Discover and Celebrate the Bliss of Asheville's Edwin Wiley Grove

Learn How a Fateful Case of Hiccups was Instrumental in the Beginning of Grove's Love Affair with Asheville... Culminating in the Building of the Grove Park Hotel and the Grove Arcade.

"... Asheville could be made a great playground for eastern and western tourists and…could be to the east and south what Los Angeles is to the west...." Edwin Grove

Edwin Wiley Grove was one of the major "builders of Asheville" ... a visionary who saw and helped develop Asheville's enormous potential.

Grove's love affair with Asheville began in1897 when he developed a chronic case of hiccups which caused bleeding and left him bedridden. His doctor (coincidntally the same doctor who treated George Washington Vanderbilt's mother in Asheville) prescribed a trip to the mountains of North Carolina to recuperate. In Asheville, Grove's hiccups ceased and and his health thrived, Thus a fateful case of hiccups began Grove's love affair with Asheville.

According to Wikipedia "... Edwin Wiley Grove (1850 – 1927) was a self-made millionaire most famous for his "Grove's Tasteless Chill Tonic." In this chill tonic, which came out 1878, Grove found a way to bottle a quinine mixture without there being a bitter taste. The tasteless chill tonic, who some say was not all that tasteless, was a lot better than taking straight quinine for fevers and chills caused by malaria. A sweet syrup and lemon flavor was added to Quinine, cinchonine and cinchonidine, which were the main ingredients in crystal form in the tonic. Some sources state that by 1890, more bottles of Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic were sold than bottles of Coca-Cola...."

December 27, 1850:    Edwin Wiley Grove is born in Whiteville, Tennessee

1874:    Grove travels to Paris, Tennessee and becomes a clerk in a drug store for Dr. S.H. Caldwell.

1877:    Grove formulates Ferrine, a quinine product which is a forerunner to his chill tonic, as a treatment for malaria. Malaria, commonly referred to as the “scourge of the South” was prevalent as far north as Grove’s Tennessee Valley home. Spring floods often created pools of stagnant water which in turn became breeding grounds for malaria-causing mosquitos. In the '30's and 40's, the Tennessee Valley Authority put flood control projects into effect, dramatically reducing outbreaks of malaria. Soon other areas followed suit and outbreaks of malaria became increasingly rare, spelling the death-knell for "chill tonics" like Grove's.

1880:    Grove buys out Dr. Caldwell’s drug store and establishes Grove’s Pharmacy

1885: Grove formulates Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic, sold over the counter with half the strength of Febriline. While not exactly 'tasteless', the tonic became an overnight sensation and was to be a best-seller for decades.

1886: Grove organizes Paris Medicine Company with the help of local Paris TN investors, for the manufacture and sale of Grove’s Tasteless Chill TonicAugust 20, 1889: State of Tennessee issues a charter to the Paris Medicine Company and the company began to move its operation to St. Louis. Grove sell his Paris TN home

1890:    More bottles of Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic are sold than bottles of Coca-Cola (which at the time had been a 'tonic' and a household name for decades). The British Army makes Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic standard issue for every soldier deployed to mosquito-infested lands. Paris Medicine Company erects a building on St. Louis's Main Street.  

1891: Paris Medicine Company completes its move to it new St. Louis headquarters and receives its license to do business in Missouri on August 8.

 

1893:   Paris Medicine Company copyrights the name of "Laxative Bromo Quinine" which he formulated as a treatment for "La Grippe", aka influenza. Each tablet contained phenacetin, which also worked to relieve the symptoms of colds and headaches.

1894:   Paris Medicine Company acquires rights to Dr. Porter’s Antiseptic Healing Oil

1896: Grove’s Laxitive Bromo Quinine, the world’s first cold tablets, are released The machine which manufacturers and counts the tablets and fills the boxes is invented by Grove’s soon-to-be-son-in-law, Fred Seely. The box read:

 

“An excellent remedy for Coughs and Colds. Relieves the Cough and also the feverish conditions and Headache, which are usually associated with colds. The second or third dose will move the bowels well within 8 or 10 hours, when the cold will be relieved

 1897:    Grove visits Asheville for relief of  bronchitis and chronic  hiccoughs 

1900: Grove's Paris Medicine Co. moves to larger quarters in St. Louis, and becomes largest consumer of quinine in world, with branch offices in London (chief market for the cinchona bark from India), Toronto, Rio de Janiero, Buenos Aires and Paris, France

1905: Grove becomes principal stockholder of the Atlanta Georgian, which was officially founded in 1906 by his son-in-law Fred Seeling. Grove begins the Grove Park real estate development and spends $100,000 to build one of the nation’s first motor roads.

1910: By now, Grove's Paris Medicine Co. produced the following products: Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic,  Grove’s Chronic Chill Cure, Dr. Porter’s Antiseptic Healing Oil, Laxative Bromo Quinine, Grove’s Black Root Liver Pills, Grove’s Baby Bowel Remedy, Grove’s Worm Syrup, Pazo Ointment for piles, Grove’s Shave-Ease, Grove’s New Discovery for Catarrh, Grove’s Common-Sense Nasal Douche, Febriline or Syrup of Quinine, Concentrated Febriline, Grove’s Tasteless Quinine and Quionin

1912: Grove's and Seeling's Atlanta Georgian newspaper is sold to William Randolph Hearst.

1913:  "...Built from granite boulders hewn from Sunset Mountain, The Grove Park Inn opened in 1913. At its opening dinner, William Jennings Bryan declared that it had been “built for the ages.” Since then such illustrious guests as Harry Houdini, Will Rogers, George Gershwin, Thomas Edison, Eleanor Roosevelt and Henry Ford stayed at the Grove Park Inn, plus eight presidents — from Woodrow Wilson to George Bush. During the summers of 1935 and ’36, author F. Scott Fitzgerald resided in Room 441.

1920: Grove buys the Manor of Albermarle Park