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In the summer shadows of Reconstruction-era Virginia, Wade Morrison stands at a crossroads—torn between the memory of a broken town and the promise of a boundless frontier. As Christiansburg heals slowly from war, whispers of Texas grow louder, tugging at the edges of his ambition. Farewells are spoken. Crates are packed. And across a thousand miles of rail, river, and red clay, a new chapter begins.

But even as Wade heads west, one quiet question lingers: who was the real Dr. Pepper? This episode unveils a surprising truth buried in the 1880 census—about the man behind the name, and the life he preferred to lead. It wasn’t medicine. And it wasn’t fame.

Featuring heartfelt goodbyes, the mystery of flavored seltzers, and the quiet birth of a legend, this episode traces the journey of a young man who would one day name a drink—but never forget the town that named him.

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Generational Healing Through Family History
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In the shadow of a nation torn by Civil War, a young boy in Christiansburg, Virginia, sweeps the floor of a quiet drug store—unaware that his path will one day lead to the naming of one of America’s most iconic sodas. This episode traces the early life of Wade Brockenbrough Morrison: The forming of his surroundings, childhood, boyhood, the backdrop of a civil war, into the heartbreak of his father’s death in 1866, and his first steps into manhood under the mentorship of a kindhearted physician named Dr. William Pepper. Through the quiet rituals of small-town life—church bells, peppermint drops, and the hiss of hand-mixed seltzer water—young Wade learns how to carry grief, serve others, and look ahead with hope.

As the town of Christiansburg limps through reconstruction, Wade finds a glimmer of light behind the counter of a pharmacy and the kindness of a girl named Minnie Pepper. But with each passing season, the question looms: will he stay where his roots were planted… or follow the call of a future only he can see?

Family History Drama. True Ancestry. Told like legend.

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Generational Healing Through Family History
Memories Are Passed Through DNA From Your Grandparents, Say Scientists
https://www.buzzworthy.com/memories-dna-grandparents/

Sound Credits: https://freesound.org

INSTAGRAM:
@FamilyHistoryDrama
@TravisM.Heaton

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The article snippet below is all I could find on the life of an Italian legend in the San Gabriel Canyon, by the name of Bartholdi. No full name is given, and i could not locate him on any census. His arrival is as mysterious as his death was tragic.

“On the mesa above the hogan of Luisenna, an Italian shoemaker, Bartholdi, built a rude shelter of rocks and mud in 1872. Bartholdi had set up a boot and shoe repair shop at The Forks the year before, and had a good business but he, too, got the Gold Fever, and struck out for himself within a year. In later years this old Italian who was called "Bismark" by his friends, became more interested in his bees, to whom he gave the hut which still stands on the hill, and in the garden, vineyard and orchard which he had planted on the flat below. There he built a substantial house from the lumber of the abandoned hydraulic flumes, and developed an Old World atmosphere in his secluded self-sufficiency. He had a dozen varieties of grapes which he mixed to make a light red wine which had no name, but was of an unusual delicacy of bouquet. In the Fall of 1917 Bartholdi was riding his burro along the trail when the animal shied from the whizz of a rattlesnake, unseating the old man, whose foot stuck in the stirrup. The burro dragged him to safety but in trying to release the foot bit him, causing an infection from which he died. Although badly damaged by the March floods this vineyard is still held by Bartholdi's heirs and has been used in recent years as a picnic place for an Italian Club known as ‘Club Baton’”. (Trails Magazine, Summer 1938, Pg 11)

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🕵️‍♂️ Find me at https://www.FamilyHistoryDrama.com
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Generational Healing Through Family History
Memories Are Passed Through DNA From Your Grandparents, Say Scientists
https://www.buzzworthy.com/memories-dna-grandparents/

Sound Credits: https://freesound.org

INSTAGRAM:
@FamilyHistoryDrama
@TravisM.Heaton