Soda Goes Pop

For a refreshing taste of authentic Americana, visit Vicksburg’s landmark museum where Mississippi made pop culture history

By Anne Martin • Photography by Jay Adkins

Walk through the front door of the brick building at 1107 Washington Street in downtown Vicksburg and step back in time. Look beyond the modern amenities and allow your imagination to travel back to 1894 and the Biedenharn Candy Company. Now try to comprehend that Joseph Biedenharn bottled Coca-Cola in this very place for the very first time—anywhere.

What started out as a local candy shop and soda fountain soon took its place in soft drink and modern pop culture history. Close to 30,000 people a year stroll through the store built by Biedenharn and his father, all because of a little sugary substance that added a “pick me up” to soda water. Now the building houses the Biedenharn Coca-Cola Museum.

Born in December of 1866 in Vicksburg to German immigrant parents, Joseph Biedenharn was the oldest of eight sons and four daughters. It was his father, Herman, and Uncle Henry who founded Biedenharn and Brother, a retail confectionary business. Eventually, Joseph took over the candy business renaming it Biedenharn Candy Company. He sold a variety of confections, making candy and cakes in the store. And there was the soda fountain. A variety of flavors dispensed from a marble fountain could be added to the bottled soda water. While the original fountain is long gone, one very similar to it is located just behind the counter.

It is at the marble-topped counter that folks from the Vicksburg area were able to try a new concoction in their soda water—Coca-Cola. A squirt of the dark substance was added to soda water to provide a little “pick me up.” After all, the syrup contained a slight amount of cocaine, which was legal at the time. Parents didn’t want their children consuming the new drink. So shortly after the turn of the century, a petition by parents was presented to the Coca-Cola Company urging them to take the cocaine out of the drink. The company very quickly complied and all of their advertising proclaimed, “no cocaine added.”

The drink was so popular it soon occurred to Biedenharn, why not put the Coca-Cola syrup in the soda water bottle so patrons could take it home with them? Biedenharn had become a distributor for the syrup, supplying the fountain dispensing trade in and around Vicksburg. His agreement with Coca-Cola was to buy no less than 2,000 gallons of syrup in a 12-month period. It seemed like a great idea since Biedenharn Candy Company was already operating a wholesale and retail confectionary business.
In a letter dated September 11, 1939, to Coca-Cola vice president, Harrison Jones, Biedenharn recounted how the idea of bottling Coke came about. He said consumer demand for the drink was increasing rapidly and one could only get it in cities where the fountains were dispensing it. “Why not bottle it for our country trade?” He was already in the soda water bottling business and it would be easy to start bottling Coke.
According to Biedenharn’s letter, he sent one of the first cases of bottled Coca-Cola to Asa Candler, owner of the company, whose only comment about the bottled drink was “it’s fine.” At the time, a case of Coca-Cola was 70 cents while a case of soda water was 60 cents per case. As Biedenharn said, “This started us off on the right track.”

When Joe Biedenharn decided to bottle Coca-Cola, he used the bottles that he had on hand; the ones he used to bottle soda water. They were Hutchinson blob-top bottles embossed with “Biedenharn Candy Co. Vicksburg, Miss.,” and were sealed with a rubber disk that was pushed into the neck of the bottle and held with a wire. The bottles were only used for a short time because the rubber changed the flavor of the drink after about a week. The early bottlers would have to wear a mask, leather aprons and wooden shoes because the bottles easily exploded. A replica of the gas power bottling equipment used in 1894 is on display in the museum.

All of the Coke was bottled at the Washington Street store. Workers spent half of the day bottling the drink, the other half delivering it. As business grew, the carbonated syrup was delivered in wooden whiskey kegs that had been used just once.

The types of bottles changed during the next few years, primarily to maintain the true taste of the beverage. But it wasn’t until 1913 that the company saw the need for a distinctive bottle, one which could be easily recognizable, even in the dark. Examples of those early bottles are on display in the museum.

The Biedenharns bottled Coca-Cola in the Washington Street candy shop and in other buildings in downtown Vicksburg until 1938 when a new bottling plant opened at 2133 Washington. The two-story brick building was sold and used for a number of different purposes until 1979. That’s when the family repurchased the building and the Biedenharn Coca-Cola museum was born.

As the drink became more popular, the company began to advertise more. The museum displays a variety of original Coke memorabilia, including an original porcelain syrup dispenser with the Coca-Cola logo. Nancy Bell, director of the Vicksburg Foundation for Historic Preservation, says it’s their most prized possession. Other cherished items include a 1920 Gilbert wall clock and a Vienna art plate dating to 1905, both bearing the Coke logo.

Today, visitors can see not only the types of machinery it took to bottle the drink, but early photos of those who made it. Early advertising items included calendars, pocket mirrors, metal trays and magazine ads. Some of those ads stated that for only five cents a glass, a drink of Coca-Cola was good for fatigue.

Pencils were a big giveaway item. Salesmen would give a dozen pencils to teachers to pass out to students at the beginning of the school year. Waitresses, service station attendants, food stores and hospitals were continuously supplied with the free pencils, all sporting the words “Coca-Cola.”

Over the years the Coke logo has graced Barbie, ping-pong paddles, dartboards, harmonicas and ice picks. There is even a dictionary with the soft drink logo and a wallet that reminds you of “the pause that refreshes.”

Step back into Mr. Biedenharn’s former candy shop to a simpler time when a sweet refreshment was all the rage. A wide variety of Coke souvenirs is available and Coke is still on tap!

Biedenharn Coca-Cola Museum at 1107 Washington Avenue is open Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, 1:30 to 4:30. Admission is $3 for adults, $2 for children ages 6 to 12. Free for children under 6. DM