Fillmore County Flashback – The Preston to “Mars” Connection

By Joanne Hall

Preston Historical Society

Ethel Veronica Healy was born in 1884 at Grafton, N. Dak. Her father died when she young, and her mother, Mary Healy, moved to Preston and married Louis Kruppenbacher in November 1892.  Ethel  graduated from Preston High School in 1904.  She taught in Fillmore County rural schools for at least a couple of years following graduation. 

In 1910 Ethel married Frank C. Mars, presumably in Washington state. Frank Mars attempted several times to start a candy business selling homemade chocolates but each attempt failed. They returned to Minnesota in 1920, again selling candy from a one room factory in Minneapolis.  In 1923, he made the Milky Way formula and by 1930, Mars Inc. of Chicago was one of the nation’s largest candy makers.  They enjoyed great wealth as a result. 

Frank Mars died at age 50 in 1934.  Ethel, as president of the company, turned the operation of Mars Co. over to her half-brother William L. (Slip) Kruppenbacher of Preston.  Ethel developed a racing stable and in 1940 her horse Gallahadian won the Kentucky Derby.  

Around 1940, Ethel’s stepson Forrest Mars, the son of Frank Mars’ first marriage, returned home from England with a plan to mass produce sugar coated pellets of chocolate like those that were made in Europe.  Forrest invited Bruce Murrie, a son of Hershey’s president, to join in the venture of making the candies they called “M&M’s” after their initials. An article in the Preston Republican and Lanesboro Leader of  June 17, 1987, stated “M&M Candy Has a Double Link with Preston” in that “M&M Candies in Chicago are the largest users of the (dry) milk powder produced in the Preston plant” (of Wisconsin Dairies).

On Christmas Day, 1945, Ethel Mars died at age 61 in LaJolla, Calif.  A high Mass was held in her memory at the Catholic Church in Preston, where she had given a new altar and furnishings in memory of her mother, Mary Kruppenbacher Zilisch, who died in 1938.  Ethel Healy Mars is buried in Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis with her husband. 

After her death, William (Slip) Kruppenbacher was elected president and chairman of the board of Mars Co.  He was born in Preston in 1894 and graduated from Preston High School in 1913.  The nickname of “Slip” was earned when he played semi-pro baseball as a young man.  He had the ability to “slip” onto the base, thus the nickname.  He died in River Forest, Ill., on November 28, 1963, and his body was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery in Preston. 

Two sources for this information are from articles written by Ruth Liverance for the Preston Republican and Lanesboro Leader (“M&M Candy Has a Double Link with Preston” June 17, 1987) and by Debra J. Richardson, former Director of the Fillmore County Historical Society.