Leonard Graves was an expert blacksmith who learned the carpentry trade by building carriages as a hobby for family and friends. During the post-war period following the Civil War business was booming, and demand for the sturdy, well-designed wagons convinced Graves that he was in the wrong business. He built a large workshop, hired help, and started the wagon and carriage buisness in 1882. Now, more than 125 years later, these conveyances are still turning up in old barns and sheds around the tri-state area of Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania to remind us of the designer, L.C. Graves of Springboro, Pennsylvania.
A local history book available at Springboro Public Library provides information about the company:
"L.C. Graves began as a blacksmith in Springboro in 1872 and expanded the business in 1882 to include the wholesale trade in manufacture of sleighs and custom carriages. After a fire destroyed his building in 1897, the firm circulated subscription papers to raise $1500 that was raised in one week. Graves agreed to put up two fireproof buildings and guaranteed employment to 50 or more men for a period of three years. The volume of business in the following years warranted the building of a new freight shed to accommodate the large shipment of buggies and carriages on the Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad. With the onset of automobiles, the carriage trade began to decline and led the firm to sell its stock in 1917. The stock was transferred to convert the plant into the manufacture of commercial bodies for the Ford Motor Company. This car body works was moved to the more lucrative markets in Michigan, and the buildings were sold to the Albro Packing Company."
But L.C. Graves' carriages did not end with the onset of automobiles, as history relates. Leonard Graves' knowledge of his craft becomes evident through letters and phone calls that slowly fill a file stamped "Sleigh" at the library. That he was a master carpenter is evident in the number of his creations turning up in near-perfect condition and still running. It's amazing that any information at all has been found by current owners considering the fact that Graves' carriages had nothing but a two-inch oval-shaped copper plate on the back of the vehicle near the top of the chassis engraved simply with the name "L.C. Graves, Springboro, Pa."
The scant information resulted in the inquiries taking a very circuitous route to the library. Owners, not willing to give up, sent inquiries through the mail, minus zip codes and names, addressed simply to "Postmaster" or "Chamber of Commerce" Springboro, Pa. Lucky for them, Springboro is a "very" small town of less than 500 people, and the information was passed by hand to the library, where a file on the company had been created.
Among the letters that ultimately ended up at the library is one from Jack Geibig of Windber, Pa., a retired policeman from Washington, D.C., who resides near Johnstown. It took him six months to find out where Springboro is located, and in the process he discovered that a former acquaintance lives here. He wrote the following letter to "Gary," and the letter was turned over to the library. The letter states:
"I purchased a doctor's buggy at an auction sale in my area. It was manufactured in Springboro, Pa., Crawford County. I have tried numerous ways to document this company which built it, all to no avail. The company was named L.C. or L.G. Graves. If you could ascertain any info on this company, I would be ever grateful."
Contacted by phone, Geibig revealed that his hobby is collecting items of equipment related to horse and buggy travel, attempting to document the origins of the items. He considered the Graves buggy to be the most sturdy item he's collected.
"I don't drive it, because it's too valuable," he said. He describes it as a two-seater, with a convertible leather top and a compartment in the back for the doctor's medical bag. The exterior body, axles and hubs as well as the ironwork on the convertible top were all in good condition, but the leather cover for the top was gone. He's doing his own restoration work with the exception of the seats that are being reupholstered to recreate the original look.
Karen Bergman of Colden, New York, wrote in 1996 that she bought a Portland Cutter in Jamestown, New York, for $1,500. It was designed with fancy scroll work and carved wood. She had it restored and was told it was worth $2,000 in the restored condition. She drives it in the winter.
Doris Fogle of Berlin, Pa., owns a large sleigh with an eight-foot bed, nine-foot runners and two rows of removable seats making it possible to haul large items.
Charles Messner of Cooperstown, Pa., visited the library and obtained information on his two-seater sleigh. He donated a photograph showing a hand-carved eagle head on a door latch, indicating the quality of the artwork created by the Graves company.
An auto mechanics teacher from Tonawanda, New York, bought his Graves sleigh in Gary, New York. The body is of sheet metal and trimmed in wood, and also has a carved eagles head on the door latch as well as pin stripes along the chassis.
Darrell Brickner of Conneautville, Pa., found a stack of the small Graves nameplates that were in amazingly good conditon.
The old three-story carriage buildings with elegant keystone arch-shaped brick kilns in the basement and a polishing room where layers of wax coated the floor ten inches deep were reminders of this colorful period when the building was destroyed over 15 years ago. At that time it appeared there would be nothing left of the carriage works' heyday other than the family name carved on headstones in the nearby Spring Cemetery. But the small engraved plates provided a memorial that had not been anticipated. The spidery buggies, gleaming broughams, luxurious victorias, jingling tandems and four-in-hands designed by L.C. Graves are again speeding down roadways just as they did nearly 100 years ago, well prepared to enter the new millenium.
The author, Faith Scott, is director of the Springboro Public Library, a former staff reporter of the Erie Times-News, and obviously a hisotry buff. She also is a free lance writer. She has lived in the Springboro area all her life.
This carriage tag is from the period between 1894 and 1912, when G.W. Eighmy was partner in the Graves Sleigh company. (sent to SPL by Clifford Eighmy)
Springboro Public Library Home
