Edwin Wiley Grove, III
Edwin Wiley Grove, III, was as unlike his dissolute father as it is possible to be. (His photo as a child appears with his father and grandfather in a previous post.) An in-depth article about Edwin appeared the St. Louis Star and Times on Jun 7, 1934, just a week after his father had passed away from chronic alcoholism.
Edwin III, who was 22 at the time this article came out, had no interest whatsoever in the family drug business. A graduate of Worcester Academy in Massachusetts -- a boarding prep school -- he was a lover of automobiles, and enjoyed working as a mechanic. He started his own business, the Missouri Brake Service, in the garage attached to his family's St. Louis mansion.
E.W. Grove, III, Millionaire, an Auto Mechanic
St. Louis Heir Dodges Parties -- Earns Money in His Own Business.
A grinning, grease-stained face popped up from the vitals of a half-built automobile trailer and its owner extended a bare arm in greeting.
"That's me," he replied to a reporter's question.
He wore tattered brown trousers, still with old grease, nondescript shoes and a sleeveless athletic shirt. He looked like what he is, a hard-working auto mechanic.
Edwin III was heir to one-fourth of what was left of his father's millions, as well as a beneficiary of one-sixth of a trust fund set up by his grandfather, which was valued at about $18 million in 1931. He would not inherit until the age of 30, but would be provided with the funds to live on until that time.
(I would note that the 1930 census of the Grove family shows them to have five servants, all white. There was a butler, a yard man, a cook, and two maids.)
A contemporary photo of the Grove Estate in tony Hampton Park in St. Louis. The house is 9,400 sq. ft. and last sold for almost $3 million.
. . . I haven't the faintest idea how much money I have," he told the reporter. "If someone told me I wouldn't know whether he was right or wrong. Fact is, I don't need any money. I've been able to make what little I want out of this business.
"You see, I don't go any place. Parties and such don't interest me. I just stay here and run the business and tinker with cars."
Edwin inherited about $7 million in 1942, and became a director of Grove Laboratories. (The name of the Paris Medicine Company was changed after his father's death in 1934.). He was late to marry, but in 1945, at the age of 33, he tied the knot with a hometown girl named Alyce Allen; the simple wedding took place in the Grove St. Louis home. The couple proceeded to have three children -- all boys --in 1945, 1948, and 1950. The children were Edwin Wiley Grove, IV, David Anthony Grove, and Geoffrey Allen Grove.
He apparently did not like living in St. Louis, and in about 1950, the family moved to Aspen, Colorado, and in the fall of 1954, they relocated to Maine. They bought a house in Lincolnville, but were temporarily renting a large house in Northport, Maine, a few miles away, while the Lincolnville house was being renovated.
In mid-December 1954, Alyce Grove was nearing the end of her fourth pregnancy, and she and Edwin drove to Boston to wait for the baby there, as there were no good hospitals nearby in Maine. They left their sons in the care of a caretaker couple in their late 50s, Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Bean.
On the night of December 15, a fire destroyed the 22-room villa, killing the three boys and the Beans. The story made national news. From the December 16 Asheville Citizen-Times:
Flames fanned by winds off the Atlantic Ocean leveled the two-story, antique-crammed showplace in less than an hour. Loss was estimated unofficially at $50,000.
The rented mansion had belonged to Raymond Goodrich, who was perhaps associated with the B.F. Goodrich tire family, who often stayed at the Grove Park Inn back in the day. It had been built by European Lee Porter, who used paneling from a French chateau, a marble fireplace from Italy, and a wrought-iron staircase from Germany to build the fine home.
The St. Louis Post Dispatch reported that:
. . . Because of the heat from the ruins, it was seven hours before firemen could make a search. The five bodies were found in the cellar. . . .
Of undetermined origin, the flames were discovered about dawn by a passing State Highway patrolman. He ran to the flaming structure and pounded on the front door in an effort to awaken anyone who might be inside but he was unable to enter because of the intense heat.
Brisk winds blowing in off the Atlantic fanned the flames which ate rapidly into the wood-paneled, luxuriously furnished house despite a heavy rain. The property of a Camden (Me.) publishing executive, the frame structure was virtually destroyed before firemen of nearby Belfast could reach the seen.
The nearest neighbor, Robie Ames, a quarter-mile away, said lights were observed in the 22-room house about 11 o'clock last night. When he saw the place again today it was 'all ablaze -- just like a furnace.'
Edwin III had just visited with his sons the day before, and had returned to Boston to be with his wife, who collapsed upon hearing the news. On Christmas Eve, she gave birth in Boston to a fourth son, who was named John "Tyler" Grove.
Edwin died in Dade City, Florida in 1967. I don't think he worked for his family's company for very long; his younger brother seemed to take over the family business. His wife lived until 2002 in various Florida towns, including Key Biscayne and Indian River Shores. She was survived by her only son, J. Tyler Grove. who lived in Vero Beach. Tyler died in February of 2024, and left two daughters, two stepchildren, and ten grandchildren. He was an outdoor person who loved sailing, and seemed to be as down to earth as his father.
John "Tyler" Grove
Edwin III's younger brother, James Henry Grove, who graduated from MIT, was Chairman of the Board of Grove Laboratories in St. Louis for many years. After his death in 1986, Grove Laboratories was bought out by Bristol-Myers. He and his wife, Ann Louise Scarritt, had two sons and a daughter.
His younger sister, Gertrude, married Arthur Stanley Bland, Jr. They had one daughter. Gertrude died in 2002.
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