Coca-Cola - History - 19th Century Historical Origins

19th Century Historical Origins

The prototype Coca-Cola recipe was formulated at the Eagle Drug and Chemical Company, a drugstore in Columbus, Georgia, by John Pemberton, originally as a coca wine called Pemberton's French Wine Coca. He may have been inspired by the formidable success of Vin Mariani, a European coca wine.

In 1886, when Atlanta and Fulton County passed prohibition legislation, Pemberton responded by developing Coca-Cola, essentially a nonalcoholic version of French Wine Coca. The first sales were at Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 8, 1886. It was initially sold as a patent medicine for five cents a glass at soda fountains, which were popular in the United States at the time due to the belief that carbonated water was good for the health. Pemberton claimed Coca-Cola cured many diseases, including morphine addiction, dyspepsia, neurasthenia, headache, and impotence. Pemberton ran the first advertisement for the beverage on May 29 of the same year in the Atlanta Journal.

By 1888, three versions of Coca-Cola – sold by three separate businesses – were on the market. A copartnership had been formed on January 14, 1888 between Pemberton and four Atlanta businessmen: J.C. Mayfield, A.O. Murphey; C.O. Mullahy and E.H. Bloodworth. Not codified by any signed document, a verbal statement given by Asa Candler years later asserted under testimony that he had acquired a stake in Pemberton's company as early as 1887.

Asa Candler, however, eventually took on a more formal position by being part of the Coca-Cola Company incorporation filed in the Fulton County Superior Court on March 24, 1888. This action included Charley Pemberton and Woolfolk Walker, along with the latter's sister, Margaret Dozier. The four made up the original shareholders for "Coca-Cola Company," a Georgia corporation. All parties held copies of the Coca-Cola recipe and could continue to use the formula separate of each other.

Pemberton, though, had declared that the name "Coca-Cola" belonged solely to his son Charley. The situation was quite agitating to both Candler and Walker, and quickly placed the two at odds with Charley Pemberton. What further caused friction over this issue was that John Pemberton variously forgot he had actually signed over the sole rights to the "Coca-Cola" name to his son Charley earlier. Pemberton's ongoing health problems, compounded by his morphine addiction brought about from his old Civil War injury, made the situation difficult.

Charley Pemberton's record of control over the "Coca-Cola" name was the underlying factor that allowed for him to participate as a major shareholder in the March 1888 Coca-Cola Company incorporation filing made in his father's place. More so for Candler especially, Charley's position holding exclusive control over the "Coca Cola" name continued to be a thorn in his side.

Asa Candler's oldest son, Charles Howard Candler, authored a book in 1950 published by Emory University. In this definitive biography about his father, Candler specifically states: "..., on April 14, 1888, the young druggist purchased a one-third interest in the formula of an almost completely unknown proprietary elixir known as Coca-Cola."

The deal was actually between John Pemberton's son Charley and Walker, Candler & Co. - with John Pemberton acting as cosigner for his son. For $50 down and $500 in 30 days, Walker, Candler & Co. obtained all of the one-third interest in the Coca-Cola Company that Charley held, all while Charley still held on to the name. After the April 14th deal, on April 17, 1888, one-half of the Walker/Dozier interest shares were acquired by Candler for an additional $750.

Charles Howard Candler's statement that April 14, 1888 was the date his father secured a "one-third interest in the formula" held by Charley Pemberton for the then obscure Coca-Cola elixir, none-the-less confirms this event was a major turning point for Asa Candler and his interests in Coca-Cola. This, too, was a most auspicious occasion that Asa Candler would have especially wanted to preserve in an 'official' photograph. By this time the "Coca-Cola" syrup-making apparatus had already been moved from Joe Jacob's pharmacy to the basement of Candler's larger 47 Peachtree Street location, where the drink's ever increasing syrup-bottling demands could be better handled.

In 1910, Asa Candler had ordered all corporate documents pertaining to the first Coca-Cola Company burned. An original 1888 photograph shows the very beginnings of the Coca Cola Company, and formerly was the personal property of Asa Griggs Candler.

In 1914, Margaret Dozier, as co-owner of the original Coca-Cola Company in 1888, brazenly came forward to claim her signature on the 1888 Coca-Cola Company bill of sale had been forged. Subsequent analysis of certain similar transfer documents had also indicated John Pemberton's signature was most likely a forgery, as well, which some accounts claim was precipitated by his son Charley.

In 1892, Candler set out to incorporate a second company; "The Coca-Cola Company" (the current corporation). When Candler had the earliest records of the "Coca-Cola Company" burned in 1910, the action was claimed to have been made during a move to new corporation offices around this time.

The loss of the early corporate records further obscured the 1888 corporation's legal origins. Only one sole original "ASA G. CANDLER & CO." photograph from 1888 remains, and that example Candler at one time kept at his private home outside of Atlanta.

After Candler had gained a better foothold of Coca-Cola in April 1888, he nevertheless was forced to sell the beverage he produced with the recipe he had under the names "Yum Yum" and "Koke". This was while Charley Pemberton was selling the elixir, although a cruder mixture, under the name "Coca-Cola", all with his father's blessing. After both names failed to catch on for Candler, by the summer of 1888, the Atlanta pharmacist was quite anxious to establish a firmer legal claim to Coca-Cola, and hoped he could force his two competitors, Walker and Dozier, completely out of the business, as well.

When Dr. John Stith Pemberton suddenly died on August 16, 1888, Asa G. Candler now sought to move swiftly forward to attain his vision of taking full control of the whole Coca-Cola operation.

Charley Pemberton, an alcoholic, was the one obstacle who unnerved Asa Candler more than anyone else. Candler is said to have quickly maneuvered to purchase the exclusive rights to the name "Coca-Cola" from Pemberton's son Charley right after Dr. Pemberton's death. One of several stories was that Candler bought the title to the name from Charley's mother for $300; approaching her at Dr. Pemberton's funeral. Eventually, Charley Pemberton was found on June 23, 1894, unconscious, with a stick of opium by his side. Ten days later, Charley died at Atlanta's Grady Hospital at the age of 40.

In Charles Howard Candler's 1950 book about his father, he stated: "On August 30th {1888}, he {Asa Candler} became sole proprietor of Cola-Cola, a fact which was stated on letterheads, invoice blanks and advertising copy."

With this action on August 30, 1888, Candler's sole control became technically all true. Candler had negotiated with Margaret Dozier and her brother Woolfolk Walker a full payment amounting to $1,000, which all agreed Candler could pay off with a series of notes over a specified time span. By May 1, 1889, Candler was now claiming full ownership of the Coca-Cola beverage, with a total investment outlay by Candler for the drink enterprise over the years amounting to $2,300.

According to all previous histories about Coca-Cola, one early account claimed that Coca-Cola was sold in bottles for the first time on March 12, 1894. The event witnessing the first commercial sale of bottled Coca-Cola however actually took place a few years before, in early 1891. The concept was actually brainstormed by Asa Candler in late 1890.

Asa Candler first made the bottled drink available at his Asa G. Candler & Co., 47 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, Georgia pharmacy location, with the first ever advertisements documenting bottled Coca-Cola found in Grier's Almanac issued in January of 1891. Large bottles of Coca-Cola were "Sold by Druggists and Grocers at 25 Cents per Bottle." The drink also contained the coca-leaf drug extract, which was cited in a banner advertisement atop one of the calendar pages in the 1891 Grier's Almanac. Asa Candler had proclaimed himself "sole proprietor" by this time, after having paid off the financial notes due on the outstanding shares of the original Coca-Cola Company held by Woolfolk Walker and Margaret Dozier.

The first bottling of Coca-Cola outside of Atlanta occurred in Vicksburg, Mississippi, at the Biedenharn Candy Company in 1891. The proprietor of the bottling works was Joseph A. Biedenharn. The original bottles were Biedenharn bottles, very different from the much later hobble-skirt design now so familiar.

Asa Candler was tentative about bottling the drink, but two entrepreneurs from Chattanooga, Tennessee, Benjamin F. Thomas and Joseph B. Whitehead, proposed the idea and were so persuasive that Candler signed a contract giving them control of the procedure for only one dollar. Candler never collected his dollar, but in 1899, Chattanooga became the site of the first Coca-Cola bottling company. The loosely termed contract proved to be problematic for the company for decades to come. Legal matters were not helped by the decision of the bottlers to subcontract to other companies, effectively becoming parent bottlers.

The first outdoor wall advertisement that promoted the Coca-Cola drink was painted in 1894. in Cartersville, Georgia.

Coke concentrate, or Coke syrup, was and is sold separately at pharmacies in small quantities, as an over-the-counter remedy for nausea or mildly upset stomach.