In 1894 in the United States of America, it was stated in the Times Picayune of Louisiana of 1894 that “Negro millionaires are not supposed to be numerous in this country”. Due to that belief, the Black American millionaires of the 1800s aren’t spoken of much because the topic is normally overshadowed by discussions of slavery in the South, discrimination in the North, and migrations to the West post the Civil War. In the midst of all that racism, bondage and internal migrations, there were in fact Black American millionaires in the 1800s such as Mary Ellen Pleasant, prior to the more noted Black millionaires such as Madam CJ Walker.
Charles Porter Grove – the Businessman and Dreamer of an Afro-American City
One such millionaire that most people don’t know anything out was a Black American man who was born enslaved named Charles Porter Grove of the state of Montana, owner of Montana and Illinois Gold Mining Company, mining promoter and leader/founder of what would have been Grove City, Montana. Having relocated to the West after the Civil War, Mr. Grove was well known as he wasn’t shy about revealing how much money he had if put to the test and also about telling others how he could help them get wealthy as well. One thing he didn’t like however was people believing that he wasn’t and could never be wealthy because he was a Black man.
Charles P. Grove Proved His Wealth on His Wedding Day
His feelings about being frowned upon and not trusted as a wealthy Black man were proven in the state of Kentucky when he married his wife in the most dramatic fashion that anyone had ever seen.
As the facts were written in the newspaper, no one knew of him in the state, and he introduced himself as the only Negro mine owner. (Becoming mine owners, or laying claim to mines, was a sure way for Black Americans, men and women, to become wealthy during that time). The only issue was that while some people were highly impressed, others weren’t and asked why doesn’t he wear a proper suit if he’s really rich and let go of that holey hat? This leads us to know that Grove’s attire wasn’t up to par as one would consider a wealthy man’s to be to many in the area.
Nevertheless, Mr. Grove sold stock at $5 per share of the mining company as president to the Louisville Colored Society, and when he heard the disparaging talk about him, he decided to show them what his money could buy.
Mr. Grove went out and purchased the “most fashionable suit of clothes and placed upon his head the glossiest to be had as well as donated his old suit to the man, a barber, who made the remarks about him, along with his holey hat!” And it was that same night that he married who was considered at that time the most beautiful Black woman in all of Louisville named Hattie Cruse, sending out invitations for a grand reception. By the way, Hattie Cruse his new wife, was dressed in “red corded silk and diamond ornaments” while he wore an “elegant suit with diamonds in profusion”[1]. He even hired a four horse open barouche which he had decorated out with American flags, and then he drove through the main streets of the city, accompanied by a full Black American brass band!
His reception was held at his boarding house and was illuminated from the cellar to attic, while a “Greek fire burned constantly from an upper window that gave a cardinal glow to the squares around”.
His reception that night was simply “out of sight”; nothing like it had ever been seen before in Louisville and may not again again for years! It truly stunned everyone who doubted him solely due to his attire and appearance because he was practical, but he wasn’t done yet!
After that grand introduction and wedding where he scooped up a 16 year old wife, an octoroon/mulatto, in Louisville, Kentucky [it was common to marry teens in the 1800s depending on the region], he went to Washington to work toward a climax of this whole ordeal. He and his new bride, along with a young white man who he introduced to people as his secretary and legal advisor only accepted clients who wanted to purchase shares from him if they were sent to him from the best of the best, superior Black Americans because he said that “he means to have his company and the stockholders made up of the COLORED FOUR HUNDRED”[2].
Charles P. Grove’s Career As Owner of Mining Promoter and Founder of Grove City for Afro-Americans Only
He didn’t ever want to sell to anyone white because his goal was to create GROVE CITY, an Afro American city, bought, paid and founded by. This was the dream Mr. Charles P. Grove had for is people, and he could see it as clear as day, and after having been scorned for so long by white people, well, he wouldn’t even sell them any shares.
It became apparent to everyone that he was proud to be BLACK. Mr. Grove himself was “a medium-sized, compactly built man, with a small round head, set on a short, thick neck and he was as black as the ace of spades.”
When it comes to the West in the 1800s, Mr. Grove may have come off practical miner and not very well dressed, but he was full of money – one of the West’s Black American millionaires – though he was accused of being a swindler.
That’s right. Many people accused him of swindling thousands from his own people all over the East and Southern regions of the USA. Although they accused him of swindling, even in the papers, there was a full investigation and the report concluded that “Charles Grove is All Right”.
(Source: The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Kentucky · Thursday, December 14, 1893)
Many Black Americans believed in that same dream of Charles P. Grove, and wanted in on what he promised. Some had already even started working and moving in on the lots that he sold to them at $5 a share with the promise to work the mines and be compensated.
Soon after there was much chatter about it being a lie and a scam, people saying that the money they were promised, they weren’t getting. Then there were others who stated that he was good on his word and that life out in the forming Grove City was just as expected.
A letter from one of the investors in Grove’s Grove City in Montana expresses delight in the city and confirms that Charles P. Grove was a man of his word. In the letter he wrote:
“We beg to say for the benefit of the people at large that we stand in awe at the sight of so great achievements accomplished by one of our race, in the person of Charles P. Grove. We are not deceived, even in the smallest representations made by our leader. We have visited the many mines and roamed with pleasure, wonder and surprise over the vast dominions in the possession of our company. We appeal to the judgement of all thinking people to leave their oppressed places of abode and come to the true land of the free in Grove City Montana. We have our homes, and not being encased withing the narrow limits of selfishness, we beg of our countrymen to follow our example and take up homes with us in our new city. True, Many investments are treacherous when not properly handled, but we are in a camp, well organized. The shafts are well sunk, and much ore is piled up around them. We have an easy way of living, with wages at $3.50 per day and neat little homes in which to live. We have nothing to fear. Agents are located in most of the large cities of our country, and at present stock is low. Therefore, let it be yours to grasp the opportunity of investing in the Montana and Illinois Gold Mining Company, thereby securing yourself a home as we have done, and a means of comparatively easy living, since the wagers far above those the average Eastern man receives.” [3]
The conclusion of the letter lists the names of all who agreed and confirmed from the Midwest to the East and South that Grove City was being greatly led by Charles P. Grove and there were many hands involved in securing this city as the city for Afro-Americans.
The Panic of 1893 & The Fall of Charles P. Grove and Grove City
Whatever the case may be, there was a Panic of 1893 that took things downhill for not only Charles P. Grove but everyone in the area. There was a downturn in banking, investors, railroad failures and more and fear swept the area and the value of gold (which is mined) was devalued severely. Many bank loans went into default, and many people even lost everything that they ever worked for – including Charles P. Grove.
This increased the harsh talk against him by both black and white people. Many Black Americans felt they had been swindled at that time during this massive industrial collapse because it literally destroyed the mining industry which was Charles P. Grove’s industry. Many mines closed, and Charles P. Grove’s mines ended up shutting down before he was able to make any money from them. This drove poor Charles P. Grove into a depressed state in the early 1900s, and he couldn’t get his assumed failure off his mind. It worried him sick mentally.
The Death of Charles P. Grove
At the end of his life, he and his family moved from the nice sized dwelling into a smaller home when he’d gotten ill. He could no longer support his own family and ended up in the county hospital to which he fled, returned home and got money from his wife who was trying to support herself and children. She ended up giving it to him as he wanted it to go back to the mines because deep down inside himself, he knew what he went out there for was there.
He wanted to strike it big for his family and Black people, even though they’d given up on him, thus, he went out to his mines alone, leaving her and their children behind again.
After about a year out at the “hills above Winston”, Charles P. Grove had been reported injured and he was retrieved from his cabin with non life threatening injuries. Soon after in April of 1910, his wife was able to divorce him, and Charles P Grove ended up living permanently in Radersburg, Montana (the location of his legitimate mining operations), a man who had lost his millions.
Ironically, the exact spot where he had laid his claim was found to be “one of the richest gold camps in the state”! [4]
Charles Porter Grove passed away on January, 6 1911 at 71 years old after prospect mining for 34 years in the area. He had frozen to death in Johnny’s Gulch near Radersburg and found by his half-brother, C.C. Smith.
A notice of Charles P. Grove’s estate was first posted in March 1911. Grove City never came to be, perishing with Charles P. Grove.
So was Charles P. Grove a scam artist or was he just a man who dreamed big and wanted to take his people with him on that dream of Grove City back in the 1800s? I think the latter is true. One thing that is definitely fact, Charles P Grove was one of those Black Millionaires with a very unique and controversial story that has been forgotten – until now.
Was Charles P. Grove a Scammer Or Not?
One big question is, how did an formerly enslaved get all the money he had to even begin selling shares and hiring people? The beginning of the story goes like this:
Around the late 1800s, he was mining in Johnny’s Gulch where he got some claims where he’d found some “fine specimen of gold”. He took them to Helena, Montana to get them examined by so-called experts, one being a man named Thomas Cruse. These experts figured he didn’t know much, so they asked Grove, how much of the gold he had of that sort. Grove replied “a whole mountain”.
The experts took at trip to the spot and then invited Charles P. Grove to dinner to where Grove being a former slave stated “Lord, I never eat at the table with white folks.” And he didn’t. Instead, Charles then reportedly salted the samples of his gold that the experts left in the hotel, in other words, made them more valuable by mixing them with ore. When the experts returned to the city of Helena with the gold after they ate, the samples were so rich that they locked Charles in a room so he couldn’t leave – basically kidnapping him – until they could draw up the paperwork and he could sign for his money![5]
[So this report in The Broadwater Opinion Paper of 1911 states that he scammed the white people of their money, but this isn’t true. Why? Because Grove wasn’t wrong. After his death, the area was much minerals and gold found in that area. Those who reported that story to the paper were more than likely upset that at that time, they hadn’t found any huge amounts gold immediately, the same as Grove hadn’t.]
Later in 1875, he began to sell shares to Black Americans all over the country while building along side others he brought with him from Kentucky after marrying his wife – doctors, lawyers, and laborers – who started building up the place, stores, churches and all. However, funds started to dry up during the Panic of 1893 and Charles Grove left to get more money to build. The people suffered who were left there, and the rest you’ve already read above.
He didn’t purposely set out to scam Black people, and he did sell big once to white people for what is now known as a mineral rich area so that he could gain funds to build Grove City. He just dreamed big and ran out of time and money to give back to Black people what white people took from them.
Sources:
- The Inter Ocean, Fri, Oct 20, 1893 ·Page 3
- The Times-Picayune, Sun, Jan 21, 1894 ·Page 23
- The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Kentucky · Thursday, December 14, 1893
- The Montana Record-Herald, Helena, Montana · Tuesday, March 14, 1911
- The Broadwater Opinion, Thu, Jan 12, 1911 ·Page A4
This article was written and researched by author and publisher, and founder of Black Entrepreneur History, Mirika Mayo Cornelius
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