Entrepreneur. Russell Stover received recognition as an American candy maker, as of 1923, the name "Russell Stover" has been found on a box of chocolates. During these years, his candy company became a multi-million-dollar enterprise. On July 31, 1921, Stover made an agreement with Christian Kent Nelson to make the first American ice cream dessert, a vanilla ice cream bar on a stick covered with milk chocolate. Stover had experience with making candy as he had worked in three candy factories. The product was named "Eskimo Pie" by Stover's wife. According to the "New York Times," their company was very successful, with each partner earning $30,000 a week in royalties in the first year. On January 24, 1922, the patent for a candy product was issued. Even with thousands of dollars of legal fees, they could not prevent others from manufacturing the ice cream dessert under another name with or without a stick. Frustrated with the situation, Stover sold his part of the company for $25,000. The patent was declared invalid by 1928. In 2021, the name "Eskimo Pie" was changed to "Edy's Pie" after a protest of the original name not being culturally appropriated to these indigenous people. The Stovers moved to Denver, Colorado where they began "Mrs. Stover's Bungalow Candies." In 1931, they moved their business to Kansas City, Missouri with the headquarters at 1206 Main Street. They soon had candy stores in various states. Even during the Great Depression, there was still a demand for hand-dipped chocolates. With the opening of a third candy factory, the name was officially changed to Russell Stover Candies in 1943. By the time of Stover's death, his Kansas City-based company was selling 11 million pounds of candy annually through 40 Russell Stover shops and in about 2,000 department stores. Russell Stover died in 1954, but his wife carried on the candy business until selling the company to the man, who supplied the candy boxes. In 1993, Russell Stover acquired Whitman's, one of the oldest chocolate brands in the United States, which was founded in 1842. In 2014 a Swiss company that makes premium chocolates, Lindt & Sprungli, acquired Russell Stover Candies and Whitman's Candies, a business worth $500 million. Born to ancestors who came to the United States from Prussia in 1722, Stover studied chemistry at Iowa State University after high school. After only a year of college, he left to take a job as a sales representative for the American Tobacco Company. The next year he and Clara Lewis, a farmer's daughter, married, and the couple began the life of farmers on a 530-acre farm in Canada, which had been a wedding present. Within a few years, the farm failed, the couple returned to the United States where he found employment at a candy factory, thus begins his candy career.