The expansion of the American settlers westward was a major catalyst in United States history. The establishing of cities and towns all across the country and the eventual creation of the railroad to unite the east and west serve as turning points in history. The 1850s were a treacherous time to travel across the country. Pioneers left the comforts of home behind to make their way across America and build a new life in a gritty and unfamiliar area. This is an era before automobiles and before the mid-western territories were settled, so dangers abounded. The terrain and elements were harsh enough, but there were also aggressions with the Native Americans, who were none too happy to find people trudging across the country into their territories and claiming land as their own. The only real method of defence that a pioneer and his family would have on a wagon train is a single shot rifle. It was a step up from the musket, but not by much. It took an experienced user approximately ten seconds to reload the rifle after each shot, leaving them vulnerable during that time. It has been suggested that without the innovations of Winchester’s firearms, the west may never have been settled at all.
The man who would come to revolutionise firearms and have his name emblazoned in history and forever tied with armaments, was as far from being a gun maker as it is possible to imagine. Oliver Fisher Winchester was born on 30 November 1810 to Samuel and Hannah Winchester. When Oliver was a boy he worked on a farm and attended school during the winter when the farm work was on hold. Oliver Winchester began his life in the carpentry trade, working as an apprentice throughout his teenage years, and soon moved to Baltimore to oversee the production of various buildings and homes. Despite starting a business being a risky venture in the economic climate of 1837, Winchester made the bold move of opening his own men’s clothing store. Winchester became a producer of men’s shirts and found a moderate level of success. In 1847, he sold his store in Baltimore and moved to New Haven, Connecticut, where he would stay for the remainder of his days. Winchester had a unique idea for improving upon the method of shirt making by inventing a curved seam, which would remedy the pull on the neckband, causing wear on the garments. His patent, number 5,421, was granted on 1 February 1848.
Winchester was anxious to go to work, but he needed a business partner to get him off the ground. He joined forces with John M. Davies to form the Winchester & Davies factory. The business would use Winchester’s patented seam to produce quality men’s shirts for many years. The success of the company would make Winchester a very comfortable man and by 1855 his company was grossing upwards of six hundred thousand dollars a year. Oliver was looking for other ventures to invest in so he could establish and expand his wealth. He soon found an emerging marketplace in which to invest.
On 21 August 1849 prolific inventor Walter Hunt patented a brand new invention, the repeating firearm. Hunt held patents for many items we now take for granted, such as the fountain pen, sewing machine and the safety pin. His US patent 6,663 was granted for a ‘Combined piston breech and firing cock repeating gun’ and US patent 5,701 for his ‘Rocket Ball’ ammunition. He took his patent and developed what he called the ‘Volition Repeater’ rifle. This revolutionary measure would pave the way for the most effective firearms of the era, but it wasn’t Hunt’s gun that would do the job. In fact, it suffered from numerous defects, which kept it from ever making its way to mass production. The idea was improved upon by Lewis Jennings and produced by Robbins and Lawrence. The new design produced by Jennings was awkward to hold and fire, not to mention the weak strength of the ammunition. The gun was a failure, only 1,000 units were produced before it was pulled from the market. It was at the Robbins and Lawrence factory that two gunsmiths, Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson, began developing improvements on the Jennings design.
The duo were eventually able to patent their own magazine firearm on 14 February 1854. The repeating rifle that Smith and Wesson had developed was a vast improvement on the previous Jennings model. This was the first time we saw the lever design able to swing forward, allowing for a faster repetition of firing. The image of a cowboy cocking the Winchester rifle and firing in rapid succession would be made iconic by Hollywood and in television shows like the opening to the 1958 western classic series The Rifleman. Guns like the Smith and Wesson rifle allowed the user to load up to thirty bullets into the magazine, which was conveniently located under the barrel of the gun. Adverts for the gun claimed that it could be loaded in less than a minute and that the ammunition was waterproof. The entire design was far more streamlined. Smith and Wesson formed their first joint venture, Smith & Wesson Company, around their new design and went forward with production. They changed the name to the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company in 1855 to mirror the name that they gave their rifle, the Volcanic.
Smith and Wesson had a gun and a venture, but now they needed to find some backers, investors who could take the production to the next level. Oliver Winchester purchased eighty shares of the upstart Volcanic Repeating Arms Company in 1855. This marked the beginning of a legacy that is still going strong today. It was a rocky start for Smith and Wesson; though we know them today as legends in the firearms business, the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company suffered from a lukewarm reception from the public. It turns out that their ammunition just wasn’t powerful enough to shoot long distances, or to do enough damage, so the sales quickly began to suffer. The investors pulled out one by one, even Smith and Wesson moved on. In 1856 Winchester was the sole remaining investor, and he bought out the remains of the company for forty thousand dollars, determined to make it work. Now sitting as the president and treasurer of the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company, Oliver Winchester went to work making changes that he thought would take the business to a new level.
The first change brought about by Oliver was a name change to the New Haven Arms Company. A fresh start and a name without a stigma was necessary to try and carve out a piece of the market and convince gun dealers to carry his product. Winchester personally oversaw the factory, which employed dozens of gunsmiths and machinists. He was a shirt maker and a businessman, which set him apart from other gun makers, who were largely machinists and gunsmiths themselves. Winchester needed to bring in an expert to help him develop a more effective weapon. That man was Benjamin Tyler Henry, a masterful mechanic who Winchester had utilised to care for the 500 sewing machines in his shirt factory. In 1857 Henry became the plant superintendent, using the limited gunsmith experience that he had picked-up as a teenager. What he lacked in experience, Henry made-up for in dedication. It is said that he lived in the factory, sleeping only a few hours at a time, working tirelessly on a new rifle design.
It was around this time that the American Civil War was beginning to brew. The North and South were at odds and by this time, their new gun design, the ‘Henry rifle’, went into production. The Henry rifle also included a brand new innovation, metallic cartridges to house the ammunition. The idea of metal bullets is still the industry standard today, but back then it was a radical concept, which created waterproof ammunition that was easier to store and carry. The Henry rifle was available to the public by 1862 and the Civil War had been raging on since the previous year. The demand for weaponry was high, but the federal government was hesitant to commit to the weapon in any major way, largely due to the unique ammunition that was required. The government was also unsure of how well the rifle would perform on the battlefield and how reliable it would be. In the past, so many models had disappointed, and it was hardly the time to chance everything on a new product.