Fred L. Seely

Born to Uriah and Nancy Hopping Seely, in Monmouth, New Jersey, Fred Seely first worked for the Parke-Davis pharmaceutical company and later became an executive for his father-in-law Edwin Wiley Grove's "Paris Medicine Company," a patent medicine business based in Tennessee.

State prisoners were being rented out for fifty cents a week, and many of these inmates received poor treatment at the hands of their temporary employers.

Many of his advertisers, however, had profited by using the prison laborers, and these well-to-do clients of The Atlanta Georgian were furious with Seely for his activism in this cause.

In 1949 Mrs. Seely sold the expansive home to what would become Asheville-Biltmore College, the forerunner of what is now the University of North Carolina at Asheville.

The resulting animosity between the two put a strain on their relationship and on Fred Seely's marriage to Grove's daughter Evelyn.

When she died later in 1928 her son Eddie Jr., inherited her share of Paris Medicine Company and became owner of two thirds of Grove's estate.

to build a new rayon fiber factory on vacant farmland adjacent to Hominy Creek in Buncombe County.

's factory produced rayon cord for tires that were used on equipment in Europe to help the Allies win World War II.

Seely also continued with his famous Biltmore Industries (located in the shadow of the immense Grove Park Inn) even as the Great Depression bore down on the U.S. economy.

held a centennial celebration honoring a century of history of wool weaving and wood working and art and antique automobiles.

HISTORY NOTES: In 1955, Fred Loring Seely, Jr. (b. Dec. 1916-d. Oct. 1991) was managing the Biltmore Industries complex when Mr. Blomberg visited the business.