Pangburn's Candy
Source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection [AR406-6 02/09/1965 #5041, scan 10013965, Dale Blackwell, photographer]
Valentine’s Day is less than a week away. Store shelves are lined with red heart-shaped boxes of chocolates, bouquets of flowers fill the air with the sweet smell of springtime, and greeting cards offer poems of love and endearment. Pangburn Millionaires, still a favorite Valentine treat, originated in Fort Worth when Hugh T. Pangburn introduced an ice cream and candy line to his drug store in 1914, becoming Fort Worth’s original candy company. From 1920-1925, Pangburn also owned and operated Pangburn’s Cafeteria where customers enjoyed candies in addition to lunches, cigars, sodas, and bakery goods.
The recipe for Pangburn’s Millionaires included Texas pecans, caramel, milk chocolate, and just a touch of honey. The squiggles on top of each piece of candy indicated the type of filling inside. Still making the chocolates by hand, Pangburn’s added a conveyor belt line to its manufacturing plant in the 1960s to increase the speed of production. An experienced worker could dip more than 100 pieces an hour. Pictured here are two Pangburn chocolate artists putting the finishing touches to dipped chocolates on February 9, 1965.
The Pangburn Candy Co. closed in February 1999. Russell Stover Candies acquired the trademarks just a month later. Pangburn Millionaires are now produced at the Russell Stover manufacturing plant in Corsicana.
The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries offers a rich and diverse collection of materials on the history of Texas and the Southwest. Each week, readers get a glimpse of the past with an image from Special Collections. 817-272-3393; library.uta.edu/special-collections.