Asa Griggs Candler, manufacturer and philanthropist, is known as the founder of the Coca-Cola Company.
Background
Asa Griggs Candler was born on December 30, 1851 on a farm near Villa Rica, in Carroll County, Georgia, United States; son of Samuel Charles and Martha (Beall) Candler. His father was a country merchant and farmer of ability. The family consisted of eleven children, and, of the seven boys, at least four rose to prominence in public life. One of Asa's brothers (Warren A. ), became a bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, another (John S. ), served on the Georgia supreme court, and a third (Milton A. ), held a seat in the federal congress.
Education
Candler's early years were spent on the farm. He had good educational opportunities for the times and was prepared, in several academies, for admission to the junior class in the state university, but never entered. Early in life he developed a desire to become a physician, spent some time studying medicine under private tuition, and while so engaged became a trained pharmacist.
Career
Candler's ambition to practise medicine was never realized, but his knowledge of drugs led ultimately to his success in the business world. In 1873 he went to Atlanta and secured a position with a druggist, George J. Howard. He soon exhibited the business acumen for which he later became noted, developed a prosperous drug business, and was ready to seize his first great opportunity. In 1887 he bought the formula for Coca Cola from a business partner, improved the process, and about 1890, sold his wholesale drug business to devote his entire attention to the new venture. Under his direction, the Coca-Cola Company developed rapidly into one of the most prosperous business enterprises in the South. In 1909, the federal government, acting upon a report of the secretary of agriculture and under the provisions of the Food and Drugs Act, filed a libel praying the condemnation and forfeiture of a quantity of Coca Cola. The case was carried through the lower federal courts to the Supreme Court and remanded for trial in the federal court for the eastern district of Tennessee. Conflicting testimony was presented alleging and denying that the amount of caffeine contained in Coca Cola was deleterious to health. The company, however, without admitting the charges stated that it had made modifications in the process of manufacture. Judgment of forfeiture was then entered (1917) against the company and it was ordered to pay the costs of court. Candler sold the business in 1919 for $25, 000, 000. With rapidly increasing wealth at his disposal, Candler was among the first to see the great future in Atlanta real estate, a field of activity which he had entered in a small way almost upon his arrival in the city. He undoubtedly possessed in high degree the Midas-touch, but from the very beginning of his career he exhibited philanthropic interests. Almost single-handed he prevented a disastrous real-estate panic in Atlanta in 1907, buying great quantities of real estate to prevent a slump and in many cases turning later profits over to original holders. One of the most conspicuous of his altruistic services was in the early years of the World War. Cotton, the staple crop of the South, had declined far below the cost of production, growers were faced with ruin, and the "buy a bale" movement had proved ineffective. Candler suddenly came forward with an offer, widely circulated throughout the cotton region, to lend six cents a pound on all cotton stored in warehouses to an amount up to $30, 000, 000; and when this sum had been rapidly exhausted, he borrowed additional funds and continued to lend. To aid the plan he constructed a warehouse covering forty acres. In a relatively short time he had in large measure allayed the panic, and as the war went on and the demand for cotton increased the producers were enabled to market their stores at a fair price. Instances of similar character were frequent in his career. In a crisis in the affairs of the city government, he was drafted into service as mayor of Atlanta, 1917-18, aided in the reorganization of municipal administration, untangled financial difficulties, and frequently advanced from his private resources funds to accomplish needed public improvements, for which the city was not then able to pay.
Long interested in Emory College, a small denominational institution, located near Atlanta, he made possible, by an initial gift of $1, 000, 000, its removal to Atlanta and its expansion into Emory University. All told, his gifts to that university amounted to $7, 000, 000. Always particularly concerned in medical education, he constructed on the campus of the university, adjoining its medical school, a teaching hospital at a cost of nearly $2, 000, 000.
Achievements
Throughout his life he exhibited philanthropic interests and one of his most notable contributions was endowment which led to expansion of the Emory College into Emory University.
He was instrumental in the construction of a down-town institutional church plant and of a hospital under church control.
Candler Field, the site of the present-day Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, was named after him, as is Candler Park in Atlanta.
Asa Candler was also a philanthropist, endowing numerous schools and universities as well as the Candler Hospital in Savannah, Georgia.
Works
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book
Religion
Throughout his life he was deeply attached to the Methodist church and a large part of his interest and of his wealth was devoted to that institution.
Personality
Asa Candler was a philanthropist.
Connections
He was married on January 15, 1878, to Lucy Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the druggist who gave him his first job in Atlanta and later became his business partner. In 1923, after the death of his first wife, he married Mrs. Mary L. Reagin.
