James C. Mayfield (born c. 1856) was an American businessman who bought one third of the rights to the
Pemberton Medicine Company Pemberton may refer to:
People
*Pemberton (surname)
Places
Pemberton is the name of several places:
Australia
*Pemberton, Queensland, a neighbourhood in Windemere in the Bundaberg Region
*Pemberton, Western Australia
Canada
*Pemberton, British ...
(founded by
John Pemberton
John Stith Pemberton (July 8, 1831 – August 16, 1888) was an American pharmacist and Confederate States Army veteran who is best known as the inventor of Coca-Cola. On May 8, 1886, he developed an early version of a beverage that would later ...
) in 1888. Mayfield was under the mistaken impression that he had acquired the rights to
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...
, but in fact Pemberton had already sold a stake to the formula to two other individuals,
Margaret Dozier and
Woolfolk Walker. Moreover, Pemberton sold the rights to manufacture Coca-Cola a second time that year, to
Asa Candler
Asa Griggs Candler Sr. (December 30, 1851 – March 12, 1929) was an American business tycoon and politician who in 1888 purchased the Coca-Cola recipe for $238.98 () from chemist John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta, Georgia. Candler founded th ...
.
Mayfield nevertheless reincorporated the Pemberton Medicine Company in 1894, as the
Wine Coca Company, and attempted to continue selling Coca-Cola (under the name of
Pemberton's French Wine Coca
Pemberton's French Wine Coca was a coca wine created by the druggist John Pemberton, the inventor of Coca-Cola.
It was an alcoholic beverage, mixed with coca, kola nut, and damiana. The original recipe contained the ingredient cocaethylene ...
, but with the formula modified to resemble Coke).
His ex-wife, under the pseudonym
Diva Brown also attempted to sell a Coca-Cola imitation, called
My-Cola. She claimed her beverage used Pemberton's original formula, although Mayfield disputed it.
In 1899 Mayfield and his sons founded the
Celery Cola Company in
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County. The population was 200,733 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List ...
.
In 1913 Mayfield purchased the rights to the trade marked term "Dope" from the successors of the National Dope Company of Birmingham. He sold those rights in December to the
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...
-based
Koke Company of America which he had founded in 1911.
[''Coca-Cola Company v. Koke Company of America.'' (December 6, 1920) United States Supreme Court. 254 U.S. 143]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayfield, J. C.
American businesspeople
Year of birth missing
Year of death missing