Page 11 - Robeson Living Fall 2017

drinks. He was well liked in the industry and according to to market it, with some conditions. They said they would
several of the new investors in Tip Corp., they made their take it on only if they could use the old Mountain Dew bottle
investment in the company because of their friendship with since they still had some at the plant from the old offering
Bill jones and they never really expected to see a return on and they weren’t interested in investing in a new bottle. Also,
their investments. The new investors, who each chipped in they wanted to call it the New Mountain Dew to distinguish
the grand sum of $1500 to be part of the Tip reorganization, it from the old formula, which had not been successful. With
were Wythe M. Hull of the Marion Bottling Co., Bill Jones, all the time and effort Jones had invested in his little project,
Hartman Beverage Co., Richard Minges, of Fayetteville, NC he wasn’t willing to take a chance on being turned down and
and his brother Herman Minges of Lumberton, NC. The agreed.
Minges were each Pepsi-Cola bottlers in their respective
towns. Oh, and one more thing- along with his investment, Bottling of this new Mountain Dew drink began in 1961 with
By Neill Lee Allie Hartman told Jones that he would toss in to the deal an the Minges bottlers marketing it in Columbus County, NC,
old trademark called Mountain Dew. Jones accepted. possibly to compete with Sun Drop, which is still a favorite
in Columbus County even to today. As it gained much favor
According to some accounts Herman Minges suggested to in Columbus County, the Minges, realizing they had a good
Jones that a new soft drink would be the thing to really help thing, took this new drink to their other bottling locations in
Tip Corp. in its recovery and Jones informed him he was North Carolina. As sales continued to rise quickly after its
working on this. So Bill Jones got to work on the next rendi- introduction, activity at Tip Corp. in Marion hummed along
tion of Mountain Dew and came up with a lemon-lime drink to keep up with the demand for the formula that the bottlers
to be sold by Tip. Apparently it had good success at first but needed to meet the soaring demand from the public when
did not do well for very long. Tip and Mountain Dew were supplies of their new drink ran low in Lumberton and other
both on the downward spiral once again. Looks like the sec- NC locations. Family members recount that Mr. Jones very
ond strike for our Mountain Dew. Except the intrepid Bill frequently had to leave home and go in to Tip to make a quick
Jones was not done yet. Read on. batch of the syrup and rush it all the way down to Lumberton
and elsewhere to meet the bottlers demands. Be careful what
Apparently, based on his actions, Mr. Bill Jones was deter- you ask for Mr. Jones, you might get it. I don’t really think he
mined not to let our underachieving little drink fade into minded. He probably got what he asked for, and wanted, af-
history. He turned into a regular chemist and made the top ter all those years of not giving up when, in September 1964,
floor of the Tip building into a veritable chem lab. Then he Pepsi-Cola Co. purchased the rights to Mountain Dew from
gave his family members the pleasure of being the guinea Tip Corp. of Marion, VA.
pigs who got to sample his new concoction against other es-
tablished soft drinks. If they didn’t choose his new mixture So, although Lumberton is not where Mountain Dew started,
as their drink of choice, it was back to the lab for Mr. Jones. it is where it was made, bottled, and delivered when it began
According to one daughter, Jones wanted a drink to help its rise to becoming a nationwide and worldwide hit. And
overcome that afternoon lull that we all have at about 2:30pm our neighbors in Columbus County were the first to recog-
each day so his mixture had more caffeine than many oth- nize what a great drink it was. If you walk in any grocery or
ers. In what may have been his key move, he also changed convenience store today, you know how the story turned out.
direction in his endeavors and added orange juice to his
lemon-lime mixture. He continued getting those closest to
him to be his taste testers, first with the employees at Tip,
then he took their favorites home to try on his family. Ac-
cording to some people familiar with his efforts, Jones would
also send samples down to the Minges in North Carolina for
their opinions. Finally, after several years of experimenting,
it appeared that Jones had hit on a potential winning formula
with his new version of Mountain Dew. Was there new life
for this drink that had been gathering dust in the back room
of the Tip Corp.?

The next thing Bill Jones did was to bring his new drink to
the Minges bottling plant in Lumberton to see how folks
liked it here. He did his taste testing with the plant employ-
ees and when they found it to their liking, the Minges agreed

Robeson Living ~ Fall 2017 Page 11