Appalachian History

The town boomed when the railroad came through in 1856, and so in 1872 a former Confederate surgeon named Dr. Charles T. Pepper started a soon-to-be-thriving business dispensing patent medicines in a brick pharmacy in Rural Retreat, VA. He also spent time mixing mountain herbs, roots and seltzer into a fizzy brew.

One local story goes that the doctor's daughter fell in love with Wade Morrison, Pepper’s assistant. The doctor wasn't too pleased about that, so he sent her off to school. And he fired Morrison. "This story is probably not true,” says Mary Kegley, author of Wythe County Bicentennial Book, "because within the time frame, Dr. Pepper's daughter would only have been around 5 at the time Morrison left.

"Dr. Charles T. Pepper also had a son, Louis or Louie, an optometrist who was also known as Dr. Pepper," Kegley continues. "He worked part time in his father's drug store and also claimed to have developed the formula for the drink."

Morrison meantime moved to Texas and set up a pharmacy of his own, the Old Corner Drug Store at Fourth and Austin streets in Waco. He went on to fame and fortune, taking credit as the creator of the best-selling American soft drink we know as Dr Pepper. Charles T. Pepper got neither fame nor fortune out of the bargain.

The Dr Pepper Museum site credits Charles Alderton, a young pharmacist working at Wade Morrison's drug store, with being the inventor of the now famous drink. The Old Corner Drug Store customers called the drink a "Waco" soda, and it became quite popular at the soda fountain. Morrison began selling batches of the mix, drugstore to drugstore in 1885, and promoted it as a tonic until 1891, when he opened a bottling plant. When he began marketing the syrup to area drugstores, Morrison renamed the drink after his old boss in Rural Retreat. Or not.

"Dr Pepper is named after Dr. Charles T. Pepper, an 1855 graduate of the University of Virginia Medical School," concurs James A. Ball, the Sr. V.P. Corporate Communications for Dr. Pepper/Seven-Up Companies Inc. of Dallas. "Who practiced medicine at his pharmacy in Rural Retreat, VA in the late 1800s. The entire history of Dr Pepper was published in 1995 by author Jeffrey Rodengen. His book, authorized by me, is entitled The Legend of Dr Pepper/Seven-Up."

Not everyone associated with the soft drink business agrees with that view.

"What we found was that according to the US Census, Morrison lived in the town of Christiansburg, VA and worked as a pharmacy clerk," says Milly Walker, the Collections Manager/Curator for the Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling Co. Museum in Dublin, TX. "In that same census on the next page (if I remember correctly) is another Dr. Pepper and he has a daughter, Malinda or Malissa, who is only 16 to Morrison's 17.

"If you understand that the census takers walked from house to house, you can tell they were near neighbors. This makes much more sense to me than Dr. Charles T. Pepper, 40 miles away in Rural Retreat. There is not one piece of evidence that Morrison ever worked for Dr. Charles T. Pepper in Rural Retreat, VA," she says.

The remains of Dr. Charles Taylor Pepper rest with those of his wife and several children in Mountain View Cemetery overlooking the town he lived and worked in. He died in 1903 in his 73rd year. And his pharmacy? Despite its brush with greatness, it never became a tourist draw. It finally closed in 1994. "Nowadays, if you're not big business, you're not in business," said W. Baynard Barton 3d, Rural Retreat's last pharmacist.


sources: "Delve into Dr Pepper's Origins in Rural Retreat" The Virginian-Pilot, September 1, 1996
"Rural Retreat Journal; Store Closes, and a Way of Life Is Just a Memory" NY Times April 16, 1994
http://www.wythevilleva.com/drpepper.htm
http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-06-05/news/boot-legging-dr-pepper/2
http://www.freenewyork.net/dpfaq.html
http://www.wiw.org/~chris/drpepper/


Charles+T.+Pepper Wade+Morrison Dr+Pepper Rural+Retreat+VA appalachia appalachian+history appalachian+mountains+history

Baseball pitcher Charles Louis (“Deacon”) Phillippi, of Rural Retreat VA, was drafted into the National League by Louisville in 1898, and began his baseball career with that team on April 21, 1899. On May 29, 1899 he pitched a no-hitter against the Giants in only his seventh major league game. In 1900, he moved to the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he spent the rest of his baseball career, through his final game on August 13, 1911.

His claim to fame is that he won the first game of the first World Series in 1903 against Boston’s Cy Young. Deacon is considered one of the greatest control artists of all times, averaging just 1.25 walks per inning per nine innings over his career. This record that has stood for over a century, despite the likes of Sandy Koufax, Nolan Ryan and Walter Johnson.

Phillippi was born on May 23, 1872, a son of Andrew Jackson & Margaret Jane (Hackler) Phillippi. Sometime around March 1875, the family left Wythe County and moved to Spink County, SD, near the town of Athol, where young Charles grew to manhood. His friends called him Charlie, but he got the "Deacon" nickname due to his humility and easy demeanor.

In 1896, he headed to Minnesota to play semi-pro ball for a team in Mankato. The next year he hooked up with Minneapolis of the Western League, where he pitched for two seasons, in the second of which he posted a record of 21-19. Then he got his chance in 1898 when he was drafted by Louisville. Deacon left his wife Ella and 3 children right around this time. Ella claimed she threw him out when he informed her he was going to become a Pro baseball player, which in those days was akin to joining the circus.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Phillippi was 186-108 lifetime with a 2.88 ERA. He had five seasons with 20 or more wins. He completed 242 of the 288 games he started over his career, while triking out 929. He had his best ERA year in 1902 when he posted a 2.05 mark and a 20-9 record. Over a 4 year period (1900-1903), he pitched 1136.1 innings. He is near the top of the team's ALL-TIME pitching list in Innings Pitched, Wins, Strikeouts, Shutouts, and Completed Games.

BEST YEAR: In 1903, he was 24-7 with a 2.43 ERA. He struck out 123, only walked 29, and gave up just 265 hits in 289 innings.

The World Series, as we know it today, was first played on October 1, 1903 between the National League Pittsburgh Pirates and the American League Boston Pilgrims at the old Huntington Avenue Ballpark in Boston. It was a 9 game series, which Boston won 5 games to 3. Star players in the series included Pittsburgh's Honus Wagner and Deacon Phillippi and Boston's Cy Young.

Phillippi pitched in five of Pittsburgh's eight World Series games against the Boston Pilgrims. He beat Cy Young in the first and third games. He beat Bill Dinneen in the fourth game. He lost to Bill Dinneen in the eight game, 3-0. Each player on the winning Boston Team received $ 1, 182.00. Because the Pirates owner willingly gave up his gate receipts, each player for the Pirates received $ 1,316.25. The price of a ticket was $ 1.50, and there were 16, 242 in attendance for the first game.

After the 1903 World Series, Deacon not only received his salary of $ 1,316.25, but he also received ten shares in the Pittsburgh Pirates.

In the old Federal League during 1912 & 1913, Deacon managed the Pittsburgh Team named the "Filipinos", named so after the Deacon himself. But the poorly organized and financed league collapsed, mainly because of the failure of the NY franchise to attract fans.


sources: www.serve.com/smythgen/Deacon/Deacon.htm
www.southdakotamagazine.com/editors_notebook.php?p=458
baseballcrank.com/archives2/2003/10/baseballpop_cul.php
www.baseball-reference.com/p/phillde01.shtml


Deacon+Phillippi Rural+Retreat+VA Wythe+County+VA minor+league+baseball appalachia appalachian+history appalachian+mountains+history