You might not love Dr Pepper, but — if you live in Texas — you have to respect it.
Sure, it’s not Coke or Pepsi, but it’s ours. (And not to brag, but Dr Pepper passed Pepsi last year to become the number two soda brand in the U.S.)
For Texans, we’re honor-bound to stan Dr Pepper the same way we’re protective toward H-E-B, Whataburger, and Blue Bell. Loyalty is important to us, even if our ice cream comes with a side of listeria. (Or no, too far?) Brands only get this distinction when their Texas pedigree is impeccable, and when they’ve leaned into it completely. Created in Waco in 1885, Dr Pepper claims to be the oldest “major soft drink” in America; it was born one year before Coca-Cola was invented.
We love Dr Pepper, but its history is a bit mysterious — especially how it got its name. So let’s try to set the record straight.
According to the Dr Pepper Museum (also in Waco), a young pharmacist named Charles Alderton mixed the first Dr Pepper with a secret blend of 23 flavors (and despite the old rumor, prune juice is not one of them). As the story goes, while between duties working at Morrison’s Old Corner Drug Store, Alderton liked to serve carbonated drinks at the soda fountain, which was a common fixture in drugstores at the time. The pharmacy was located in Waco’s bustling downtown financial district on the bottom floor of the McClelland Hotel.
The museum says that Alderton “liked the way the drugstore smelled, with all of the fruit syrup flavor smells mixing together in the air. He decided to create a drink that tasted like that smell.”
After a number of tries, he “finally hit upon a mixture of fruit syrups that he liked.”
Alderton needed a second opinion, though. So he offered his new concoction to the drugstore owner, Wade Morrison. Morrison liked it, and more taste tests followed.
Finally, it was ready to be served to customers. It was a huge hit; word spread and patrons came to the drugstore to order a “Waco.”
The new drink impressed young beverage chemist Robert S. Lazenby, who smelled a business opportunity and formed, with Morrison, the Dr Pepper Company.
According to the museum, Alderton “was primarily interested in pharmacy work and had no designs on the drink.”
By the late 1800s, Dr Pepper was an established Waco favorite. It took off nationally when Lazenby brought it to the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.
But how did the name Dr Pepper come about? And was there a real “Doctor Pepper?” The answer is murky — much like the fizzy, delicious beverage itself.
First, we can reasonably deduce why the title “doctor” was included in the drink’s name. In his book, “The Legend of Dr Pepper/Seven-Up,” historian Jeffrey Rodengen said that it was common to add “doctor” to the name of products “in hopes of making them sound healthful.”
At the time, carbonated beverages were considered healthy, so this tracks. And for the record, I still consider Dr Pepper to be healthy, “medical experts” be damned. (Dr Pepper dropped the period in “Dr.” sometime in the 1950s.)
From here, it gets messy: The Dr Pepper corporate website credits Morrison, the drugstore owner, with naming the beverage after Dr. Charles Pepper, a Virginia doctor who was the father of a girl Morrison was once in love with. Indeed, it appears that he was a pillar of the local community in Virginia, in a place called Rural Retreat. He was a Confederate surgeon during the Civil War, then later opened a drugstore where he also sold medical supplies. One story claims that Morrison reportedly worked at Pepper’s drugstore before moving to Texas and starting his own. Others have said that Morrison named the drink after Dr. Charles Pepper as thanks for giving Morrison his first job. Another version contends that Morrison named the drink after Pepper’s daughter — to win his approval to marry her.
That last story, while it may seem more romantic — and even headline-worthy — has some issues. In his book, Rodengen wrote that Pepper’s daughter was only eight years old when Morrison moved to Waco in 1882. Let’s hope he wasn’t trying to marry an eight-year-old. But it’s unclear if any of these are accurate: Historian Milly Walker has said that Morrison himself told “at least three different versions” of how the drink was named.
Others have tried (and failed) to uncover the truth.
In a January story, Southern Living acknowledged that there is a “shroud of mystery” around the origins of the Dr Pepper name but that “none are substantiated.” The magazine took a stab, though, writing that “one assumption is that it stems from the spiced flavor of the soda, and ‘Dr’ references the creator (who was a pharmacist) or the location (a drugstore).” As for the Dr Pepper Museum, it demurs on the question, saying: “the origin for the name is unclear.” The museum says it has “collected over a dozen different stories on how the drink became known as Dr Pepper.”
Unsurprisingly, the Pepper family has argued that they were actually behind the name, considering it was theirs first. Rodengen’s book cited an anecdotal history of the family, which claimed that one of Charles Pepper’s sons, Louis Ervin Pepper, was actually the first person to create the drink.
In fact, they allege that Morrison didn’t invent anything — he just took the formula to Waco, according to the book. Scandalous!
And still, there are more theories that hold water… er, soda.
Believe it or not, there was a completely different “Doctor Pepper” who might be the true source of the soda’s name. In the “Unofficial Dr Pepper FAQ,” author Christopher Flaherty interviewed Milly Walker, the historian who also served as the collections manager at the Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling Co. Museum in Dublin, Texas, where the drink was first bottled.
Despite the official history, and Rodengen’s book, Walker has said there’s no evidence Morrison ever worked for Dr. Charles Pepper in Rural Retreat. Instead, according to Walker, census records show Morrison lived about 40 miles away, in the town of Christiansburg, where he worked as a pharmacy clerk.
Also in Christiansburg, there lived another man named “Dr. Pepper,” whose first name we don’t know and who just so happened to live near Morrison. We don’t know much about this mysterious Dr. Pepper, but Walker thought he might be a better candidate for the soda’s namesake. He even had a daughter who was close to Morrison’s age at the time. So maybe the romance angle was true, after all!
As for Morrison, he moved his drugstore in 1912, next to Waco’s largest structure — the towering Amicable Life Insurance building. Morrison died in 1924 and later, both of his businesses were destroyed by a giant F5 tornado that struck downtown Waco in 1953.
So where does all this leave us? Honestly, we may never know who the actual Dr Pepper was — if they even were an actual person who inspired the name. It could have been a marketing gimmick from the start, a drugstore owner trying to sell sugar water as a health tonic (and honestly, far worse things happened in the 1800s, so we’ll give them a pass).
Here’s what we do know: Dr Pepper is an iconic, delicious drink that was made in the heart of Texas. And really, that’s more than good enough.