Born in East Walpole, Massachusetts, United States
Ancestors 
Daughter of Fred Luther Graves
and Helen Vesta (Jones) Wakefield
[sibling(s) unknown]
Wife of
Kenneth Donald Wakefield Sr
— married
[date unknown] [location unknown]
Mother of
Kenneth Donald Wakefield II
Died
at age 73
in Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States
Profile last modified
| Created 3 Mar 2009
This page has been accessed 25,493 times.
Biography
Ruth (Graves) Wakefield is Notable.
Ruth Graves Wakefield, born 17 June 1903, in East Walpole, Massachusetts, to Fred Graves and Helen Jones, was the inventor of the chocolate chip cookie.
In 1924, Ruth received her schooling at the Framingham State Normal School Department of Household Arts. She went on to work as a dietician and gave lectures about food. In 1930, she and husband Kenneth Donald Wakefield purchased a tourist lodge in Whitman, Massachusetts. The inn, located halfway between New Bedford and Boston, was a place where historically passengers would pay a toll, change horses and eat home-cooked meals.
Ruth and Kenneth named the place The Toll House Inn. Ruth cooked and served all the food and soon gained local fame and popularity for her desserts. Among the many visitors to frequent the Toll House Inn was then Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy.
Wakefield invented the chocolate chip cookie around 1938 and it soon become very popular. She stated she created it intentionally, saying, "We had been serving a thin butterscotch nut cookie with ice cream. Everybody seemed to love it, but I was trying to give them something different. So I came up with Toll House cookie."
Ruth eventually gave Nestlé the right to use her cookie recipe and the Toll House name for one dollar. Nestlé then began selling chocolate chips designed specifically to be used in chocolate chip cookies. The chocolate chip cookie became the most popular variety of cookie in America.
Her Children: Kenneth D. Wakefield Jr. born 1928 and died May 31, 1993. Also a daughter.
The Toll House Inn in Mass. burned in 1984.
Sources
- Wikipedia: Ruth Graves Wakefield
- This WikiTree profile is referenced from Wikidata: Item Q3453622, en:Wikipedia
See also: Find A Grave: Memorial #3065
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- Does exist any Ruth Wakefield Grave's relative? Jan 16, 2013.
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[Living Tardy]
Ruth was born in Easton, not East Walpole. Birth record: "Massachusetts Births, 1841-1915," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FX4B-93K : 10 March 2018), Ruth Jones Graves, 17 Jun 1903, Easton, Massachusetts; citing reference ID #v 532 p 164 no 51, Massachusetts Archives, Boston; FHL microfilm 2,057,389.
posted
by [Living Tardy]
Rejected matches › Ruth M Grove (1904-)
Featured National Park champion connections: Ruth is 17 degrees from Theodore Roosevelt, 24 degrees from Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, 17 degrees from George Catlin, 21 degrees from Marjory Douglas, 27 degrees from Sueko Embrey, 16 degrees from George Grinnell, 29 degrees from Anton Kröller, 17 degrees from Stephen Mather, 26 degrees from Kara McKean, 18 degrees from John Muir, 20 degrees from Victoria Hanover and 30 degrees from Charles Young on our single family tree. Login to find your connection.
G > Graves | W > Wakefield > Ruth Jones (Graves) Wakefield
Categories: Mayflower Cemetery, Duxbury, Massachusetts | Notables | Food History | Massachusetts, Inventors