Caleb Bradham

Did You Know?

• Bradham was of English and Scots-Irish descent.
• He owned the Slover-Bradham House from 1908 to 1934; it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
• He was a member of the Philanthropic Society while at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Bradham Drug Store Company

After leaving the University of Maryland School of Medicine around 1890 because his father's business went bankrupt, Bradham returned to North Carolina. He taught in a public school for about a year, then opened a drug store in New Bern called the Bradham Drug Company, which included a soda fountain. At the corner of Middle Street and Pollock Street in 1893, he created a recipe using kola nut extract, vanilla, and rare oils.

The drink was first called Brad's Drink, but on August 28, 1898, it was renamed Pepsi-Cola. Bradham combined the words dyspepsia and cola to suggest digestive benefits. His assistant James Henry King was the first to taste it.

The Pepsi-Cola Company was incorporated in North Carolina on December 24, 1902, with Bradham as president, and the trademark was registered on June 16, 1903. That year he moved production out of his drug store into a rented building. In 1905 he began selling Pepsi-Cola in six-ounce bottles, having previously sold only syrup, and awarded two bottling franchises in North Carolina.

Naval reserve

Bradham’s career stretched well beyond his drug store. He led the People’s Bank of New Bern and chaired the Craven County Board of Commissioners, and his name was floated for North Carolina governor. For a quarter-century, he served in the naval reserve, rising from lieutenant in the state militia to commander in 1904, then captain in 1913, and finally retiring as a rear admiral. In 1914, Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels put him on the General Naval Militia Board.

Success and buy out

Bradham's Pepsi-Cola empire once stretched across more than two dozen states. But on May 31, 1923, he and his company went bankrupt.

The culprit was sugar. After World War I, he bought a huge supply at 28 cents a pound—compared to just three cents before the war—only to see the price crash. His company's assets were sold for $30,000 to the Craven Holding Company. Bradham then went back to running his drug store.