In the beginning of its colonization, many of Pennsylvania’s settlers occupied the land not through acquiring the legal rights, but by building on any unclaimed land they found.
In 1681, King Charles II granted a large piece of his North American land holdings along the North Atlantic Ocean coast to William Penn to offset debts he owed Penn's father, the admiral and politician Sir William Penn. Penn's promise of spiritual tolerance and governmental participation brought many immigrants to the region. The first settlers to live near Hershey came from two distinct nationalities, the Scot-Irish and the German Palatinates.
Passages that mention Hershey, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania1907 · page 83Read the page →
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Hershey, in Derry township, about one-quarter of a mile from Derry Post Office, is on the line of the Philadelphia & Reading Railway, and was platted in 1904-5. It is being rapidly built up by the interests of the great Hershey Chocolate Works which were moved from Lancaster in the spring of 1905.
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History of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania1907 · page 381Read the page →
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At the new village of Hershey, near by Old Derry church postoflice and hamlet, is located the most extensive plant for the manufacture of chocolate tO' be found within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. This plant was first established at Lancaster, in 1895, by M. S. Hershey, who operated there until the spring of 1905. In
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Hershey, 1903 to 1998
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (6), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1910
1917