Oliver Fisher Winchester was an innovative and driven man who saw the future of firearms and built an industrial empire around the lever-action rifle. Seeing the economic potential of the fast-growing firearms industry, Winchester began to assemble investors and secure venture capital, and in bought a controlling interest in the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company from two inventive gentlemen named Horace Smith and Daniel B.
For the next 14 years Winchester aggressively sought new markets, created new products and explored new opportunities for his lever-action rifles. With the opening of the American West to settlement and the ongoing military conflicts in Europe and the Near East, the demand for Winchester firearms and ammunition remained strong.
In ill health for some time, Oliver F. Winchester died December 11, at age 70 in New Haven, Connecticut. He had groomed his son, William Wirt Winchester as his successor, but the younger Winchester died of tuberculosis in March of the following year before he could assume control of Winchester Repeating Arms.
The Model Centennial Model became the favorite hunting rifle of Theodore Roosevelt when he was a young cattle rancher in the Dakota Territory. Johnson was employed by the company. At the close of the 19th century, Winchester began to branch out to other divisions of the firearms market, attempting to gain shares in any way they could. Browning left the company in and moved to Belgium to work with FN over disagreements between him and Winchester's treasurer at the time, Thomas Grey Bennett, over production of a semi-automatic shotgun.
Johnson was then tasked to design a semi-automatic shotgun which could compete with Browning's successful design ; while promising, the weapon was a commercial failure and recalled after a year. Johnson would continue working on various other successful designs for Winchester, most of them being refinements of Browning designs until his death in By the s, Winchester was failing financially, having borrowed heavily in an attempt to finance the company's massive expansion during World War I.
The Great Depression was no better; by , the company went into receivership. The company was saved by the Western Cartridge Company at a bankruptcy auction in , owned by the Olin family; the company was merged with the Western Cartridge Company and became known as Winchester-Western. John Olin , first vice-president of the Western Cartridge Company, began operations to restore the company to its former glory shortly after he took his position.
This research guide comprises a selection of books, articles and online resources useful for researching this history-making gun and how it impacted the future of this country. Introduction Buffalo Bill Cody, full-length portrait, seated on rocks, facing right, holding rifle with right hand, left hand resting on knee. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Learn more about conducting research in the Science and Business Reading Room. Your browser is out of date and may not be able to properly display our website.
It appears that you are accessing the Winchester Website from outside North America. Would you like to visit Winchester International? Innovation and a solid business sense. Oliver Fisher Winchester was an innovative and driven man who saw the future of firearms and built an industrial empire around the lever-action rifle.
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