Chocolate: Russel Stovers

In 1914, H. T. Pangburn made the first batch of what would become Pangburn's Millionaires in the kitchen of his family-owned drugstore in downtown Fort Worth, Texas. Pangburn's recipe included choice Texas pecans, buttery caramel, rich milk chocolate and just a touch of honey.

In 1923, Russell and Clara Stover began a candy business in their home in Denver, Colorado. The original candy, marketed as "Mrs. Stover's Bungalow Candies," changed about 20 years later to Russell Stover Candies. The Stovers established principles that were successful then and are still carefully followed today. The three principles of quality, service and value allow Russell Stover Candies to remain "Only the Finest."

Members of the Chocolate Hall of Fame

• Francois-Louis Callier built the first chocolate factory in Switzerland, 1819.
• Daniel Peter discovered how to combine milk and cocoa powder to start his company in 1867, not as a chocolate manufacturer — but as a maker of infant formula. Peter developed condensed milk in 1878 and created his first candy bar in 1894.
• Amedee-Charles Kohler produced his own chocolate and developed hazelnut chocolate in 1830.
• Phillipe Suchard produced solid chocolate candies in 1826 in Switzerland.
• Jean Tobler began production of hand-made confections in Bern, Switzerland in 1864.
• Rudolf Lindt invented "conching" in 1879, the process of stirring liquid chocolate to break down remaining clumps, making the chocolate smooth for the first time.
• M.S. Hershey established Hershey Chocolate Company in 1894. He built a candy company in Tacoma, WA, which would become Mars, Inc. in 1941.
• Stephen F. Whitman opened his first candy store on the Philadelphia wharf in 1842. The first Whitman's Sampler was produced in 1912.
• Russell Stover sold candies out of his house in Denver, CO as "Mrs. Stover's Bungalow Candies" in 1923. The company would later become Russell; Stover Candies, America's largest manufacturer of boxed chocolates.

In 1842, 19-year-old Stephen F. Whitman set up a small "confectionery and fruiterer shoppe" on Market Street near the Philadelphia waterfront. So began Whitman's Candies, America's oldest continuous producer of boxed chocolates.