AKA Charles Courtice Alderton

Born: 21-Jun-1857
Birthplace: Brooklyn, NY
Died: 29-May-1941
Location of death: Waco, TX
Cause of death: unspecified
Remains: Buried, Oakwood Cemetery, Waco, TX

Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Occupation: Inventor, Chemist, Doctor

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Invented Dr Pepper

Charles Alderton was born in Brooklyn, attended school in England, studied medicine in Texas, and worked as a pharmacist in Waco, in a shop called Morrison's Old Corner Drug Store. When sales began lagging at the shop's soda fountain, Alderton began experimenting with fruit extracts, syrups, and "mystic spices" until he came upon a 23-ingredient combination that delighted him and his business partner, Wade Morrison. First sold on 1 December 1885 (about a year before Coca-Cola was introduced) it was simply called Doc Alderton's Drink or "The Waco", until Morrison gave the concoction its now-familiar name, Dr Pepper. Sales were brisk, but when the beverage's popularity outgrew the drug store's capacity, Alderton decided that he wanted to be a doctor and druggist, not a soft drink magnate, and he sold the recipe to Morrison. In 1891 Morrison and Robert Lazenby founded the Artesian Manufacturing & Bottling Company, which later became the Dr Pepper Company and is now part of the Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

And who was Dr Pepper? Several myths persist, but the answer with the most evidence behind it seems to be that Morrison had once dated the daughter of a physician whose last name was Pepper, and Alderton and Morrison just liked the sound of the name and appropriated it.

    High School: Framlingham College, Stowmarket, England
    Medical School: MD, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston

    Artesian Manufacturing & Bottling Company Co-Founder (1891)
    Hernia Operation Walter Reed (16-Aug-1939)
    English Ancestry

Do you know something we don't?
Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile

Copyright ©2019 Soylent Communications