by Grace Kostrzebski
July 24, 2025
Wade Morrison needed a job. And, no one would hire him. He was desperate – feeling rejected and frustrated. Living in a small, southwestern community in Virginia, it felt like everybody else had found their niche except him. Then one day, Dr. Charles T. Pepper decided to give him a chance. Pepper hired Morrison as his medical assistant, giving him a start in the pharmaceutical business. Morrison would take this experience and move westward – starting his own pharmacy in Waco, Texas. Later, Chares Alderton would come to him with a recipe for a tasty soft drink. Morrison would purchase the recipe and name this soft drink “Dr. Pepper” to pay homage to the man who gave him an opportunity when no one else would. Thus, Dr Pepper, the soda brand, was born.
Or at least, that’s one version of the story. In another story, Morrison was pining after Dr. Pepper’s daughter, Ruth. Dr. Pepper refused to let the two marry for “insert the storyteller’s favorite reason here.” Morrison – heartbroken – moves out west to Texas, purchases the recipe for Dr Pepper, and names the soft drink after the man whose daughter he longed to marry. Perhaps, Dr. Pepper invented the original recipe for the soft drink, and Morrison – his assistant – stole the recipe and brought it to Texas. But, this is all largely hearsay. No one knows for sure.
We just know some basic facts. Charles T. Pepper studied medicine at the University of Virginia, and practiced medicine as a doctor in Rural Retreat, Virginia. His daughter, who was supposedly Morrison’s love, was eight-years-old by the time Morrison moved to Texas. Wade Morrison lived in Christiansburg, VA until the 1880s when he decided to move west. In the 1880s, Charles Alderton invented a recipe for a delicious soft drink. He then sold this recipe to Morrison who owned a pharmaceutical company in Waco, Texas. This drink was known as a “Waco” until Morrison decided to name the drink “Dr Pepper.”
We also know that “pepper” had been used to mean “spirit” and “energy” since the 1840s. In addition, it was common practice to name soft drinks with the prefix “Dr.” as they were seen as medicinal. The early marketing for Dr Pepper frequently includes “aids digestion and restores vim, vigor, and vitality” as a selling point for the soft drink. Of the many origin stories for the name of Dr Pepper, there’s no true, definitive answer. The story behind the name may be as complex as a movie plot or as simple as a common slang term. Whatever the truth may be, the real reasoning behind the name will likely continue to go unremembered.
Rural Retreat was on the original Bikecentennial Route mapped in the 1970s. Pepper’s Drug Store had been renamed the Rural Retreat Drug Store, which continued to provide prescription medicines, essential goods, and stories about the origins of Dr Pepper throughout the twentieth century.
While the medicinal value of Dr Pepper and other sodas have generally been disproven, their restorative properties continue to appeal to those in need of refrshment. When Senator Tim Kaine ended a long stretch of southbound hiking on the Appalachian Trail, he looked forward to “civilization” where he hoped to “drink two ice-cold twenty-four ounce Dr Peppers.” Senator Kaine obtained these restorative drinks in Daleville, one of several locations where the Appalachian Trail and Route 76 intersect in Virginia. In fact, the hikers and cyclists share the road about 100 yards, as hikers and cyclists follow Valley Road ridden under Interstate 81. For more on these interactions, listen to episode 26 (Damascus) of the Bike 76 VA podcast or read the 2025 article in Blazer.
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