Charles Courtice Alderton (1857-1941)

    Charles Courtice Alderton was born June 21, 1857 in Brooklyn, New York, the eldest of five children to English parents. Alderton attended Framlingham College in England, studied medicine at the University of Texas, and worked as a pharmacist in Waco, in a shop called "Morrison's Old Corner Drug Store", which had a soda fountain. Alderton noticed that customers were tiring of the traditional flavors of sarsaparilla, lemon and vanilla, and so to try and revive sales, began experimenting with new flavor combinations, eventually settling on a 23 ingredient mix combined with phosphoric acid to give it tang. It was first sold on December 1, 1885, and was ordered by asking the soda attendant to "shoot a Waco". Alderton gave the formula to Wade Morrison, who named it Dr. Pepper.

    It was introduced to almost 20 million people while attending the 1904 World's Fair Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri as a new kind of soda pop. Its introduction in 1885 preceded the introduction of Coca-Cola by one year. From around 1885 to 1891, the drink could only be served at fountains or the drugstore, where the syrup was mixed with the carbonated water and served individually. The popularity of the beverage influenced the drugstore owner and manager, Wade Morrison and Robert S. Lazenby to form the Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Co. in 1891 to bottle the drink. In 1906, a three-story building was built at the corner of Fifth and Mary for the purpose of bottling and shipping the new drink. In 1922, the base of operations moved to Dallas after the formation of the formal Dr. Pepper Company. Local bottling production continued until around 1965, when operations were moved to a more modern facility. 

    Alderton married twice. His first wife was Lilian "Lillie" E. Walker, whom he married in October 1884. It was announced in the Galveston, Texas newspaper. They married at the residence of J. B. Walker (Lillie's father) with Methodist Rev. Mr. Young present. After Lillie died in 1916, he married Emilie Marie Coquille on December 20, 1918 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Alderton died in 1941. On May 11, 1953, an F5 tornado struck downtown Waco, devastating the city. Although it did not sustain a direct hit, the bottling building was among the casualties of the tornado. The building was repaired with a lighter colored brick but not restored, and business was back to as usual until the move in 1965. At Waco’s centennial celebration of the invention of Dr. Pepper in 1985, ideas of creating a museum to tell the story of Dr. Pepper production in Waco sprang up. On May 11, 1991, the thirty-eighth anniversary of the tornado, the Dr Pepper Museum and Free Enterprise Institute opened. Source

Section B-1
Oakwood Cemetery
Waco

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