1904 Coca Cola ad

Shreveport Times, June 1, 1904, page 3.

This is a bit confusing. Joseph Biedenharn didn’t get to Monroe until the early teens. Before then, he had been bottling Coke in Vicksburg at the family candy company, which was the first bottling of Coca Cola in the country. The Ouachita Valley Bottling Works was here at that time. Maybe they were having bottled Cokes shipped to Monroe from Vicksburg to act as a distribution point.

Here is a News Star Article from February 12, 1912, Page 5 announcing the Biedenharn family had bought out the Ouachita Valley Bottling Works and a Biedenharn (that would be Joseph) was coming to take it over.