Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Coca-Cola In Bottles: Brilliant Vicksburg Idea In 1894

Have you ever heard the expression: "If we could put that in a bottle and sell it, we could make a fortune"? Well, in 1894 here in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Joseph Biedenharn, owner of a candy company and soda fountain, got the brilliant and novel idea to put his soda fountain Coca-Colas into bottles and distribute them by the case to stores and small towns throughout this region so that folks could buy them already mixed and ready made to take home. (In early days people craving a soft drink had to go to a soda fountain where they were mixed with syrup and carbonated water at the counter and served in glasses.) His bottled Coca-Colas became wildly popular, and as they say, the rest is history. Cokes and other bottled soft drinks are now sold all over the world. Canned soft drinks came much later. Click on the word IDEA in the title of this post above and also on my righthand sidebar link to visit the web site of the Coca-Cola Museum here in Vicksburg.

3 comments:

Dig, Grow, Compost, Blog said...

Hi Jon, somehow I missed checking in on your blog since you've been back. There's a Biedenharn Museum in Monroe, LA that has a lot of this memorabilia as well. Someday I'll stop in Vicksburg for a while instead of just passing through!

Jon said...

Hi Jean, the Biedenharn family in Monroe, La. originated here in Vicksburg. They were also involved in Coca-Cola bottling over in Louisiana. I do hope you will visit in Vicksburg someday because there are really a lot of interesting places to see here. I have a Visitors and Tourist link on my blog sidebar for you to click on to visit their site for more info. Thanks for dropping by.

Jon on 12-3-08

Barbara said...

I've learnt something new...Coke is originated in Vicksburg :-) !! I didn't know that. Visiting blogs and reading posts, educates :-) !!
Have a nice Sunday!
Barbara