Our History

The F. D. Grave factory was founded in 1884 by the late Frederick D. Grave, and the business has been maintained in New Haven by his immediate family to the present time.  Mr. Grave, the founder, died in May, 1924, when the business passed into the hands of his son who had been associated with him a member of the firm since 1911.  In 1911, the name of the company was changed to F. D. Grave & Son.

Frederick D. Grave, Jr. was the sole proprietor until 1950.  In 1950, after both men serving in the Marine Corps and Army respectively in World War II and graduating from Yale University, Frederick D. Grave III and Richard Moran Grave joined their father as partners in the firm.  The firm was incorporated in 1962.  Frederick D. Grave Jr. passed away in 1963 leaving the business to Frederick III and Richard.

In 1983, after graduating from Boston University, Frederick III's daughter, Dorothy Grave Hoyt joined them in the firm.

Frederick D. Grave came from Osnabruck, Kingdom of Hanover, Germany in 1861 sailing on the three masted vessel "Augusta".  That was in the early days of the Civil War.  He went to Ohio and then New York, learning the cigar trade.  In 1873, Frederick came to New Haven, Connecticut to work for the Osterweis Cigar Factory.  In 1884, with less than a dozen workmen, he began making only high grade cigars adopting The Judges Cave as his trademark.  In 1901, he built one of the most substantial, modern and up-to-date cigar factories in the country, where the company still is today.  In 1905, there were one hundred and fifty first class cigar makers with an average wage of eighteen to twenty dollars per week working in the F.D.Grave Factory.  F.D. Grave did not consider their wages to be too high, for having been a practical tradesman himself, he well knew the long time and endurance it required to become a perfectly skilled manipulator of tobacco into a first class cigar.   In 1905, upwards of 100,000 cigars were produced each week and sold all over the United States.

The most outstanding characteristic of F. D. Grave & Son is the determined stand for quality. Now, as all through the past century, F.D. Grave caters to the connoisseur of fine tobaccos.

From 1884, all cigars were hand rolled using imported Havana tobacco filler with Connecticut Broadleaf Wrappers and binders.  The type of tobacco used in the manufaturing of cigars is of prime importance in the quality of the finished product.

Connecticut sun-grown Broadleaf tobacco has been, since 1884 to the present, used by the company for wrapper and binder purposes.

The Broadleaf was selected because of its characteristics of having full body, flavor, aroma and natural grain.  After all, F.D. Grave has always felt the most important factor of a first class cigar is the material from which it is made.

Cuban tobacco was used until 1964, one year after the 1963 Cuban Embargo Act, at which time the firm adapted one filler type for all brands.  This was a short filler combination of domestic and imported tobaccos.  A blended filler was decided on for two reasons:  1) after trying different tobaccos, this combination was the best tasting. The blend also had our Connecticut cuttings blended in; 2) having a combination, if one type of the tobacco wasn't available because of political instability, the blends taste would not be affected.  The filler combination has been used from 1964 to present day.  Connecticut Broadleaf wrappers, as stated before, have always been used on our cigars.

In approximately 1938, cigar machines were introduced to F. D. Grave & Son.  The machines could not produce the intricate shapes the hand rollers were so famous for.  By 1956, the last hand rollers had retired.  It should be noted that between 1938 and 1964 the machines were long filler machines.  In 1964 they were converted to short filler machines.

F.D. Grave & Son to this day, uses only Connecticut naturale, sun-grown, Broadleaf for wrapper and binder purposes; nature's own sweet product from the open fields; the wrapper leaf with the "grain".

F. D Grave & Son has always been well-known as manufacturers of cigars that "are always the same" using only the choicest tobaccos that nature produces.  One hundred and fifteen years of experience lie behind the skill under which these tobaccos are handled and cured and made into the best cigars.