After enduring years of failure, Milton Hershey (1857-1945) built a business empire as the world's first mass producer of chocolate bars. Through generous donations, he used his entire fortune to help those less fortunate than himself.

Milton Snavely Hershey was born on a central Pennsylvania farm in Derry Township, on September 13, 1857, to Henry H. Hershey and Fannie B. Snavely. Hershey inherited the entrepreneurial spirit from his father who moved the family often, attempting a variety of business ventures, including farming and cough drop manufacturing. Because of all the moves, Hershey's early schooling was haphazard, ending after the fourth grade.

At the age of 14, Hershey went to work as an apprentice with the printer of a German-American newspaper in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. After dropping a tray of type, made up of the hundreds of tiny metal pieces once used to print newspaper pages, he was fired. His mother found him...