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From Pharmacy to Pop: Tracing the Inventor of Coca-Cola

The Coca-Cola Company produces Coca-Cola, sometimes known as Coke, which is a carbonated soft drink. More than 1.8 billion servings of Coke beverages were consumed daily by customers in more than 200 countries in 2013. On the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the biggest American companies by total revenue, Coca-Cola came in at number 87. In 2020, Coca-Cola ranked as the sixth most valuable brand in the world according to Interbrand’s “best global brand” research.

It was created by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta, Georgia, in the late 19th century to be a patent medicine and was initially promoted as a temperance beverage. Asa Griggs Candler, a businessman whose marketing strategies helped Coca-Cola achieve its dominance of the world soft drink market throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, purchased the ownership rights to Coca-Cola from Pemberton in 1888. The name of the beverage alludes to two of its original components: coca leaves and caffeine-rich kola nuts.

John Stith Pemberton, an American pharmacist and Confederate States Army soldier who lived from July 8, 1831, to August 16, 1888, is most remembered for creating Coca-Cola. He created an early form of the beverage that would eventually become Coca-Cola in May 1886, but he sold the rights to the product shortly before he passed away in 1888.

1. The Battle Columbus 

The Union’s “Wilson’s Raid” assault into Alabama and Georgia ended with the Battle of Columbus, Georgia (April 16, 1865) during the last full month of the American Civil War.

Major General James H. Wilson had been given the command to eliminate Columbus because it was a significant Confederate manufacturing hub. He took advantage of the enemy’s confusion as forces from opposing sides converged in the dark on the same bridge and the garrison halted its cannon fire. Wilson destroyed the city the following morning and captured numerous captives.

During the War, Pemberton was struck in the chest by a saber during the Battle of Columbus in April 1865. The morphine he used to relieve his discomfort quickly led to his addiction.

2. Pemberton’s French Wine Coca

John Pemberton.jpg , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

He started experimenting with medications that would serve as morphine-free substitutes for morphine in 1866 in an effort to overcome his addiction. The active ingredient in his first concoction, “Dr. Tuggle’s Compound Syrup of Globe Flower,” was from the poisonous buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis). He then started experimenting with coca and coca wines, eventually developing a formula he named Pemberton’s French Wine Coca that comprised kola nut and damiana extracts.

Pemberton stated in his 1885 interview with the Atlanta Journal that the drink would be helpful for “scientists, scholars, poets, divines, lawyers, physicians, and others devoted to extreme mental exertion.” When temperance laws were passed in Atlanta and Fulton County in 1885, Pemberton hurried to create a non-alcoholic version of his well-known drink.

The inclusion of coca was unaffected by the temperance laws; it remained in the recipe until the early 20th century, when it was eliminated on Asa Candler’s orders. Coca leaf extract with the cocaine removed is still one of the flavors in Coca-Cola today.

Pemberton advertised his French Wine Coca as a patent medication and claimed amazing medical properties for it. Most of the upper class intellectuals who were suffering from illnesses that were thought to have been caused by urbanization and Atlanta’s more competitive economic environment were targeted by the marketing of French Wine Coca.

The drink was promoted as a treatment for impotence, dyspepsia, dyspepsia-induced gastroparesis, mental and physical tiredness, stomach irritation, wasting disorders, constipation, headache, neurasthenia, and nerve problems. It was also advocated as a treatment for morphine addiction, which became more widespread following the American Civil War.

Pemberton first sold a glass of his beverage on May 8, 1886, at Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia. With carbonated water, it was offered as a fountain drink. As the drink gained popularity, Frank M. Robinson, Pemberton’s business partner, suggested the name “Coca-Cola” based on its components.

3. Duplicate coca-cola products

Three different Coca-Cola brands, distributed by three different companies, were on the market by 1888. On January 14, 1888, Pemberton and four businessmen from Atlanta—J.C. Mayfield, A.O. Murphey, C.O. Mullahy, and E.H. Bloodworth—formed a co-partnership.

Asa Candler claimed under oath that he had bought an interest in Pemberton’s business as early as 1887, despite the fact that his claim was not supported by any written documents. The formula could still be used by the other two producers, according to John Pemberton, who claimed that the term “Coca-Cola” belonged to his son Charley.

The fundamental reason Charley Pemberton was permitted to take part as a significant shareholder in his father’s place in the March 1888 Coca-Cola Company incorporation file was due to his history of ownership of the “Coca-Cola” name. Asa Candler had to deal with Charley’s monopoly of the “Coca-Cola” name on a constant basis.

4. The Coca-cola Company

Candler set sought to incorporate the Coca-Cola Company, the current corporation, in 1892. It was asserted that the decision to have the earliest records of the “Coca-Cola Company” destroyed in 1910 was made during the transition to new corporate offices.

Candler was forced to market the beverage he made using the recipe he possessed under the names “Yum Yum” and “Koke” even after he had improved his position against Coca-Cola in April 1888. With his father’s approval, Charley Pemberton began marketing the elixir under the name “Coca-Cola” despite using a less refined blend.

By the middle of 1888, both identities had fallen flat for Candler. The Atlanta pharmacist was eager to forge a stronger legal relationship with Coca-Cola in an effort to drive Walker and Dozier, his two rivals, out of business.

5. The Death Of John Pemberton

Pemberton’s health gradually declined, and on August 16, 1888, he passed suddenly at the age of 57. Pemberton helped to create Coca-Cola, but he did not survive to see the enormous success his innovation would have.

6. Wrangling over the rights of Coca-cola

Asa Candler then made the decision to act quickly in order to seize complete control over the entire Coca-Cola enterprise.

More than anybody else, Charley Pemberton, an alcoholic and opium user, made Asa Candler uncomfortable. After learning of Dr. Pemberton’s passing, Candler is believed to have moved swiftly to acquire the sole rights to the term “Coca-Cola” from Pemberton’s son Charley.

Candler allegedly approached Charley’s mother during John Pemberton’s burial and made a financial offer of $300 in exchange for the right to the name, according to one of several tales. On June 23, 1894, an unconscious Charley Pemberton was discovered with a stick of opium by his side. At the age of 40, Charley passed away ten days later at Grady Hospital in Atlanta.

As a co-owner of the original Coca-Cola Company in 1888, Margaret Dozier came out in 1914 and alleged that her signature on the company’s bill of sale from that year had been falsified. Later examination of additional transfer documents of a same sort revealed that John Pemberton’s signature had also likely been forgeried, a development that some accounts attribute to his son Charley.

7. Acquiring of Coca-cola Company by new people

A consortium of investors led by Ernest Woodruff’s Trust Company paid $25 million for Coca-Cola Co. on September 12, 1919, and the company was reincorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law. For $40 per share, the business made 500,000 shares of stock available to the public.

Robert W. Woodruff, his son, was chosen to lead the business in 1923. Woodruff grew the business and spread Coca-Cola throughout the world. Coca-Cola started offering “Six-packs” of bottles to customers as a way to entice them to buy the beverage for their house.

Today, Coca-Cola is among the most well-known brands in the world, with a wide variety of products sold in more than 200 nations. While Pemberton’s original recipe for Coca-Cola has evolved through time, his creation marked the start of a global phenomenon that went beyond its medicinal roots to become a beloved soft drink loved by millions of people across the world.

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