Messenger Staff Reporter

Community involvement has always been important to Union City Coca-Cola® Bottling Co. and its owners.

So it’s certainly fitting that the community will be a key part of the celebration this year as the local company celebrates its 100th anniversary.

While Coke® itself actually dates back to 1886, the soft drink’s local roots go back to 1909 — when it was first bottled in Union City.

A year-long celebration of the company’s centennial will include several small events throughout the year, according to Newell Graham, chief executive officer, and his son, Richard Graham, operations manager.

The main event, though, will be a pre-Fourth of July celebration tentatively scheduled for July 1 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Obion County Courthouse, where Union City Coca-Cola will serve 1,000 hot dogs, chips and Cokes to the community and give away the last of the locally-produced 6.5-ounce returnable glass bottles of Coke.

“It will be sort of a culminating celebration,” Richard Graham said.

“The biggest holiday of the year is Fourth of July week and summer is always our best selling period with ballgames and other activities,” Newell Graham said. “We came up with hot dogs because of hot dogs, apple pie and Coca-Cola — kind of all-American.”

So far, the other smaller festivities are slated to include a 100-day giveaway of a case of Cokes each day on local radio starting Monday; a night out with the Union City Greyhounds featuring a giveaway of logo fans and the last locally-produced 6.5-ounce returnable bottles on June 5; a giveaway of 100 gallons of Coke to one winner during the Obion County Fair Aug. 10-15; and possibly something in conjunction with Corn Fest in September.

In a nod to local tourism and agriculture, the company’s official logo for the 100th anniversary features an American Bald Eagle, cypress trees and ducks, all uniquely associated with Reelfoot Lake and tourism, and a field of corn to pay tribute to the local farming industry.

The early years

The groundwork for Coke’s presence in Union City actually began prior to 1909. Newell Graham’s maternal grandfather, Richard Newell Poindexter, who already had some family members rooted in the business, founded the Coca-Cola company in Meridian, Miss., in 1904. Poindexter then got his brother-in-law, railroad businessman Hugh Smith — better known as “Coca-Cola” Smith — interested in a Coke franchise. He, in turn, bought the franchise from the Carson family in Paducah, Ky., in late 1908 and started production in Union City in 1909.

“That’s why we say 1909 is our founding era,” Graham said.

The Union City plant started production in a building on South Division Street between East Church and East Main streets.

Smith also operated the Coke production plants in Martin, Dyersburg, Fulton, and Hickman, Ky. When he died in the 1940s, Newell Graham’s parents, the late Hardy Graham and Cora Lee (Poindexter) Graham — who, today at age 92, still lives in the Union City home Smith built in the 1920s — and his aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Zed Hawkins, bought the Union City and Martin plants from the estate.

Mr. and Mrs. Hardy Graham moved to Union City from Meridian in 1946 to run the Union City production plant.

“That’s when the Grahams came to Union City,” Newell Graham said. “I was born in 1947 and have been here all my life.”

He grew up in the family business and recalled he was sweeping floors by the age of 10.

“Being the owner’s son, wage and hour didn’t apply, so I think I went to work in the summers full-time at about (age) 14 or 15,” he said. “(Through the years) I swept the floor, separated bottles when we had returnables, worked in production, ran a coin catering route, went with the service people, never ran a bottle-can route but was a helper for a number of years … saw all aspects (of the business).”

Over the years, the Union City company expanded and moved production operations to its current location on East Reelfoot Avenue in 1968, according to the elder Graham. The Union City plant has had only two locations throughout its 100-year history.

While Coke was produced at both locations, the carefully-guard secret syrup was never made locally. Graham said the syrup came in 55-gallon barrels in the old days and then in 5,000-gallon tanker trucks in more recent years, with the local bottling company adding the carbonated water, mixing it, bottling it and then distributing the drink.

Union City Coca-Cola was the first bottler to convert to 100 percent plastic cartons and converted to the use of a plastic case that Hardy Graham actually invented.

Newell Graham came back from college and the military in 1972 and shortly thereafter took the reins of the local company. He chuckled and said it’s somewhat debatable when he actually took over from his father — whose heavy community involvement included serving as mayor of Union City from 1950-58, school board chairman from 1958-64 and chairman of the local industrial board for two or three decades.

“My father never told me when I took over,” he said. “I came back out of the Navy in 1972. (My father) was never the full-time manager. His contract with the partners called for part-time work. That’s how he was allowed to be mayor and do all that stuff for years. I came back in ’72 and basically filled a vacuum. At some point, I took over but he never really told me. I guess you’d say when I moved his law books out of here when he was on a trip. He left long enough for me to get the books out.”

Community service

Newell Graham said his father was “very philanthropic” throughout his lifetime, with the local plant heavily involved in fund-raising efforts and being responsible for the erection of countless scoreboards for every school in its territory for some 50 years.

In the 1950s, Hardy Graham placed the first cinders on the school track, and in the early ’60s, when Newell played basketball in middle school, his father provided the heating system for the building’s gymnasium.

“And the lights (on the football field) — he dug one of the holes himself,” Newell said. “When he was mayor, he challenged the city council to dig a hole and put a light up for the field. He personally dug his own hole.”

In addition to being active in Union City, Hardy Graham was also instrumental in efforts that resulted in what is now known as the University of Tennessee at Martin becoming a four-year institution. The stadium there is named in his honor.

In the 1980s, Graham Park was named in honor of Hardy Graham, who had donated some of the land on the east side of what was formerly known as Grove Creek Park.

He was also active in the founding of the now-thriving Rotary Scholarship Program and was instrumental in the program receiving funds from the Verhine Estate, which, according to his son, is why the program today is able to give away about $160,000 in Verhine and $140,000 in regular Rotary Scholarships each year.

Even the practice of giving back to the community has a colorful history for the Graham family. Both Newell Graham and his son grew up hearing stories about Smith’s efforts to help those in need at Christmas, though their versions vary slightly. 

“The legend I grew up hearing was that at Christmas, Hugh Smith used to take a dump truck full of presents to Samburg and dump them in the street,” Richard Graham said.

“I heard it was a pickup truck and he would throw them out in the parade,” his father said. “He did take candy and little gifts and presents and played Santa Claus in Samburg. He had a lake house down there. It’s still there, but it’s owned by the university now. He had the first air-conditioning in Obion County and had the first telephone outside of Hornbeak or Union City.”

Changing times

The Grahams have seen a lot of changes over the years — from the appearance of soft drink containers to the hundreds of different beverages carried by the Coca-Cola company. One of the most significant changes locally, though, came in February 2007 when the Union City plant stopped production.

Today, Union City Coca-Cola Bottling Co. functions as a sales, distribution and administration facility.

“We had slowly gotten down to where we weren’t producing a huge percentage of what was sold anyway,” Richard Graham said, explaining that the Union City plant never did the production of cans. “Over the years, as cans became more prevalent, the percentage of what we produced was lowered.”

“At one time, there were 1,500 Coke plants in United States. Now, there are only 73 ownership groups,” his father added. “There are multiple plants, but only 73 ownership groups. That’s quite a change.”

Newell Graham’s older brother, Hardy Poindexter Graham, still runs the Meridian Coca-Cola plant.

Among the changes Newell Graham has seen are the evolution of the 6.5-ounce bottle of Coke for a nickel — the earliest he can recall — to the cans and the sleek plastic bottles more prevalent in today’s society.

The last of the 6.5-ounce glass bottles filled at the Union City plant are those which will be given away as part of the 100th anniversary celebration this summer. They represent a piece of the nostalgia and Americana that have become synonymous with Coca-Cola over the years.

“We filled every 6.5-ounce bottle we had,” Newell Graham said. “We still have a number of cases left. Part of the celebration will be to give away the last run of Coke from Union City.”

And, once again, Union City Coca-Cola is giving something back to the community it calls home.

Staff Reporter Chris Menees may be contacted by e-mail at cmenees@ucmessenger.com.

Published in The Messenger 3.18.09