Ruth Jones Graves was born on June 17, 1903, in East Walpole, Massachusetts, and she was raised in Easton. She attended the Framingham State School of Household Arts, now Framingham State University. Upon graduation in 1924, Ruth taught home economics at Brockton High School, and also worked as a hospital dietitian and a customer service representative for a utility company. She married Kenneth Wakefield, a meat packing executive, in 1928.
After having two children, Ruth and her husband decided to purchase a historic building in Whitman, Plymouth County. The building had allegedly served as a toll house as early as 1709. Kenneth and Ruth decided to turn the building into a lodge, naming the new business the Toll House Inn. Word of Ruth’s culinary skill spread, and the Inn grew from seven to more than 60 tables.
In 1938, Ruth tried to improve her butter drop cookie recipe in the Toll House Inn kitchen. She tried adding chopped pieces of a Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate bar, expecting the chocolate to melt evenly into the dough. Instead, the chocolate held its shape, creating soft chocolate pockets in the cookie. She named her creation the “Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookie,” and it quickly became a favorite among guests at the Inn.
The cookie’s unique flavor and texture became widely popular, bringing significant attention to the Toll House Inn, and Ruth included the recipe in a revised edition of her 1931 cookbook, Toll House Tried and True Recipes. As demand for the recipe increased, Nestlé approached Ruth to offer a partnership. In 1939, the parties agreed that Nestlé would print her recipe on their packaging, and Ruth would receive a lifetime supply of Nestlé chocolate, and $1 for the rights. Nestlé began producing pre-scored chocolate bars to make chopping easier, and subsequently introduced the first chocolate chips for baking.
What made the popularity of the cookie truly soar was World War II. The Toll House chocolate chip cookies were included in care packages sent to Massachusetts troops overseas, who were sharing the cookies with fellow servicemen from other states. In response, the Toll House Inn began receiving letters from all over the country requesting that the cookie care packages including Toll House cookies be sent to troops from other states. Quickly, the treat gained massive popularity.
Ruth retired in 1966 and sold the Toll House. She died in 1977, in Plymouth Massachusetts. Seven years later, in 1984, the Toll House burned down. In 1997, the chocolate chip cookie became the Massachusetts Official State Cookie, honoring its invention in the state.