Cultivating History Pt. 1: ‘Potato King’ Earning New Renown Former Slave, Junius G. Groves, prospered as Wyandotte County farmer after walking to Kansas from Kentucky
Published February 18th, 2025 at 6:00 AM
Above image credit: The Groves family lived in this large home; “The Country Gentleman,” a national agricultural publication, described it as a “22-room palace.” (Contributed)Junius G. Groves is having a moment.
Community knowledge of the African American potato farmer, who died 100 years ago this August, is growing after largely having vanished from the collective memory of Kansas, where he arrived carrying 90 cents in 1879.
A new documentary, “The Potato King,” directed by filmmaker Jacob Handy, premiers Thursday on Kansas City PBS.
“There are so many untold stories in America,” Handy said. “Junius Groves’ story is miraculous, and can resonate within everyday people who seek to find greatness within themselves.”
Born into slavery in 1859, Groves walked from Kentucky to Kansas 20 years later. Today he is considered one of the “Exodusters,” the African Americans who, following the end of Reconstruction, considered their prospects more promising in the North.
For Groves, “North” meant Kansas, admitted into the union in 1861 as a free state.
In 1902 the U.S. Department of Agriculture declared Groves the “Potato King of the World” because of his vast yields near Edwardsville in Wyandotte County. His conspicuous success also commanded respect from fellow farmers, local banking and political figures, and members of his Kaw Valley community.
“I think Groves fits well within a celebratory view of history,” said James Leiker, a history professor at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas.
“We are so used to talking about African American history as a series of tragedies, one after another. But there has been a conscious effort by scholars to move beyond that and try to tell uplifting success stories.
“Also, there seems to be an effort to redress some of the historical invisibility that Groves has suffered.”
Groves’ story since has not been easily accessible.
But that has changed.
- In 2018 a children’s book, “No Small Potatoes: Junius G. Groves and his Kingdom in Kansas,” framed the farmer’s story for young readers.
- In 2021 the Kansas Business Hall of Fame inducted Groves, giving his achievements the same status accorded to those of automotive innovator Walter Chrysler and hospitality entrepreneur Fred Harvey.
- In 2023 the National Agricultural Center in Bonner Springs, Kansas, inducted Groves into its Hall of Fame, including him among peanut scientist George Washington Carver and farm implement designer John Deere.
- Last April, extended family members attended a ceremony adding Groves’ name to a street in Edwardsville.
- Nina Kimbrough, another extended family member, is planning her own children’s book on Groves.
- The documentary, meanwhile, showcases the Groves story for a new audience.
“This is thrilling for our family,” said great-granddaughter Joyce Groves Holland.
“He was an extraordinary man and it is gratifying he is finally getting recognition today, when almost everything he had is gone.”
Serving as guide to the Potato King story is Mike B. Rollen, operator of Ophelia’s Blue Vine Farm, which provides fresh vegetables and herbs from two greenhouses on a quarter-acre lot near 24th and Vine streets in Kansas City, Missouri.
He grew up in Illinois, tending the garden of his grandmother — the “Ophelia” in Ophelia’s Blue Vine Farm.
Moving to Kansas City 25 years ago, Rollen worked as a radio personality and filmmaker before establishing Ophelia’s in 2014. Documentary viewers ride with Rollen as he, behind the wheel of a 1992 Ford pickup, tracks the Junius Groves trail.
Flatland contributor Brian Burnes is a Kansas City area writer and author.