John Stith Pemberton was born on July 8th, 1831, in Georgia. He studied medicine; however, his interests and talents lay in the field of chemistry. By the age of 19 Pemberton had earned his medical degree. Three years later he married Ann Eliza Clifford Lewis, with their first and only child, a son, Charles arriving a year later. Pemberton practiced medicine and surgery before returning to his love of chemistry and opening a drugstore in Columbus Georgia. This may very well have been the end of the story. Another American family going about their day to day lives, happy and uneventful. Sometimes outside forces intervene however, and completely alter someone’s life, and that alteration can have effects that have an impact on the world.
The American Civil War broke out in 1861, and Pemberton’s sympathies lay with his home state of Georgia which supported the Confederate army. He was a member of the Georgia State Guard and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Third Georgia Cavalry Battalion. During one of the final battles of the Civil War, the Battle of Columbus, fought April 16, 1865, John Pemberton suffered a near fatal sabre wound to the chest. Surgeons were able to save his life, but John found the wound extremely painful and began taking morphine, to make himself more comfortable. Unfortunately, this led to an opioid addiction.
Embarrassed by his addiction John Pemberton decided to try to find a cure. He began experimenting with painkillers that would serve as alternatives to morphine. His first recipe was “Dr. Tuggle’s Compound Syrup of Globe Flower”. It was made from the buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis), however the addiction remained so he moved on to experimenting with the coca plant, which cocaine is now derived from. He eventually came up with a mixture made of coca leaves, wine, and the kola nut, naming it “Pemberton’s French Wine Coca” which he’d based on Vin Mariani, a French coca wine formula. He marketed it as a cure for depression, emotional anxiety, nervous prostration, “neurasthenia” among “highly-strung” Southern women and an aphrodisiac. It soon became very popular. Once again Pemberton’s course was to be altered by outside forces.
Due to the high incidence of alcohol addiction among Civil War veterans, Atlanta and Fulton County enacted temperance legislation, which meant that the residents of the counties were prohibited from producing, buying, or selling alcohol. Pemberton was once again forced to change his recipe. He enlisted the aid of another pharmacist, Willis Venable to help him come up with a non- alcoholic version of his wine. Pemberton had already worked out the base syrup, and during testing, Venable accidentally added carbonated water to one of the samples. It was tested on customers, and the pair decided to sell their new beverage as a fountain drink rather than as a brain tonic, selling it at a nickel a glass. The beverage, which you’ve probably already guessed, was named Coca Cola, based on it’s two main ingredients. The name was thought up by Pemberton’s bookkeeper Frank Robinson, who by the way also had very fancy penmanship, and came up with the first scripted “Coca-Cola” using the flowing letters that serve as the logo still used today. The first glass of Coca-Cola was sold on May 8, 1886.
Unfortunately for Pemberton, none of his experiments with pain relivers worked, and he was still suffering from an expensive opioid addiction. He was almost bankrupt, and his health was failing. Coca-Cola was slow starting. It realized $50 worth of sales in it’s first year, however cost $70 to produce. Desperate for money, Pemberton began selling off portions of his company to his partners and investors. John Pemberton wanted to retain a portion of the company for his son Charles who oversaw production of Coca-Cola, so while he allowed other companies to use his syrup, he retained the use of the name Coca-Cola. John passed away August of 1888 of stomach cancer. By this time, his son Charles had also developed a morphine addiction, and was more interested in the money than the company, so Charles decided to sell the remainder of the patent to Asa Candler for $1750. Six years later Charles passed away from an opium overdose.
Under the leadership of Asa Candler, the Coca-Cola Company was changed into the Coca-Cola Corporation, and went on to become the world’s leading manufacturer and retailer of soft drinks.
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