H. B. Reese AKA Harry Burnett Reese Born: 24-May-1879

Birthplace: York County, PA

Died: 16-May-1956

Location of death: West Palm Beach, FL

Cause of death: Heart Failure

Remains: Buried, Hershey Cemetery, Hershey, PA

Gender: Male

Religion: Presbyterian

Race or Ethnicity: White

Sexual orientation: Straight

Occupation: Business Nationality: United States

Executive summary: Peanut butter cups Harry Burnett Reese was raised on a farm, and as an adult worked as a farmer, fish packaging worker, and did other factory work. He was hired to work on Milton Hershey's dairy farm in 1916, and was later employed at one of Hershey's chocolate factories. Reese was still working there when he started making his own candies in the basement of his house. First he made after-dinner mints, then concocted a few simple candy bars. Reese's Raisin Clusters and Chocolate-Covered Dates sold well, but his best-sellers were Peanut Butter Cups, introduced in 1928. As sales increased he quit his job at Hershey and built a small factory in the same town -- Hershey, Pennsylvania. To meet the demand Reese discontinued all his other candies. Hershey saw Reese more as a customer than as competition -- Reese made his own peanut butter, but always bought his chocolate wholesale from Hershey (who reportedly kept a stash of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in his desk). The H.B. Reese Candy Company was merged into the Hershey Company seven years after Reese's death, with his children receiving about five percent ownership in Hershey. Reese is buried in the Hershey Cemetery alongside his wife, just footsteps from Milton Hershey's grave. Father: Aquilla Asbury Reese, Jr. (farmer, b. 1845, d. 1914)

Mother: Annie Belinda Manifold (b. 1854, d. 1935)

Wife: Blanche Edna Hyson (nearly blind from childhood, b. 20-Aug-1882, m. 1-Aug-1900)

Daughter: Mary Elizabeth Reese Pearson

Son: Robert Hyson Reese (Reese Company executive)

Son: John Manifold Reese (Reese Company executive)

Daughter: Anna Alfreda Reese Twohig (nurse)

Son: Edward Irons Reese (Reese Company executive)

Daughter: Marjorie Marie Reese Staggs (nurse)

Son: Ralph Collins Reese (Reese Company executive)

Daughter: Helen Grace Reese Carson

Daughter: Clara Louise Reese Lauzon

Daughter: Frances Turner Reese Hoke

Daughter: Rose Amos Reese Rippon

Daughter: Mildred Jane Reese

Son: Harry Burnett Reese Jr.

Son: Thomas Reese

Son: Charles Richard Reese

Son: William Reese

Hershey

H. B. Reese Candy Company Founder

Welsh Ancestry Paternal



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