Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-06-04
A FORTUNE
AT Last In Grasp Of
Calvin P. Graves.
Sells Invention, Studied Out
While In State Prison.
Accepts 100000 For Improve.
ment to Sewing Machine.

Bangor, Me, June 3.-Within a com
parativcly short time, unless some dis
appointment intervenes, Calvin p
Graves. until two years ago a prison.
err in the State prison at Thomaston
serving life sentence on charge of
murder, will be a comparatively rich
man. as rich men go in Maine. The 10
years Calvin Graves passed within the
prison walls We're not spent for
nausht. He suffered as only 4 man
can suffer who has always known the
freedom of the woods and natures
beauty spots and is suddenly torn
away from them all and confined in
a gloomy prison for the rest of his
days. but the decree of the Governor
Of the state and his Council have
made him Il free man again ana now
he is about to realize the fruits of the
ingenuity which he put into play
while in confinement
On Nov. 8, 1856, Calvin Graves shot
ana killed Lyman O. Hill, Il game war
den, and Charles Niles, in the woods
in Hancock county. Hill took a dos
Graves had with him and Killed the
animal. claiming the dog was chasing
deer In the passion of the moment
Graves killed Hill and Niles. He was
tried only for the murder of Hill and
was sentenced to imprisonment for life
in the State prison on April g. 1887.
At the meeting of GOV. Hill and his
Council on Dec. 16, 1904. Graves SEN
tencc was committed to % years and
with time off for good behavior he was
released from prison in 1866. having
served rlorn than 10 years. 1906, hav-
ing returned TO his old home in North
Hancock, where his wife and a Grip
pied son awaited him.
While in State prison Calvin Graves
worked in the harness shop. one of
the best paying institutions the State
has in the state prison. 1t is usually
tho smartest and brightest prisoners
who obtain employment in the harness
shop, for the work requires consider
able ability. Calvin Graves was
good harness maker and all the time
he was making harnesses for the State
he had an eye open for his own ad-
varcenent. He worked well and obey
ed all prison rules and he kept in his
own mind secret which now appears
While using his harness sewing ma
chine in the prison an idea entered the
brain Of Calvin Graves, an idea which
now seems destined to produce golden
fruit. He saw a way in which the
sewing machine might be made to do
double its work, saving many hours to
the operator. Time is money and
Graves knew it and set to work to
perfect 4 device to make the sewing
machine more of q time-saver Graves
had many hours in the solitude of his
cell in which to rack his brain over the
problem and one may imagine how the
man worked and the thoughts which
surSed through as he saw the POSSIBLE
tiles opened to him through the per
lection of his device
In time CALVIN Graves did what he
had set out to do. He perfected his de-
vice, with only the tools which the
prison workshop afforded him The de-
vice, as nearly as it is understood by
any of Graves friends, for he has said
little about it, is q sewing machine at
tachment which Will allow the machine
to sew both ways of the cloth The
value of such an attachment VIII read
lily be seen by anybody who uses a
sowing machine.
Graves kept his invention a secret 50
far as he could. His light of hope
never went out and he thought always
of a time to come when he might once
more walk among men. q free man.
But the news of his invention leaked
out, as things will even in prison, ana
it was not long before agents Of one
OF the best known sewing machine
manufacturers called to see Graves in
prison. The sewing machine agents
saw the models of Graves device and
Immediately saw the value of it. They
made offers for the invention. It is said
and comes from good authority, that
one sewing machine company offered
Graves 100000 for his invention when
he was in prison. But Graves was
waiting for something. The $2o.G0O was
of no use to him in prison and he told
the agents 50 II is said they offered
to give the money to Graves wife and
son or Use whatever part of it was
necessary in obtaining a pardon for
Graves But Graves would accept none
Of their offers. Possibly he was afraid
his position as a life prisoner would
render any negotiations he entered
into Illegal At any rate he kept his in
vention to himself.
After his sentence was commuted
with his freedom and all his time his
own. Graves at once set to work to
make his invention perfect. He re
turned TO his wife and crippled SON |
waiting for him in his old home at
North Hancock. The sewing machine |
had not lost sight of nor for |
gotten him. They came with more |
offers and with his legal status re-
stored Graves felt ready to negotiate |
with them. A free man now, Graves
valued his invention much moro highly |
than the sewing machine agents did |
while he was in prison. Repeated offers
were refused and the sewing machine
companies found themselves obliged to
bid against each other and boost the
price.
Monday of this week Graves came to
Bangor. He stopped in Brewer, where
he has friends. and to some friends