Wanted: Hard-boiled genealogical detectives to track down these soft drink perpetrators

Question

For a couple of weeks now, I've been plotting to follow up on the Can you help connect a goodie maker? and Quest for Great-Grandparents: Goodie Edition challenges with a challenge to find the people who invented various soft drinks (aka soda, aka pop) from around the world. (After all, we need something to drink with our goodies, right?)

Unfortunately, for some brands, I haven't been able to discover the original inventor at all, but in several cases, Wikipedia gives the name of the inventors, but no other information about them. It's almost like the product (or the company) is everything, and the person is nothing. It's very strange.

In any case, I haven't been able to pin down quite enough inventors to make it worth doing a challenge, although I'm close-ish. If you genealogical sleuths can turn up dossiers detailed enough to create WikiTree profiles for three of these people (more would be better), then we can launch the challenge.

• Barq's: Edward Charles Edmond Barq, Gaston Barq, or Jesse Robinson
• Corona: William Thomas or William Evans
• Fanta: Max Keith
• Faygo: Ben or Perry Feigenson
• Jarritos: Don Francisco “El Güero” Hill
• Mountain Dew: Barney or Ally Hartman
• Orange Crush: Neil C. Ward or Clayton J. Howel

If anybody wants to contribute still other soft drink inventors, that would be cool, too.

Comments

Thank you all. We now have 12 people, so I have launched the "Quest for Great-Grandparents: Fizzy Edition" thread.

But by all means keep on looking, because I'm thinking that we should be able to do a Fizzy Edition Part Two once we have profiles for all the people on this list. And possibly a Part Three, if we find even more. 

I was kind of frustrated in my research, because root beer, cream soda, ginger ale, and ginger beer (or cola, for that matter) seem to have been invented by multiple people in multiple places and times, so we can't point to single inventors for any of them. But, I suppose it's even better to put up profiles for all the different inventors and then try to connect them and add their great-grandparents.

I belatedly thought of, and then couldn't find, a guarana-flavoured pop called Tuba that I encountered in Hong Kong. Apparently, it sank without a trace, but Wikipedia does list two similar products, and their inventors, and that gives us a couple of other people to research:

• Pedro Baptista de Andrade (Guaraná Antarctica)
• Jesus Norberto Gomes (Guaraná Jesus)

I may write to the companies concerned, and see if I can get at least names, birth dates, and birth places for the inventors of Fresca and Mirinda.

Finding out anything about Keniada (a particular favourite of mine that I've never found anywhere else) is probably going to be a real challenge for anybody who doesn't live in Bosnia.

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Check out Detroit Historical Muesum for Faygo and Vernors

https://detroithistorical.org/learn/encyclopedia-of-detroit/faygo-pop

https://detroithistorical.org/learn/encyclopedia-of-detroit/vernors-ginger-ale

Answer 1

I can take Mr. Howel, I've been working on a lot of Howells lately (and have Howell ancestry myself). (Unless I'm misinterpreting the perimeters of the challenge.)

This appears to be him: 

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V1VJ-4XM

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV9J-6YQR

Comments

Dina, you can create a profile for any of these people who interest you. You don't have to be related. (Although finding that somebody like this was related might add a little sparkle to your life. )

Answer 2

lol, all I can say is I hope the Barq’s root beer’s Jesse Robinson is somehow related to the Robinson’s in my family.

Good luck!

Comments

Everybody's related somehow. We're just trying to figure out the how.

Answer 3

Vernor's Ginger Ale was invented by this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Vernor. They still talked about him when I lived in the Detroit area in the 1980s.

Comments

Thank you, W. I had heard of Vernors, but forgot about it when I was working up my list. As it happens, James Vernor has a profile already, so he's ready to go as far as the challenge goes.

Answer 4

The big ones ...

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stith_Pemberton
Originally intended as a patent medicine, Coke was invented in 1886 by pharmacist John Stith "Doc" Pemberton and was bought out by businessman Asa Griggs Candler, whose marketing tactics led Coca-Cola to its dominance of the world soft-drink market throughout the 20th century.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caleb_Bradham
Caleb Davis Bradham (May 27, 1867 – February 19, 1934) was an American pharmacist, best known as the inventor of soft drink Pepsi.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Leiper_Grigg  for 7up

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Matthews_(soda_water_manufacturer)

But have you seen this list ? ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_brand_name_soft_drink_products
List of brand name soft drink products

Comments

Do any of these individuals you have named have profiles, which Greg can use to start the challenge?

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I don't know. You would have to use the wikitree search to get your answer.

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Thank you, N. I had already found all of those except for Matthews. I'll have to look him up.

Answer 5

The first version of Mountain Dew was invented by Max Licht in 1927.

The second version of Mountain Dew was produced in the 1940s by the Hartman brothers who were bottlers.

One of the Hartman brothers died in 1951 and the surviving brother used the Mountain Dew brand as part of his payment for the business. "Tip Corporation" began using the Mountain Dew label on a different best-selling citrus beverage created in the Tri-Cities. This third version was the start of the modern-day Mountain Dew.

https://www.wbir.com/article/news/local/mountain-dews-knoxville-moonshine-roots/458544832

with pictures of the Hartman brothers.

Comments

Interesting. The Wikipedia article on Mountain doesn't even mention Licht.

Answer 6

This webpage says the original inventor of Orange Crush was J.M. Thompson of Chicago in 1906 ...

http://www.metnews.com/articles/2006/reminiscing052506.htm

Comments

And it gives us Ward's middle name and approximate age. We're making progress here!

Answer 7

Creating profile for Barq.

ADDED: I created the profile for Charles Barq, which includes name of child, wife, parents and in-laws.

Gaston Barq is his brother Felix Charles "Gaston" Barq.

Many of the records are mistranscribed as Barg.

Answer 8

Inca Kola

In 1910, a young English couple, Don José Robinson Lindley and Martha Stoppanie de Lindley, immigrated to Peru and settled in the Rimac District of Lima.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporaci%C3%B3n_Lindley_S.A.

Inca Kola is a soft drink that was created in Peru in 1935 by British immigrant Joseph Robinson Lindley. Lindley's grandparents, who were English immigrants, created Inca Kola as an alternative to other soft drinks that were being sold in Lima.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inca_Kola

Answer 9

Irn-Bru

a Scottish carbonated soft drink, often described as "Scotland's other national drink" (after whisky). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irn-Bru

A.G. Barr was founded in 1875 by Robert Barr in Falkirk. In 1887 his son, Robert Fulton Barr, set up a division of the original company in Glasgow, which had a much larger population. In 1892 the Glasgow branch passed to Andrew Greig Barr (where the name A.G Barr comes from), a brother of the founder of that branch. Irn-Bru was launched in 1901.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.G._Barr

Answer 10

Nominate this guy: In 1885, one year before the invention of Coca-Cola, a young pharmacist named Charles Alderton began experimenting by mixing different fruit flavors together at The Old Corner Drug Store on Fourth Street and Austin Avenue, Waco, Texas. The resulting concoction would become the formula for Dr Pepper. 

Comments

Charles Alderton already had a profile, so I didn't put him into this list, because I had already found him. (But I did include him in "Quest for Great-Grandparents: Fizzy Edition".

Answer 11

And this guy: Claud Adkins Hatcher (August 20, 1876 – December 31, 1933) was an American pharmacist, businessman, and inventor from Columbus, Georgia, who is best known for creating RC Cola and other soft drinks.

Comments

Claud A. Hatcher is in the same situation as Charles Alderton.