Goodrich Giles
Piqua, Miami County, Ohio
Marker Inscription
Goodrich Giles (1846-1927) exemplified the enterprising spirit of the first African-American Co-operative Association. During his fifty plus years in Piqua.
Erected by Ohio History Connection
The Story
In the decades after the Civil War, the western-Ohio town of Piqua was home to Goodrich Giles (1846–1927), a Black entrepreneur whose long life spanned emancipation, Reconstruction, and the industrial rise of the Midwest. The marker remembers him for the enterprising spirit behind what it calls the first African-American Co-operative Association — a form of collective, member-owned business-building that let Black communities pool their resources and stand on independent economic footing. Across more than fifty years in the town, he became a fixture of its commercial and civic life.
Why it matters
Cooperative enterprises like the one Giles helped lead were a cornerstone of African-American economic self-determination in an era of hardening segregation, showing how Black communities built wealth and institutions of their own.
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