As I’ve started exploring the Sheridan House, the Music Room has certainly drawn my interest. The Edison phonograph is stunning, and I’m pleased to see that we do have an Estey Parlor Organ – more stories will surely be coming featuring those items. But one piece that intrigued me is the wooden clarinet, made in Winchester by Graves & Co., arguably the first American manufacturer to compete with European instrument makers. The company eventually relocated to Boston, where they hoped to expand their selection of instruments, increase production, and, of course, compete with the saxophone.
Samuel Graves Sr. began making woodwind instruments as a family business in West Fairlee, Vermont, in the 1820s. Samuel Jr. appeared to be a talented drafter, not only designing instruments for the family business, but also reportedly inventing a folding bathtub. The family moved to Winchester to establish a manufacturing company along the Ashuelot River, near where Sunrise Village is today. By using the power of the river, and the many craftspeople ready to work in Winchester, Graves & Co. was established by 1830.
Graves & Co. began by crafting woodwind instruments, such as flutes and clarinets, which were versatile enough to play a wide variety of music. Brass instruments did not have the same kind of flexibility, as they required more creativity on the part of the player to create a full range of notes. In the early 1800s, developments in keys and valves helped to expand the range of brass instruments, allowing musicians to create all the notes in a scale. James Keat arrived in Winchester with this knowledge, set up his own business in the Graves & Co. building, and was eventually bought out. By 1837, Graves & Co. became the first commercial manufacturer of keyed bugles in the United States.
Unfortunately for the Graves, brass instruments are more labor-intensive than woodwinds. Their factory did have rights to energy and water from the Ashuelot River to use in manufacturing, but they also created natural limits for production. The US also began changing attitudes towards Europe, resulting in lower tariffs on musical instruments and opening the door to cheaper foreign instruments. By the mid-1840s, Graves & Co. featured an impressive offering of brass and woodwind instruments favored by local bands, but they were unable to keep up with the popularity of the saxophone, invented in 1846.
After the Graves & Co. manufacturing building caught fire in 1845, Samuel Jr. tried his best to rebuild. However, after multiple attempts to raise capital failed to pan out and the deaths of his wife and father, Samuel sold the shop and land in 1850 for $2,000. Samuel relocated to Boston with his brothers William and George, joining forces with former apprentice E. G. Wright to create the Boston Musical Instrument Manufactury, later known as the Boston Musical Instrument Company. While continuing to produce high quality instruments, they were considered a small-scale company, eventually phasing out in 1928.
