TSHA Home Publications Education Events Southwestern Historical Quarterly The Handbook of Texas Online About Us News Site Search Contact Us Giving Opportunities Links FAQ Join the TSHA
skip to content
TSHA Online Home
Texas Day by Day

July 6, 1923


Dr Pepper incorporates

On this day in 1923, the Dr Pepper Company was incorporated in Dallas. Dr Pepper was first made in Waco in 1885. Wade Morrison, owner of Morrison's Old Corner Drug, employed a pharmacist named Charles Alderton, who, when not filling prescriptions, often served soft drinks to customers. Alderton enjoyed experimenting with various combinations of fruit extracts and sweeteners. One combination, later to become Dr Pepper, proved enormously popular with patrons. Morrison named the beverage after Dr. Charles T. Pepper, a physician and pharmacist for whom Morrison had worked in Virginia. Today Dr Pepper is an operating company of Dr Pepper/Seven Up, based in Plano. A collection of Dr Pepper memorabilia forms the core of the Dr Pepper Museum and Free Enterprise Institute, which opened in Waco in 1991.

Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
DR PEPPER COMPANY
SOFT-DRINK INDUSTRY

Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
Order of the Sons of Hermann founded (1861)
Wealthiest antebellum planter dies (1878)
Civil rights leader Lulu White dies (1957)


Copyright © Texas State Historical Association    Published by the Texas State Historical Association and distributed
in partnership with Holt, Rinehart and Winston, a Harcourt Education Company
Terms of Use   Comment/Contact   Policy Agreement   Updated: May 15, 08