Claud A. Hatcher

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.

Claud Adkins Hatcher
Hatcher, c. 1917
Born(1876-08-20)August 20, 1876
Quitman County, Georgia
DiedDecember 31, 1933(1933-12-31) (aged 57)
Resting placeRiverdale Cemetery
Muscogee County, Georgia
Alma materUniversity of Louisville School of Medicine
Known forCreating RC Cola

Background

Claud Adkins Hatcher was born on August 20, 1876 in Quitman County, Georgia to Lucius Adkins Hatcher and Eleanor Moore King.[1] Hatcher had originally intended to become a doctor, but he changed his studies after his first year in college and soon thereafter became a graduate pharmacist from the University of Louisville School of Medicine.[2] By 1901, Hatcher had established himself as a successful pharmacist, operating two pharmacies in Preston, Georgia and Dawson, Georgia.[2] However, later that year, Hatcher left the pharmaceutical field to join his father, a wholesale grocer who had recently started a new wholesale grocery store in Columbus, Georgia. Founded as the Cole-Hatcher-Hampton Grocery Company, the company was soon renamed to the Hatcher Grocery Company after Claud and his father bought out the other investors in the company.[2]

Creating RC Cola
Main article: RC Cola
Further information: Nehi

Created in 1886, Coca-Cola had grown immensely in popularity in the decades that followed, and the product was sold in great quantities at the Hatchers' grocery store. However, following a disagreement with the Columbus representative of the Coca-Cola Company over wholesale pricing, Hatcher stopped carrying the product in his store and began developing his own soft drink in a laboratory in the basement of the grocery store.[3][4] In 1905, Hatcher introduced a ginger ale called Royal Crown Ginger Ale as an alternative to Coca-Cola.[3][4] Shortly thereafter, Hatcher created Chero-Cola, a cherry cola designed to compete directly with Coca-Cola.[3] Following a reformulation in 1934, Chero-Cola was renamed Royal Crown Cola, later shortened to just RC Cola.[5]

Along with these two products, Hatcher developed a line of several other flavored sodas under the Royal Crown moniker. In 1905, Hatcher formed Union Bottling Works, a company to bottle these products. The company was renamed to the Chero-Cola Company in 1912.[6] In 1924, the company introduce the Nehi line of fruit-flavored sodas, and the company was shortly thereafter renamed after this popular line.[3][6]

Later life

Hatcher died on December 31, 1933 at the age of 57 and was buried in the Riverdale Cemetery in Muscogee County, Georgia. His will established the Pickett & Hatcher Educational Fund, a non-profit student lender.[1][2]

Notes
  1. "Claud Adkins Hatcher". Database of the Hatcher Families Genealogy Association. Retrieved March 28, 2019.
  2. Winn, Bill (May 7, 1978). "R.C. Cola Gets Start in Basement". Ledger-Enquirer. Special Sesquicentennal Supplement IV. Columbus, Georgia: Knight Ridder. p. S-24. Retrieved March 26, 2018 – via usgwarchives.net.
  3. Wells, Jeff (April 14, 2016). "The Tragic History of RC Cola". Mental Floss. Retrieved February 22, 2020.
  4. "Happy birthday to Claud Adkins Hatcher, inventor..." The Hagley Vault. Hagley Museum and Library. August 20, 2019. Retrieved February 22, 2020.
  5. Taylor, Stacy (September 28, 2017). "The History of Royal Crown Cola". Our Everyday Life. Retrieved February 22, 2020.
  6. Allen, Gary J.; Albala, Ken (2007). The Business of Food: Encyclopedia of the Food and Drink Industries. ABC-CLIO. p. 342. ISBN 978-0-313-33725-3.
gollark: Yes, I should be able to mismanage time UTTERLY if I wish to.
gollark: I work most efficiently when there's a deadline the day after and/or it's ridiculously late.
gollark: Imagine NOT losing some amount of sleep over ridiculous procrastination?
gollark: I wonder if he has any relation to the moore's law moore.
gollark: Yes, you *should* probably check now, not even my famed time management would let me do it during break if I had not done much already.
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