When we think of inventors, we are most likely to think of men’s names. In fact, most patents in the USA and globally have been awarded to men and groups of men. Of course, not all inventions go through the steps of becoming patented, so we may not be aware of many inventions until they become part of our everyday lives, as the chocolate chip cookie has thanks to Ruth Graves Wakefield.
Wakefield was born as Ruth Jones Graves on June 17, 1903, in East Walpole and was raised in Easton, Massachusetts. Her parents were Fred Graves and Helen Vest Jones Graves. After graduating from Oliver Ames High School in 1920, she went on to Framingham State Normal School of Household Arts, which was the first state-supported school for teachers in the USA. The 1920s was a period of expansion at the school allowing student to specialize as well as get a more general liberal arts background. Wakefield earned her degree in 1924. She worked as a home economics teacher at Brockton High School as well as a hospital dietitian and then later as a customer service director at a local utility company.
Wakefield married her husband, Kenneth Donald Wakefield, a meatpacking company executive, in 1926. In 1928, they had a son named after his father and then a daughter, Mary, in 1942. The reason for the wide gap between children may have related to their business, the Toll House Inn, and to the Great Depression, which began in 1929 and lasted until 1939, depending on which historian you consult. The Wakefields made a bold choice in 1930 when they purchased a literal toll house in the Cape Code style just outside Whitman, Massachusetts. Their life’s savings were in that venture, but it would prove to be a great decision, expanding from just seven to 60 tables and becoming regionally famous for its food, particularly the desserts.
The Inn was so popular and Wakefield’s food so beloved that she put out a cookbook in 1931 under her own name. Given that the Great Depression was still in full swing, a successful business that justified putting out a cookbook is a testament to her and her husband’s business savvy. That cookbook would go on to have 39 printings and updates, including one recipe you are likely familiar with: the Toll House Cookie.
In 1933, Wakefield developed a new type of cookie which used a butter cookie dough base but also pieces of broken up Nestlé chocolate. She called them Toll House Crunch Cookies or Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookies, but you probably know about them from the packages of Toll House Real Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels, which were created in 1939 per agreement between Nestlé, a major chocolate company in the USA, and Wakefield. What did she get for her recipe that was so famous that a major company created a brand for it and renamed her recipe? Only a lifetime supply of chocolate and some minor fame, though she did take on a paid consulting role at Nestlé in their recipe creation department.
The story of how Wakefield created her famous cookies varies. Some sources say that the idea for a chocolatey cookie was planned, while other sources depict it as an accident based on time and available ingredients. It was probably a bit of both; as any baker or cook will tell you, the best made plans must bend to the ingredients and time you have. The recipe would not only appear in newspapers and on the back of the Nestlé Toll House baking chips bag, but in later editions of her cookbook.
While she is now best known for this one recipe, we should not forget her other achievements, both before and after she was married. She lived to be 74 years old, dying in 1977. The Wakefields sold their Inn in 1967 or 1966 (sources vary) and retired, but the Inn continued as a restaurant and added a museum area to commemorate its famous history. Sadly, the Inn burned down at the end of 1984. Today you can see a sign and historic plaque about the building, and Wakefield has been rediscovered as the inventor of one of America’s favorite cookies.