Saturday, December 30, 1933

I got some things down at the new grocery store. Went over to Gweyn's. Went to Lindsays' with Mrs. Raifert.

A split Heath candy bar
Shaped as a thin hard slab with a milk chocolate coating, the toffee originally
contained sugar, butter, and almonds, and was a small squarish bar weighing 1 ounce.

In 1913, L.S. Heath, a schoolteacher, bought a confectionary shop in Robinson,
Illinois, as a likely business opportunity for his oldest sons, Bayard Heath and
Everett Heath. The brothers opened a combination candy store, ice cream parlor, and
manufacturing operation there in 1914.

With the success of the business, the elder Heath became interested in ice cream, and
opened a small dairy factory in 1915. His sons worked on expanding their confectionery
business. At some point they reportedly acquired a toffee recipe, via a traveling salesman,
 from a Greek confectioner in another part of the state. In 1928, they began marketing it locally
 as "Heath English Toffee", proclaiming it "America’s Finest".

In 1931, when Bayard and Everett were persuaded by their father to sell the confectionery and
 work at his dairy, they brought their candy-making equipment with them, and established a
retail business there. The Heaths came up with the interesting marketing idea of including their
toffee on the order form taken around by the Heath dairy trucks, so that one could order
Heath bars to be delivered along with one’s milk and cottage cheese.

The Heath bar grew in popularity nationally during the Depression, despite its one-ounce
 size and the five-cent price, equal to larger bars. It was made by hand until 1942, when
the U.S. Army ordered $175,000 worth of candy bars. Hershey now markets the candy bar.