershey thrived.

World War II started a few years later. Hershey sent chocolate bars (Ration D Bars and Tropical Chocolate Bars) to our military.

Hershey’s giving spirit still lives on. Today Hershey Industrial School, now known as Milton Hershey School, also includes girls. Around 1,900 girls and boys attend annually.

Milton and Catherine Hershey left a lasting legacy in the town that bears their name. Had he given up after those many early failures, jobs for countless people wouldn’t have been available, a town wouldn’t exist, and a school for orphaned boys wouldn’t have opened.

What an inspiration to persevere in the face of difficulties … and perhaps help a neighbor along the way.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Biography.com Editors. “Milton Hershey Biography,” The Biography.com, 2020/01/02 https://www.biography.com/business-figure/milton-hershey.

Nelson, Ken. “Biography for Kids: Milton Hershey.” Ducksters, Technological Solutions, Inc. (TSI), www.ducksters.com/biography/entrepreneurs/milton_hershey.php. Accessed 2 January 2020.

“Who was Milton Hershey?” The Hershey Story, 2020/01/02 https://hersheystory.org/milton-hershey-history/

 

Hershey’s Chocolate World

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Last summer I spent a day with a few family members in Hershey, Pennsylvania. My chocolate-loving heart loved this place!

Many activities are geared to families with children but, as an adult, I found some fun things to do too.

Families will love the Create Your Own Candy Bar, Hershey’s Unwrapped (A Chocolate Tasting Journey,) and The 4D Chocolate Movie.

Everyone will enjoy Hershey’s Chocolate Tour, where guests learn how the delicious chocolate is made.

I especially enjoyed the old-fashioned feel of Trolley Tours. We had a great tour guide as we traveled through some significant locations in Hershey and learned Milton Hershey’s inspiring story.

If your plans take you there during the lunch hour, Hershey’s Kitchens Food Hall serves sandwiches, salads, pizza, baked potatoes, soup, double chocolate s’mores, and milkshakes. There is also a bakery.

I loved shopping at the Hershey’s Store for all things chocolate! I’ve purchased Christmas gifts there and, of course, candy bars. And Valentine’s Day is coming. 😊

It’s a fun place to spend an afternoon on vacation.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

“Things To Do in Hershey’s,” The Hershey Company, 2020/01/02 https://www.hersheys.com/chocolateworld/en_us/home.html.

 

 

Ford’s Theatre

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John T. Ford, a successful theatrical entrepreneur, leased the First Baptist Church on Tenth Street in 1861. He turned it into a music hall. The building burned in December of 1862. Ford raised money to rebuild and the first performance in the new Ford’s Theatre was August 27, 1863.

President Abraham Lincoln and Mrs. Mary Todd Lincoln arrived at Ford’s Theatre around 8:30 pm with their guests, Major Henry Reed Rathbone and Clara Harris, on April 14, 1865. Our American Cousin was playing and Lincoln enjoyed going to the theater.

This night was different.

John Wilkes Booth stepped into the Presidential Box around 10:15 pm and shot Lincoln. Booth stabbed Major Rathbone and then leaped onto the stage and escaped.

Dr. Charles Augustus Leale was the first person inside the box. He removed a blood clot from Lincoln’s head wound to release pressure and allow him to breathe. Dr. Leale knew it was a mortal wound.

Soldiers carried their President down the stairs and onto Tenth Street. William and Anna Petersen’s boarding house was across the street. They placed the dying President in Willie Clark’s room, who was out celebrating the war’s ending.

It was a dark, gloomy morning. It had started to rain earlier. Large groups of people gathered outside the Petersen house, praying for Lincoln to live … yet fearing the worst.

Throughout that long, tragic night, First Lady Mary Lincoln sometimes sat beside her dying husband with her oldest son nearby. Other times she went to the Front Parlor. Neither family member was in the crowded room when Lincoln died at 7:22 am.

The country that had seen so much death and dying for the past four years experienced a deep tragedy. Leaders turned their attention to apprehending John Wilkes Booth, the assassin, and his conspirators.

Ford’s Theatre was closed by the federal government for the investigation. The owner received permission to reopen after the trial. When threats were made if the theatre reopened, the War Department closed it. They leased the building, in August of 1865, to convert it to an office building and bought it a year later.

Three interior floors collapsed in 1893. Twenty-two clerks were killed and sixty-eight people injured. It was repaired and used again by the government for offices.

Today, about 650,000 visitors tour Lincoln’s Museum, Ford’s Theatre, the Petersen House, and Aftermath Exhibits each year.

Ford’s Theatre still has performances and tours are closed during rehearsals and matinees.

Lincoln has inspired many authors to write books about him. A 34-foot tower of these books stands beside a winding staircase at The Ford’s Theatre Center for Education and Leadership.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

“Ford’s Theatre,” National Park Service, 2020/01/02 https://www.nps.gov/foth/index.htm.

“Ford’s Theatre Yesterday and Today,” Ford’s Theatre Pamphlet, Last Updated 2008.

“Lincoln’s Death,” Ford’s Theatre, 2020/01/01 https://www.fords.org/lincolns-assassination/lincolns-death/.

Lincoln Memorial

/ sandramervillehart

On a recent trip to Washington, DC, I visited the National Mall late on a rainy evening. The view of the Lincoln Memorial at night is spectacular.

Talk of building a memorial to President Abraham Lincoln began soon after his death. In 1867, a proposal for a commission to plan the monument didn’t get very far. The country, recovering from war, didn’t have the money to build it. The early design was for 31 pedestrian and 6 equestrian statues with a statue of Lincoln in the center.

Construction on the memorial began years later in 1914, and took about 4 years to build. Styled after a Greek Temple, the memorial was designed by Henry Bacon. It has 36 fluted Doric columns to represent the states in the Union during the Civil War.

The memorial is 188 feet long and nearly 80 feet tall. There are 58 steps on the memorial. There are 87 steps from the reflecting pool to the memorial.

Lincoln’s second inaugural speech is on the North Wall. His famous Gettysburg Address is etched on the South Wall.

Construction was finally completed in 1922. On May 30, 1922, Civil War veterans were among the 50,000 people attending the dedication service.

Robert Todd Lincoln, our 16th president’s only surviving son, attended the dedication. He was 78.

Forty-one years later, a March on Washington, led by Martin Luther King, Jr., ended at the Lincoln Memorial. On August 28, 1963, he spoke to a large crowd from the steps of the memorial. His “I have a Dream” speech spoke of his dreams for America, resonating with his listeners and the nation.

Trolley Tours and Big Bus Tours are an easy way to visit the monument. We took the Metro and walked the National Mall. Whatever way you decide to tour the monument, it is well worth the effort.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

“Lincoln Memorial,” Lincoln Memorial, 2020/01/02 http://lincoln-memorial.org/.

“Lincoln Memorial,” National Park Service, 2020/01/02 https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/wash/dc71.htm.

“Lincoln Memorial,” Wikipedia, 2020/01/01 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Memorial.

“The Abraham Lincoln Memorial,” American History For Kids, 2020/01/02 https://www.americanhistoryforkids.com/abraham-lincoln-memorial/.

First Union Soldiers in Washington Welcomed at the White House

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Union troops poured into Washington near the end of April, 1861. Before long, twenty thousand men added to the city’s prewar population of sixty thousand. The city had 33 militia units with armories where they drilled—not nearly enough to accommodate so many additional soldiers. And where were they to sleep?

President Abraham Lincoln welcomed the first troops as honored guests. On April 18th, Major Hunter took Jim Lane’s Kansas Warriors into the East Room of the White House and allowed them to stay there.

Soon troops were camped on the White House lawn, at the Capitol, and the Washington Arsenal. Area churches as well as schools like Georgetown College and Columbian College.

The government rented other buildings for the soldiers.

Seven thousand troops were in the Capitol, occupying Senate and House chambers, committee rooms, galleries, and halls. This brought its own problems of cleanliness. Congress was set to convene on July 4th —before this meeting, grease, tobacco, and other filth had to be scrubbed from the areas.

Soldiers’ tents surrounded the Capitol for a radius of three miles. Troops bivouacked and drilled in the inaugural ballroom, which was a temporary building near City Hall.

Many of these troops received training in the city and soon marched off to war. Others remained to defend the nation’s capital. Sixty-eight forts had been built around Washington by 1865, and these housed Union troops. The city was protected by these forts that had a combined ninety-three batteries, seven blockhouses, and twenty miles of rifle pits. There were thirty miles of military roads.

The forts were built to last for the war’s duration and many of them are gone now. Traces remain of a few of them, including Fort Chaplin, Fort Davis, Fort DeRussy, Fort Foote, and Fort Stevens.

– Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

“Civil War Defenses of Washington,” Wikipedia, 2019/12/26 ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_War_Defenses_of_Washington.

Selected by Dennett, Tyler. Lincoln and the Civil War In the Diaries and Letters of John Hay, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1939.

“The capital can’t be taken!” Civil War Defenses of Washington, National Park Service, 2019/12/26 ttps://www.nps.gov/cwdw/index.htm.

Winkle, Kenneth J. Lincoln’s Citadel: The Civil War in Washington, DC, W.W. Norton & Company, 2013.

 

Christmas During World War II

/ sandramervillehart

The United States was in a war-time economy during World War II. With many of our men serving our country in Europe and the South Pacific, our women went to work.

There were many items families did without in a wartime economy. Buying the special gift at Christmas was especially difficult.

Rubber was in demand so tires for cars were scarce. Common gifts for children like basketballs, volleyballs, and tennis shoes were unlikely to be under the tree.

Most Americans were limited to four gallons of gas a week, so they didn’t make unnecessary trips. If grandparents and other relatives did not live nearby, you might not see them often.

The local ration board had to issue a written certificate to buy a bicycle.

Metal was needed for tanks, airplanes, and battleships. Citizens couldn’t buy cars, pots and pans, strollers, toy trains, and alarm clocks.

Long distance phone calls were another limitation for Americans, who were encouraged to keep the phone lines open for the soldiers.

A common practice before the war was to purchase goods on account—charging them. During the war, bills were required to be paid within two months. If the bill wasn’t paid on time, the account was frozen.

Popular gifts during the war were ration stamps, which enabled folks to buy particular items. Hats, socks, mittens, and household goods were much-appreciated gifts. Book sales soared. Board games, perfume, and radios were other common presents at Christmas.

Of course, families missed their husbands, fathers, brothers, and uncles serving across the sea. All other hardships dimmed in comparison.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Waggoner, Susan. It’s A Wonderful Christmas, Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2004.

 

The Story Behind “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”

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by Sandra Merville Hart

On July 9, 1861, the screams of his wife, Fanny, wakened Henry Wadsworth Longfellow from a nap to the horror of finding her dress ablaze. Instantly awake, he tried to smother the flames with a rug. When that didn’t work, he used his body. By the time the fire was out, Fanny’s burns were too severe to survive. She died the next day. Longfellow’s face was burned so badly that he was unable to attend the funeral with his five children.

That wasn’t Henry’s only turmoil as Civil War ravaged the country. In March of 1863, Henry’s oldest son, Charles (Charley) Appleton Longfellow, left his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, bound for the Union army in Washington, DC. The eighteen-year-old didn’t ask his father’s permission to join.

Charley quickly earned the commission of 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry.

Henry was dining at home when a telegram arrived on December 1, 1863. Charley had been shot in the shoulder in a skirmish in the Mine Run Campaign (Virginia) on November 27th.

Henry and his younger son, Ernest, left immediately for Washington, DC. On December 5th, Charley arrived there by train. The first surgeon alarmed Henry with news that the serious wound might bring paralysis. Later that evening, three other surgeons gave him better news—Charley’s recovery might take 6 months.

Grieving for his wife and worried for his son, Henry heard Christmas bells ringing on December 25, 1863. He picked up his pen  and wrote “Christmas Bells.”

Two stanzas from this poem written while our country was at war are rarely heard. These speak of the suffering in a nation divided:

        Then from each black, accursed mouth

       The cannon thundered in the South,

       And with the sound

      The carols drowned

      Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

      It was as if an earthquake rent

      The hearth-stones of a continent,

     And made forlorn

     The households born

     Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Families had been separated by war—some forever. Anguish overcomes Henry:

      And in despair I bowed my head;

     “There is no peace on earth,” I said;

     “For hate is strong,

    And mocks the song

    Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Faith and hope reach through the anguish in his soul as he hears a deeper message in the Christmas bells:

     Then pealed the bells more loud and deep;

     “God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

     The Wrong shall fail,

    The Right prevail,

    With peace on earth, good-will to men.”

Charley survived yet his wound ended the war for him.

In February of 1865, Our Young Folks published Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, “Christmas Bells.” John Baptiste Calkin set the poem to music in 1872, and “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” became a beloved Christmas carol.

Sources

Ullman, Jr., Douglas. “A Christmas Carol’s Civil War Origin,” American Battlefield Trust, 2018/11/02 https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/christmas-bells.

“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” Wikipedia, 2018/11/02, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Heard_the_Bells_on_Christmas_Day.

“The True Story of Pain and Hope Behind ‘I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,’” The Gospel Coalition, 2018/11/02 https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/the-story-of-pain-and-hope-behind-i-heard-the-bells-on-christmas-day/.

 

Christmas Lights

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by Sandra Merville Hart

Before Christmas lights adorned Christmas trees, candles were lit on the branches to signify the light of Jesus. The family gathered in the parlor while fathers lit the candles. Because of the fire hazard, these were quickly extinguished.

After Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, Edward Hibberd Johnson had an idea. In 1882, Johnson displayed his Christmas tree by his New York City parlor window where it was plainly visible from the street. He strung 80 light bulbs together (red, blue, and white) and arranged them around the tree which stood on a revolving pedestal. The power for the lights and pedestal came from a generator.

To ensure his lights received the public’s notice, Johnson contacted reporters. The brilliance of the lights stunned them. Folks on the street stopped to gaze in wonder. However fascinated people were, decorating with lights wasn’t feasible for most.

President Grover Cleveland helped popularize Christmas lights when he had the White House tree decorated with them in 1895.

Electricity wasn’t widely available for many years—and the lights were expensive. In 1903, a set (20 plain, 4 red, and 4 frosted bulbs) cost $12 when the average hourly wage was 22 cents!

The price dropped to $1.75 for a sixteen-foot string by 1914.

Today, Christmas lights adorn our trees and our homes. Many of us still take our families out to see special light displays during the holidays.

And we have Edward Hibbert Johnson to thank for this beautiful idea.

Sources

Chan, Melissa. “Here’s How Christmas Lights Came to Be,” Time for Kids, 2019/08/15 https://time.com/4152307/christmas-tree-lights-history/.

Malanowski, Jamie. “Untangling the History of Christmas Lights,” Smithsonian.com, 2019/08/15 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/untangling-history-christmas-lights-180961140/.

Waggoner, Susan. It’s A Wonderful Christmas, Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2004.

 

The Christmas Tree

/ sandramervillehart

by Sandra Merville Hart

The tradition of Christmas trees began centuries ago. Citizens of Alsace, France, bought trees to set up, unornamented, in their homes in 1510.

In Germany and Austria, traditions in the 1700s were to hang evergreen tips upside down. Often decorated with apples and nuts, these Christmas trees also earned the name ‘sugartrees.’

German settlers in Pennsylvania had community Christmas trees by 1747, yet most Americans still considered them pagan symbols in the 1840s.

The White House’s first Christmas tree was with President Franklin Pierce in 1853, around the time Christmas trees began to be sold in the United States.

Even so, only twenty percent of American families had Christmas trees in 1900. Twenty years later, it was a tradition in most American homes. The popularity of the trees brought shortages, leading to Christmas tree farms.

Artificial trees, available from the 1880s, were often used by poorer families.

After World War II, the demand for Christmas trees by nostalgic British soldiers exceeded the supply of evergreens. The Addis Brush Company of America, who had manufactured artificial brush trees since the 1930s, sold thousands of trees in Great Britain.

Addis then manufactured a Silver Pine tree, made of aluminum, in the 1950s. It was sold with a Christmas tree color wheel that illuminated the tree in different colors as it revolved.

Another fad began in the 1960s—flocked Christmas trees, where spray is added to resemble snowy branches.

Whether your preference is for real or artificial trees, Christmas trees remain a beautiful holiday tradition.

Sources

History.com Editors. “History of Christmas Trees,” History.com, 2019/08/15  https://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas-trees.

“History of Christmas Trees,” National Christmas Tree Association, 2019/08/15 https://www.realchristmastrees.org/dnn/Education/History-of-Christmas-Trees.

Waggoner, Susan. It’s A Wonderful Christmas, Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2004.

An 1876 Christmas Appeal from Orphans

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by Sandra Merville Hart

Undoubtedly children orphaned by the Civil War still lived in Cincinnati orphanages in 1876. Though the war ended 11 years earlier, citizens would never forget the horrors of the time.

So, when an ad for the Cincinnati Orphan Asylum asked for a bag filled with “anything you can think of to eat, wear or use”, generous folks must have responded.

Here are a few foods they requested: split peas, raisins, coffee, cake, sugar, tea, hominy, turnips, spices, ham, beets, cheese, poultry, potatoes, apples, beans, and rice.

They needed clothing, woolen cloth, cotton cloth, calico, flannel, shoes, stockings, combs, brushes, pins, sheets, dishes, knives, forks, and spoons.

There was a list of ideas for gifts under “Send to our Christmas Tree”: gloves, hair ribbons, nuts, candy, handkerchiefs, skates, sleds, slates, hoods, scarves, mittens, neckties, baskets, thimbles, lead pencils, drawing paper, Dominoes, evening games, Backgammon, Games of History, Games of Authors, color boxes, work boxes, scissors.

This variety would fit almost any budget.

Many of these items are on Christmas lists today, aren’t they?

We have a time-honored tradition of giving at Christmas. If your budget allows, look for a charity to bless with a gift.

Sources

Berten, Jinny Powers. Cincinnati Christmas, Orange Frazer Press, 2011.