Well, perhaps not entirely logically.
Having grown up in California, and having lived the first three years of my life
just across a busy street from a See's Candies store, I was aware that the See
name, at least at an early stage of the company, referred
to real people. I also knew, as a tidbit of common knowledge which by a process
of cultural osmosis probably seeps into most American children, that Hershey's
was started by Milton Hershey (in a town that only later had it's name changed
to Hershey). It thus stood to reason that Ms. Secord was the matriarch of a Canadian
chocolate producing family. She wasn't. The name Laura Secord was chosen by the
Canadian entrepreneur Frank O'Connor, probably as an attempt to capitalize on
Canadian nationalism. The American branch of the same company was named after
an American woman known for her very popular cookbooks and nutritional advice,
Fannie Farmer.
On one level, reasoning that a chocolate company bears a family name, though in
this case incorrect, is quite logical. It isn't, however, obvious. Granny Goose,
after all, is the name of a potato chip producing company, but this wasn't a family
business founded by a patriarch named Mr. Goose (though the company was purchased
by Laura Scudder, which was a family brand). Two brothers by the name of
McDonald actually opened the first McDonald's hamburger restaurant, but the success
of the franchise is usually credited to Ray Kroc who opened the ninth McDonald's.
Go to: Bad Netizenship.