Daddy Grace collection

Charles "Sweet Daddy" Grace (1881-1960), evangelist and founder of the United House of Prayer for all People, was born Marcelino Manoel de Graca in Brava, Cape Verde Islands, January 25, 1881. His family moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts in the early 1900s. Grace worked on a railroad line as a short-order cook, salesman, and grocer. He married Jennie J. Combard on February 2, 1909, divorcing her in 1920. A year later he opened a Pentecostal Church, the United House of Prayer for All People in Wareham, Massachusetts.

Grace opened new Houses of Prayer in Egypt, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Washington, D.C. from 1923-1926. Other United House of Prayer congregations are scattered along the East Coast from New York to Florida. House of Prayer converts came from a variety of other sects and the general population, but the majority of Grace's followers came from economically depressed black ghettos. They perceived "Sweet Daddy" Grace as a healer, miracle worker, and, to some even God Incarnate, the second Christ. He was known to have baptized the faithful with a fire hose. Services were ecstatic experiences, beginning with congregational singing and progressing to stomping, speaking in tongues, and other emotional expressions.

"Sweet Daddy" Grace quickly became wealthy from the contributions of his followers as his church grew. He also earned a substantial income from the products he created including Daddy Grace soap, toothpaste, face powder, and cookies, and a number of emblems, badges, buttons, banners and other items for the faithful. Grace's empire did not last, however, and the IRS seized much of his estate for back taxes after his death on January 12, 1960.