Lucius F. Craves, president, of the Graves Sign Company, which he organized in 1906, has taken a forward step in his line of work and set a standard which others have followed. He was born on Washington Avenue in Racine, November 24, 1885, and is a son of Horace and Mary (Sherman) Craves, who were natives of Lowell, Massachusetts, and became residents of Racine about forty-five years ago. The father still remains an active business man here and was a contractor for the American Seating Company, while at the present time he is with the Belle City Manufacturing Company. The mother is distantly related to the family of General W. T. Sherman.
In the acquirement of his education Lucius F. Graves attended the ward schools and also spent two years as a pupil in the high school. Before putting aside his textbooks he learned the machinist’s trade, working evenings and on Sundays, and for about three years after leaving school he continued to follow the trade. He afterward went to Milwaukee and served an apprenticeship as a sign painter. As previously stated, his present business was established in 1906, when he organized the Graves Sign Company, being at the head of the only company in Racine that does high grade work. In fact his efforts have passed beyond ordinary sign painting into the realm of the artistic and he studies every question bearing upon the business in order to produce the best effects and make the signs sent out from his factory an attractive advertisement which shall constitute a profitable source of business for the company thus represented. Mr. Graves is applying his energies most rigidly to the conduct of the business and the success which he is now enjoying is well merited.
In his political views Mr. Graves is a republican where national issues and questions are involved but maintains a non-partisan attitude in the exercise of his right of franchise at local elections. Fraternally he is connected with the Eagles, with the Elks and with the Elks Marching Club. He is widely and favorably known in Racine, where much of his life has been passed and where many of his staunchest friends are those who have known him from his boyhood to the present.