Henry Oscar Wilbur, Franklin Baker, Katherine ”Kitty” Hershey: Sweet Tooth, part 1

Biographical Bytes from Bala #034 - COMPLETE

Almost everybody loves chocolate. 

• Henry Oscar Wilbur was a Philadelphia chocolatier who was probably most famous for his small chocolate pieces with his name on the bottom.  He called them Wilbur Buds and offered a spirited competition to Milton Hershey’s Kisses.
• Although Hershey is not buried locally, his beloved wife Kitty spent nearly three years in a receiving vault until a new cemetery was built in Hershey as her final resting place.
• Grain merchant Franklin Baker once received a load of coconut as payment for a boatload of grain.  Baker turned this serendipitous occurrence into a lifetime of working with coconut, such that the name “Baker’s” is almost synonymous with coconuts. 

You’ll hear about these three Laurel Hill West residents - two permanent, one temporary - in this episode of Biographical Bytes from Bala #034 – Sweet Tooth: Wilbur, Baker, Hershey.