Dr. Sterns never practiced medicine in Freeborn County, yet his name was an interesting part of area life for over four decades. The name of this alleged doctor was actually used to sell a root beer flavored soft drink once produced by the Albert Lea Bottling Works.

Dr. Sterns’ name was obviously inspired by an earlier beverage sold with the label of Dr. Pepper. And, like the local product, a mythical doctor was involved.

Information from the Dr. Pepper Museum of Waco, Texas, says this famous beverage was created by a Dr. Alderton for use at the soda fountain of Waco’s Morrison Drug Store in 1885. Thus, this product is the nation’s oldest soft drink, according to a museum spokeswoman, and reportedly a year older than Coca-Cola.

Dr. Sterns was just one of many imitation beverages through the years which have used the Dr. name as part of their labels. A current example is Dr. Thunder sold by Wal-Mart.

This interest in Dr. Sterns and other beverages once bottled and sold by the Albert Lea Bottling Works was recently revived when Marie Bailey of Morton, Minn., sent a large envelope to the Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce. Inside this envelope were legal documents and correspondence for three of the beverages once created in Albert Lea.

Marie’s husband, Norman (who died in 1993), was a distributive education and vocational teacher in the Albert Lea school system.

In the 1960s, Norman was given the assignment of converting the former bottling works building on West William Street into classrooms and workshops. He found the discarded documents left by the Wiegand family which once owned and operated the bottling works. These items were saved as mementos of the city’s past history. As Marie recently prepared to

move from Morton to Willmar, she decided to send this material to Albert Lea to become a part of the files of the Freeborn County Historical Museum Library.

One of the legal documents was issued by the U.S. Patent Office on Feb. 12, 1924. It’s Trademark 179,793 for the use of the Dr. Sterns’ name for a root beer beverage sold by K. Wiegand and Sons and their Albert Bottling Works.

An interesting detail with this document shows that Dr. Sterns’ Root Beer brand had actually been bottled and sold in Minnesota since March 5, 1915. The trademark was issued because this beverage had been &uot;in bona fide use not less than one year in interstate commerce.&uot;

This clearly indicates that in 1923 the Albert Lea Bottling Works started to sell Dr. Sterns’ Root Beer in north-central Iowa.

For over 50 years the three Wiegand brothers and their mother operated the Albert Lea Bottling Works, and their name became locally synonymous with soft drinks. However, the concept of producing and selling soda pop in bottles actually started in the 1890s with the partnership firm of Olson and Hanson at 147 W. College St., in the block just to the west of the courthouse. The firm, already known as the Albert Lea Bottling Works, was purchased from Edward Olson by Adam Wiegand in 1904.

Wiegand was the owner and operator of a dry goods store located at the corner of South Broadway Avenue and West William. Street. The three-story brick structure at the southwest corner of this intersection, once known as the Wiegand Building, was for many years the location of a bank, Guiney’s Place (a bar and restaurant), a drug store,

a discount sales operation, and now Fisher’s Jewelers and Northland Karate .

Shortly after purchasing the bottling works, Adam Wiegand became ill and died in March of 1907. This meant that his wife, Katherine, and three sons, Robert, William and Carlyle, had to take over the operations of the new family business.

Next: In part two will be more information about the Albert Lea Bottling Works and its beverage products, plus one of the strangest ingredients ever blended into an American soda pop concoction.