John Pemberton
Pemberton, before 1888
Born	(1831-07-08)July 8, 1831 Knoxville, Georgia, U.S.
Died	August 16, 1888(1888-08-16) (aged 57) Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Resting place	Old City Cemetery
Nationality	American
Education	Reform Medical College of Georgia
Occupation	Pharmacist
Known for	Inventor of Coca-Cola
Spouse	Ann Eliza Clifford Lewis
Children	Charles Nay Pemberton

Military career
Service / branch	Confederate States Army
Years of service	1861–1865
Rank	Lieutenant Colonel
Unit	Third Cavalry Battalion of the Georgia State Guard
Battles / wars	American Civil War Battle of Columbus (WIA)

John Stith Pemberton (July 8, 1831 – August 16, 1888) was an American pharmacist and Confederate States Army veteran who is best known as the inventor of Coca-Cola. On May 8, 1886, he developed an early version of a beverage that would later become Coca-Cola, but sold the rights to the drink shortly before his death in 1888.

He suffered from a sabre wound sustained in April 1865, during the Battle of Columbus. His efforts to control his chronic pain led to morphine addiction. In an attempt to curb his addiction he began to experiment with various painkillers and toxins. The development of an earlier beverage blending alcohol and cocaine led to the recipe that later was adapted to make Coca-Cola.

Background

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Pemberton was born on July 8, 1831, in Knoxville, Georgia, and spent most of his childhood in Rome, Georgia. His parents were James C. Pemberton and Martha L. Gant.^[1]

Pemberton entered the Reform Medical College of Georgia in Macon, Georgia, and in 1850, at the age of nineteen, he earned his medical degree.^[2] His main talent was chemistry.^[3] After initially practicing some medicine and surgery, Pemberton opened a drug store in Columbus.^[2]

During the American Civil War, Pemberton served in the Third Cavalry Battalion of the Georgia State Guard, which was at that time a component of the Confederate Army. He achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel.^[2]

Personal life

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He met Ann Eliza Clifford "Cliff" Lewis of Columbus, Georgia, known to her friends as "Cliff", who had been a student at Wesleyan College in Macon. They were married in Columbus in 1853. Their only child, Charles Nay Pemberton, was born in 1854.

They lived in a Victorian cottage, the Pemberton House in Columbus, a home of historic significance which was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 28, 1971.^[4]^[5]^[6]

Founding Coca-Cola

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In April 1865, Pemberton sustained a sabre wound to the chest during the Battle of Columbus. He soon became addicted to the morphine used to ease his pain.^[7]^[8]^[9]

In 1866, seeking a cure for his addiction, he began to experiment with painkillers that would serve as morphine-free alternatives.^[10]^[11]^[12] His first recipe was "Dr. Tuggle's Compound Syrup of Globe Flower", in which the active ingredient was derived from the buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis), a toxic plant.^[13] He next began experimenting with coca and coca wines, eventually creating a recipe that contained extracts of kola nut and damiana, which he called Pemberton's French Wine Coca.^[14]^[15]

According to Coca-Cola historian Phil Mooney, Pemberton's world-famous soda was created in Columbus, Georgia and carried to Atlanta.^[16] With public concern about drug addiction, depression, and alcoholism among war veterans, and "neurasthenia" among "highly-strung" Southern women,^[17] Pemberton's "medicine" was advertised as particularly beneficial for "ladies, and all those whose sedentary employment causes nervous prostration".^[18]

In 1886, when Atlanta and Fulton County enacted temperance legislation, Pemberton had to produce a non-alcoholic alternative to his French Wine Coca.^[19] Pemberton relied on Atlanta drugstore owner-proprietor Willis E. Venable to test, and help him perfect, the recipe for the beverage, which he formulated by trial and error. With Venable's assistance, Pemberton worked out a set of directions for its preparation.

Standing in the open doorway to the pharmacy, atop the stoop, is John Pemberton in April 1888 at 47 Peachtree Street, Atlanta.^[20]

He blended the base syrup with carbonated water by accident when trying to make another glassful of the beverage. Pemberton decided then to sell this as a fountain drink rather than a medicine. Frank Mason Robinson came up with the name "Coca-Cola" for the alliterative sound, which was popular among other wine medicines of the time. Although the name refers to the two main ingredients, because of controversy over its cocaine content, the Coca-Cola Company later said that the name was "meaningless but fanciful". Robinson handwrote the Spencerian script on the bottles and ads. Pemberton made many health claims for his product, touting it as a "valuable brain tonic" that would cure headaches, relieve exhaustion, and calm nerves, and marketed it as "delicious, refreshing, pure joy, exhilarating", and "invigorating".^[21]

Pemberton sells the business

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Soon after Coca-Cola hit the market, Pemberton fell ill and nearly bankrupt. Sick and desperate, he began selling rights to his formula to his business partners in Atlanta. Part of his motivation to sell was that he still suffered from expensive continuing morphine addiction.^[22] Pemberton had a hunch that his formula "someday will be a national drink," so he attempted to retain a share of the ownership to leave to his son.^[22] However, Pemberton's son wanted the money, so in 1888, Pemberton and his son sold the remaining portion of the patent to a fellow Atlanta pharmacist, Asa Griggs Candler, for $300 (USD),^[2] which in 2022 purchasing power is equal to $9,372.88 (USD).^[23]

Death

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Pemberton died from stomach cancer at the age of 57 on 16 August 1888. At the time of his death, he was poor and had become increasingly addicted to morphine. His body was returned to Columbus, Georgia, where he was buried at Linwood Cemetery. His grave marker is engraved with symbols showing his service in the Confederate Army and his membership as a Freemason. His son Charles continued to sell his father's formula, but six years later Charles Pemberton himself died, having succumbed to opium addiction.^[24]

References

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^ Rome Area History Museum (December 1, 2014). Legendary Locals of Rome. Arcadia Publishing. p. 47. ISBN 978-1-4396-4867-4. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "John Pemberton". Lemelson-MIT Program. Archived from the original on October 5, 2023. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
^ King, Monroe M. "John Stith Pemberton (1831–1888)." New Georgia Encyclopedia. June 13, 2017. Web. September 11, 2017.
^ George B. Griffenhagen, A Guide to Pharmacy Museums and Historical Collections in the United States and Canada, Amer. Inst. History of Pharmacy, 1999, pp. 23–24
^ Alice Cromie, Restored America: A Tour Guide: the Preserved Towns, Villages, and Historic City Districts of the United States and Canada, American Legacy Press, 1979, p. 135 Alice Cromie, Restored towns and historic districts of America: a tour guide, Dutton, 1979, p. 135
^ "National Register Information System – Pemberton House (#71000283)". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 15, 2006. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
^ "Richard Gardiner, "The Civil War Origin of Coca-Cola in Columbus, Georgia", Muscogiana: Journal of the Muscogee Genealogical Society (Spring 2012), Vol. 23: 21–24". Archived from the original on March 25, 2014. Retrieved March 25, 2014.
^ Dominic Streatfeild, Cocaine: An Unauthorized Biography, Macmillan (2003), p. 80.
^ Richard Davenport-Hines, The Pursuit of Oblivion, Norton (2004), p. 152.
^ John McKay, It Happened in Atlanta (Morris Books, 2011), 36.
^ Jeremy Agnew, Alcohol and Opium in the Old West, 173.
^ Albert Jack, They Laughed at Galileo, p. 184
^ "Pemberton's Globe Flower Syrup". Columbus, Georgia: Enquirer. Columbus State University. March 18, 1866. Archived from the original on November 1, 2020. Retrieved April 7, 2025.
^ Dominic Streatfeild, meth: An Unauthorized Biography, Macmillan (2003), p. 80.
^ Richard Davenport-Hines, The Pursuit of Oblivion, Norton (2004), p. 152.
^ "Tim Chitwood, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer". Archived from the original on November 10, 2012. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
^ John Shelton Reed, Minding The South, University of Missouri Press (2099), p.171.
^ American Soft Drink and the Company that Makes It, Basic Books: enlarged 2nd edition (2000), p.24.
^ Adams, William Lee (February 15, 2011). "Is This the Real Thing? Coca-Cola's Secret Formula "Discovered" by This American Life – TIME.com". Time.
^ "Coca-Cola's Dr. Pemberton May Not Be 'The Real Thing!'". October 27, 2012. Archived from the original on November 18, 2012. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
^ "The Birth of a Refreshing Idea - News & Articles". www.coca-colacompany.com. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
^ ^a ^b Pendergrast, Mark (March 17, 2000). For youth God, Country and Coca-Cola. Basic Books. p. 34. ISBN 9780465054688.
^ U.S. Inflation Rate, $300 in 1888 to 2022
^ Pendergrast, Mark (2000). "The tangled chain of title". For God, country, and Coca-Cola: the definitive history of the great American soft drink and the company that makes it (2nd ed.). New York: Basic Books. pp. 34–46. ISBN 978-0465054688.

Further reading

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Schoenberg, B S (1988), "Coke's the one: the centennial of the 'ideal brain tonic' that became a symbol of America", South. Med. J., vol. 81, no. 1 (published January 1988), pp. 69–74, doi:10.1097/00007611-198801000-00015, PMID 3276011
King, M M (1987), "Dr. John S. Pemberton: originator of Coca-Cola", Pharmacy in History, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 85–89, PMID 11621277
Hasegawa, Guy (March 1, 2000), "Pharmacy in the American Civil War", American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, vol. 57, no. 5, pp. 457–489, doi:10.1093/ajhp/57.5.475, PMID 10711530, American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy

External links

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Media related to John Pemberton at Wikimedia Commons
The Chronicle Of Coca-Cola: Birth of a Refreshing Idea at The Coca-Cola Company