Jared Crawford
Director of Communications, Hall of Giants
Most of you reading this are within fifty feet of a Dum Dum. Perhaps it’s in the candy bowl at the receptionist’s station. Perhaps it’s tucked in a drawer. Perhaps it’s lingering at the bottom of a child’s Halloween bucket, stored on the top shelf of the pantry. Dum Dums are surely one of America’s most familiar candies, but few of us have ever stopped to wonder who makes them.
Sometimes, a product and a company share both a name and a story. If I say Ford, you think of Henry and of Detroit. If I say Disney, you think of Walt, of Mickey Mouse, and theme parks. But one of the quirks of entrepreneurship is that sometimes a product becomes famous while the company behind it remains largely unknown.
That is certainly true of Dum Dums, and the Spangler Candy Company of Bryan, Ohio.
In 1906, Arthur Spangler paid $450 at a sheriff’s auction to buy a small baking supply business in that little town in the northwest corner of the Buckeye State. As the company grew, Arthur brought in his brothers Omar and Ernest – with the latter suggesting they shift their business to candy. Well over a hundred years later, the Spangler Candy Company remains rooted in the same community. It employs hundreds of people and has remained family-owned down through four generations.
Spangler didn’t invent Dum Dums. They acquired that lollipop brand in 1953 and transformed it into one of America’s most recognizable candies. The company also makes Necco Wafers and Bit-o-Honey. If you have a candy cane at Christmas, it’s probably made by Spangler. And if you love to share those original conversation hearts around Valentine’s Day, you’re sharing a Spangler product. Time and again, Spangler acquired a beloved candy from a flailing company – and kept a sweet piece of Americana alive.
When we think about entrepreneurship, our minds usually jump to Silicon Valley startups, billion-dollar valuations, and household-name founders. We should celebrate the likes of Henry Ford – and Elon Musk. But these most famous entrepreneurs are only one part of the story of American prosperity. America flourishes because of companies like Spangler Candy: family businesses that turn out quality products while investing in their workers and their communities. You don’t often see companies like Spangler on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. But just as those Dum Dums, conversation hearts and candy canes are part of the fabric of your everyday life, businesses like Spangler are the nearly invisible backbone of the American economy.
For more than a century, Bryan, Ohio has been sending its candies into homes, schools, doctor’s offices, and Halloween bags across America. It’s a place where generations of entrepreneurs have not only preserved what they inherited but sought to ensure that beloved products remain available for new generations to enjoy. Hall of Giants exists to celebrate towns like Bryan and companies like Spangler. We honor entrepreneurs whose names deserve to be remembered alongside the products and companies they created. This week the Hall of Giants will be on the road for the US250 Tour in Bryan, Ohio – celebrating entrepreneurs just like those that started Spangler Candy. So, the next time you see a Dum Dum (and we guarantee you will!) remember who makes it, and where.
PS. Stop by and see us this weekend! On July 24th & 25th we will be at Cattle Creek Farm at 10277 County Road D with our traveling exhibit. Find more details here!