This "mom & pop" soda maker can trace it roots back to 1885--the same year Dr. Pepper was patented. William Pepper & Company produced many soda flavors in its heyday--orange, cream, grape, root beer, birch beer, sarsaparilla, cola. During its final years in the '70s, only ginger ale & "Pepper-up", a lemon soda, were made.
in 1974, it was reported George Pepper, his wife, & 3 employees were making about 350 cases of soda a week in the 2 story, barn-like building pictured below at 1st & Walnut Street Ashland. Everything was done by hand. The equipment was ancient with the last plant upgrade happening in 1923. 1 employee also worked at Ashland State Hospital--so if a hospital maintenance emergency arose, production would stop at the bottling plant.
Wonder why Pepper's ginger ale had a unique flavor? It's reported Pepper's had ginger roots imported from Ethiopia which were cooked & mixed in a large kettle. It's also been said George had a Gypsy with a felt hat clean off the ginger that stuck to the sides of the kettle.
You could only find Pepper's soda in small stores. If store owners did not return bottles--they were dropped. George charged store owners 12 cents deposit on each bottle because over a 2 year period he lost 5,000 bottles valued at $1,100. George Pepper passed away in 1987 at the age of 82. All that is left of Pepper's soda today is old memorabilia sold on the internet. The bottling works building was sold in 1979.
1 final note: another Ashland branch of Pepper's--the Thomas Pepper family--made booze during pre-Prohibition Days. The whiskey was called "Old Rapp". More on that in a future post.
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