Fletcher Davis of Athens, Texas claimed to have invented the hamburger. So, was Athens, TX really the birthplace of the hamburger?

Hamburger History

Word on the street is that in the 1880s, Fletcher Davis opened a lunch counter in Athens, Texas, In that restaurant he served what was called a "burger". His hamburger plate consisted of a fried ground beef patty, topped with mustard and Bermuda onion, sandwiched between two slices of bread, with a pickle on the side. Sounds good. Basic, but good.

Birthplace of the Hamburger Claim

As the claim goes, in 1904, Davis and his wife Ciddy ran a sandwich stand at the St. Louis World’s Fair. Although not well documented, a historian named Frank X. Tolbert said that someone else said (Athens resident Clint Murchison) that his grandfather said that the hamburger dated back to the 1880s and was invented by "Old Dave" (Fletcher Davis). Tolbert did receive a photo from 1904 of Old Dave’s Hamburger Stand as evidence of the claim. The historian wrote about it in Tolbert’s Texas.

Also the New York Tribune attributed the innovation of the hamburger to a lunch stand on the World’s Fair midway, but didn’t name it.

You can read the whole story here.