Original Dr Pepper bottler puts Dublin, Texas, on the map

Dublin Bottling Works in downtown Dublin, Texas, is a state historic site. The company began operation in 1891, as the nation’s first franchise bottler of original Dr. Pepper soft drinks.

 

Sam Houston Prim, a leading Dublin businessman, journeyed 90 miles to Waco to win the favor of Wade B. Morrison, who owned the rights to Dr. Pepper, a jazzy new soda that was formulated in Morrison’s Waco Old Corner Drug Store in 1885.

 

The time had come to expand distribution of the special syrup, and Prim came home with a bottling franchise contract in his hip pocket.

He set up the Dublin Dr. Pepper Bottling Company in 1891 to serve six rural counties in Central Texas, branching out from the hub in Dublin. It was a relatively small territory, but Prim was satisfied it was all he needed. He ran the company until he died in 1946 at age 82.

 

Ownership then passed to daughter Grace Elizabeth Prim Lyon. The company archivist said everyone anticipated that Grace would sell the company because female business owners were few and far between in 1946. “But Grace ran the company with an iron fist.”

 

She was at the helm in 1950 when Dr. Pepper officially became Dr Pepper (having dropped the “period”). Between 1975-82, Grace Prim and her general manager, Bill Kloster, chose to buck the trend that saw many soda companies and their affiliated bottlers switch their sweetener from real cane sugar to high-fructose corn syrup, due to the high prices of sugar.

However, the Dublin bottler of Dr Pepper opted to stick with sugar despite the increased costs. Their allegiance was to their customers who deserved the best blend of Dr Pepper possible. Prim and Kloster took on the role as “Keepers of the Sweet.”

 

Kloster cited a folksy philosophy that one ought to keep “dancin’ with who brung ya.” The sugary throwback drink produced by the plant came to be known unofficially as “Dublin Dr Pepper”…and it was in high demand by Dr Pepper fans.

 

When Grace Prim, who was childless, died in 1991, at age 92, she left the business to Kloster. 

With the Kloster family at the helm, relations between the small bottler and “big Dr Pepper” continue to sour over time. Eventually, in 2012, the Dublin bottler was given the legal boot and removed from the Dr Pepper network.

 

Bill Kloster, son, of the elder Bill Kloster, continued the family bottling tradition.

It was a tough pill to swallow, erasing more than a century of memories and loyalties to Dr Pepper. 

The identity of the Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling Company was stripped to the bone. 

Most of the 3,504 folks in the town of Dublin were on the verge of devastation. Their economic prosperity had been tied to the “notoriety of Dublin Dr Pepper” and the tourism revenue it had generated through the years. 

The Dublin Chamber of Commerce advocated that the town promote itself as the ‘Irish capital of Texas.” Early leaders gave primary streets Irish-sounding names (such as Patrick, Shannon and Erin) to give their Texas frontier town a sense of Irish identity.

 

The connection to Ireland’s capital city is mostly mythical, according to Texas historians. They believe that the term “Dublin” came from the early settler expression of “doublin’ up” – circling covered wagons at night on the prairie to defend against potential attackers.

Up from the ashes, however, has risen the Dublin Bottling Works, now specializing in a unique line of 15 “craft sodas” made with pure cane sugar. The company has essentially reinvented itself.

 

And “Old Doc’s Soda Shop” is open for business.