samuel colt family tree samuel colt family tree

They had 6 children: Marjory Kirk, Joanne C Colt and 4 other children. His goal was an assembly line. [37], A major cause of Colt's success was vigorous protection of his patent rights. Using the ideas and technical knowledge he had acquired earlier from the encyclopedia, Samuel built a homemade galvanic cell and used it to explode a gunpowder charge in the waters of Ware Lake. The pair had seven children: Rhonda, Betty, Cherry, Frank, Charlie, Paula and Martha. He abandoned the idea of a multiple-barreled revolver and opted for a single fixed-barrel design with a rotating cylinder. Home; Trees; . They became friends and they both lobbied the U.S. government for funds. [29] Finally, a positive catch was installed at the end of the loading lever to prevent the lever from dropping due to recoil. The family tree for Samuel Colt is still in progress. Skip . [48] At one exhibit Colt disassembled ten guns and reassembled ten guns using different parts from different guns. This encyclopedia contained articles on Robert Fulton and gunpowder, both of which provided motivation and ideas that would influence Colt throughout his life. When he opened the London armory, he posted a 14-foot sign on the roof across from Parliament reading: "Colonel Colt's Pistol Factory" as a publicity stunt, which was noted by the British press. HAYDOCK CATHOLIC BIBLE COMMENTARY. [30], With the money he made from the sales of the Walkers and a loan from his cousin, banker Elisha Colt, Colt bought the machinery and tooling from Blake to build his own factory: Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company factory at Hartford. Samuel had three sisters, one of whom died in childhood. [33] Many of the revolvers Colt gave away as "gifts" had inscriptions such as "Compliments of Col. Colt" or "From the Inventor" engraved on the back straps. The family moved often, possibly to keep their disturbing family activities hidden from society. He founded Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company (today, Colt's Manufacturing Company), and made the mass production of the revolver commercially viable. His three sisters all died young; two of tuberculosis, like his mother, and one committed suicide. New Haven was simmering with manufacturing and transportation schemes during . Through the political connections of the subscribers, the Patent Arms Manufacturing Company of Paterson, New Jersey, was chartered by the New Jersey legislature on March 5, 1837. Colt's waterproof cable was valuable when Morse ran telegraph lines under lakes and rivers, and bays, and especially for attempts to lay a telegraph line across the entire Atlantic Ocean. Later, after hearing soldiers talk about the success of the double-barreled rifle and the impossibility of a gun that could shoot five or six times without reloading, Colt decided that he would create the "impossible gun". 1304, dated August 29, 1836, protected the basic principles of his revolving-breech loading, folding trigger firearm named the Paterson Pistol. 8. With that approval, Colt got a bill through Congress endorsing a demonstration for the military, but no appropriation for them to purchase the weapon. Production of Allen pepperboxes continued until the expiration of Colt's patent during 1857. He was the founder of Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company (now known as Colt's Manufacturing Company), and is widely credited with popularizing the revolver. Its articles concerning Robert Fulton and gunpowder motivated Colt throughout his life. [10] The invention of the percussion cap made ignition more reliable, faster, and safer than the older flintlock design. [73], Colt established libraries and educational programs within his armories for his employees which provided training for several generations of toolmakers and other machinists, who had great influence in other manufacturing efforts of the next half century. Colt and Captain Walker drew up a new improved model from which Whitney produced the first thousand-piece order. When Martin Van Buren assumed the Presidency in 1837, the ensuing economic crash almost ruined Colt's company. A revolver which could fire six times without reloading helped soldiers and settlers fend off larger forces which were not armed in the same way. Selden often chastised him for using corporate funds to buy an expensive wardrobe or give lavish gifts to potential clients. Please enable JavaScript in your browser's settings to use this part of Geni. Samuel G Colt family tree Family tree Explore more family trees. At the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War, Coltwho had called himself "Colonel"was actually commissioned a Colonel by the state of Connecticut on May 16, 1861, in the 1st Regiment Colts Revolving Rifles of Connecticut armed with the Colt revolving rifle. [10] Despite the reluctance of English officials to issue a patent to Colt, no fault could be found with the gun and he was issued his first patent (number 6909). In August 1835, Colt left for England and France to secure his foreign patent. However, Samuel Colt's legacy extends beyond his contributions to the firearms industry. 19th-century American industrialist and inventor (18141862), Colt's Patent Manufacturing Company (18471860), Massachusetts's 8th congressional district, Church of the Good Shepherd and Parish House, "Improvement in fire-arms and in the apparatus used therewith", "Who Made America? He did, however, greatly contribute to the use of interchangeable parts. Later years Colt later purchased a large tract of land beside the Connecticut River, where he built a larger factory called the Colt Armory, a manor that he called Armsmear, and employee housing. Home; Trees; . The park and the town are linked by history. Over the next few years, Colt and Pearson argued about money, but the design improved and during 1835 Colt was ready to apply for his U.S. patent. By August he was exonerated and the story became national news when the magazine Scientific American reported that the fault was not with Colt, but with Washington politicians. [6], Butch Cassidy's famous Colt Army revolver, The notorious leader of "The Wild Bunch" ,Butch Cassidy's "Amnesty Colt", a Army revolver, was expected to fetch upwards of $250,000 at auction. Have you taken a DNA test? The soldiers in Florida loved the new weapon, but "the unusual hammerless design, sixty years ahead of its time led to difficulty training men used to exposed-hammer guns and many curious soldiers took the locks apart. Source citations are included at the bottom of the page. [28][29] Walker asked for a few changes; the new revolvers would have to hold 6 shots instead of 5, have enough power to kill either a human or a horse with a single shot and be quicker to reload. We collect and match historical records that Ancestry users have contributed to their family trees to create each person's profile. [5], During the American Civil War, Colt's pistols were the weapons of choice from 1861-1865. After the testimony by Houston and Rusk, the next issue became how quickly Colt could supply the military. Unwilling to alter his open-top single-action design for the solid frame double-action revolver that the British asked for, Colt sold scarcely 23,000 revolvers to the British Army and Navy. [75], In 2006, Samuel Colt was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.[76]. The Colt revolver had a astronomical impact around the world. Before his death, each barrel was stamped: "Address Col. Samuel Colt, New York, US America", or a variation using a London address. [6] He had learned about nitrous oxide (laughing gas) from the factory chemist of his father's textile plant, so he took a portable laboratory on tour and earned a living performing laughing gas demonstrations across the United States and Canada, calling himself as "the Celebrated Dr.Coult of New-York, London and Calcutta". When the breech plug was removed from the barrel no fouling from the tin foil was evident. Barrow had a Colt .45 tucked inside his waistband, discovered after he was dead, and Parker had a Colt .38 revolver taped to her inner thigh, underneath the red dress she was wearing when she died. [35] With a virtual monopoly, Colt sold his pistols in Europe, where demand was high due to tense international relations. Showing results for Brick / Block Paving in Bruton page 2 (10-20) Colt managed his plant with a military-like discipline: he would dismiss workers for tardiness, sub-par work or even suggesting improvements to his designs. Throughout history, Samuel Colt has played a crucial role in providing weapons to the United States Armed Forces. | Innovators | Samuel Colt", "Church of the Good Shepherd and Parish House", "Guns Gun Culture and the Peddling of Dreams", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Samuel_Colt&oldid=1142271166, Burials at Cedar Hill Cemetery (Hartford, Connecticut), Businesspeople from Hartford, Connecticut, People of Connecticut in the American Civil War, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2016, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2018, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Inventor, industrialist, businessman, hunter, This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 13:31. Colt's manufacturing methods were sophisticated. [42] One of Colt's biggest acts of self-promotion was the payment to the publishers of United States Magazine $1,120 ($61,439 by 1999 standards) to publish a 29-page fully illustrated story showing the inner workings of his factory. Although successful at this, for the most part, his preoccupation with marketing strategies and patent protection caused him to miss a great opportunity in firearms development when he dismissed an idea from one of his gunsmiths, Rollin White. Colt would later say that the concept of the revolver was inspired by his observations of the ship's wheel during his first voyage. The standard at the time was to have powder and ball contained in a paper or skin envelope or "cartridge" for ease of loading. A year after White left Colt, Colt's competitor, Smith & Wesson, attempted to patent a revolver using metallic cartridges only to find that it infringed on White's patent for the bored-through cylinder. He sought the counsel of a friend of his father, Henry Leavitt Ellsworth, who loaned him $300 and advised him to perfect his prototype before applying for a patent. Colt eventually secured a trademark for his signature. The gun became the standard sidearm for U.S. military officers and proved popular among civilian buyers. Samuel Colt (July 19, 1814 January 10, 1862) was an American inventor and industrialist. [55], When foreign heads of state would not grant him an audience, as he was only a private citizen, he persuaded the governor of the state of Connecticut to make him a lieutenant colonel and aide-de-camp of the state militia. He lived in 1870, at address, Pennsylvania. He discovered that "regardless of which way the wheel was spun, each spoke always came in direct line with a clutch that could be set to hold it the revolver was conceived!" Historians such as Edwards and Harold Schechter have said this was the elder Colt's way of letting the world know that the boy was his own son without saying so directly. Colt did this as New York and London were major cosmopolitan cities and he retained an office in New York at 155 Broadway where he based his salesmen. Free Samuel Colt genealogy charts and reports. Colt's innovative contributions to the weapons industry have been described by arms historian James E. Serven as "events which shaped the destiny of American Firearms." [23], Captain Samuel Walker of the Texas Rangers had acquired some of the first Colt revolvers produced during the Seminole War and saw first-hand their effective use as his 15-man unit defeated a larger force of 70 Comanches in Texas. They had 5 children: Madge McDougal (born Colt), Anna Colt and 3 other children. Root had been successful in an earlier venture automating the production of axes and made, bought, or improved jigs, fixtures and profile machinery for Colt. Colt was given a commission for each gun sold in exchange for his share of patent rights, and stipulated the return of the rights if the company disbanded. He established a ten-hour day for employees, installed washing stations in the factory, mandated a one-hour lunch break, and built the Charter Oak Hall, a club where employees could enjoy games, newspapers, and discussion rooms. Only one gun fitting White's design was ever made, and it was not considered practical for the ammunition of the time. [45] The idea was not new but was never successful in industry at the time because of the lack of interchangeable parts. However, opposition from John Quincy Adams, who was serving as a US Representative from Massachusetts's 8th congressional district, scuttled the project as "not fair and honest warfare" and termed the Colt mine an "unchristian contraption". At the time of his death, Samuel Colt was one of the wealthiest men in America. Many proponents said that "Colt won the West". [8] According to Colt historian Robert Lawrence Wilson, the "lectures launched Colt's celebrated career as a pioneer Madison Avenue-style pitchman". All charts include source citations for ancestors in the charts. Knowing that some gun parts were made by machine, he envisioned all the parts of every Colt gun to be interchangeable and made by machine, to be assembled later by hand. Powers made detailed wax sculptures and paintings based on demons, centaurs, and mummies from Dante's work. Unavailable. The hotel attracted a clientele of wealthy and notable guests from around the world: Thomas Edison, John Wanamaker, W.K. 4. [67], Colt historian William Edwards wrote that Samuel Colt had married Caroline Henshaw (who later married his brother, John) in Scotland during 1838, and that the son she bore later was Samuel Colt's and not his brother John's. With a virtual monopoly, Colt began to sell his pistols in Europe, where demand was high due to tense international relations. Eli Whitney, Jr., the only son of inventor Eli and his wife Henrietta Edwards Whitney was born on November 20, 1820. During the American Civil War, his factory in Hartford supplied firearms both to the North and the South. While visiting his brother John in Cincinnati, he partnered with sculptor Hiram Powers for his demonstrations with a theme based on The Divine Comedy. Later, after hearing soldiers talk about the success of the double barreled rifle and the impossibility of a gun that could shoot five or six times, Colt "decided he would be an inventor and create the 'impossible' gun". [67][68], It is estimated that during its first 25 years of manufacturing, Colt's company produced more than 400,000 revolvers. The California gold rush and western expansion made the firearm business boom so much that Colt had to expand the Hartford factory repeatedly. 2. Login to find your connection. While reading the Compendium, "he discovered that Robert Fulton and several other inventors had accomplished things deemed impossibleuntil they were done". During 1842 he used one of the devices to destroy a moving vessel to the satisfaction of the United States Navy and President John Tyler. Moreover, his innovative use of art, celebrity endorsements and corporate gifts to promote his wares made him a pioneer in the fields of advertising, product placement and mass marketing. Home; Trees; . Colt's younger years are like something out of a 19 th -century adventure novel. [29] The shorter chambers were loaded to 50 grains of powder, instead of 60 grains in the earlier Walkers, to prevent the occurrence of ruptured cylinders. As ticket sales decreased, Colt realized that "serious" museum lectures were not what the people wanted to pay money to hear and that it was dramatic stories of salvation and redemption the public craved. Colt was indentured to a farm in Glastonbury at age 11, where he did chores and attended school. Three family members, Roderick, Martha and Derek Colt, had filed notices of intention to appeal in 2020, all of which have since expired. [12][13], With a loan from his cousin Dudley Selden and letters of recommendation from Ellsworth, Colt formed a corporation of venture capitalists in 1836 to bring his idea to market. One of the guns burst upon firing, and the other would not fire at all. If not, see our friends at Ancestry DNA. Two of his three brothers turned out fine, but one killed himself while awaiting execution for murder. [1], The Peacemaker became the most popular gun in the West when it was introduced in 1873. Colt. Colt died in 1862 as one of the wealthiest men in America. Sarah Colt died from tuberculosis before Samuel was seven years old. [3] Sent to boarding school, he amused his classmates with pyrotechnics. Consequently, many curious soldiers took the locks apart. We encourage you to research and examine these . in Hartford, Connecticut, USA , United States, Died on January 10, 1862 Among the pistols, we saw Colt's revolver; and we compared it with the best English revolver. [3] On a voyage to Calcutta aboard the brig Corvo, Colt had the idea for a type of revolver while at sea, inspired by the capstan, or windlass, which had a ratchet-and-pawl mechanism that he would later say gave him the idea for his revolver designs. His revolving-breech pistol became so popular that the word "Colt" was sometimes used as a generic term for the revolver. He started his lectures on street corners and soon began doing the same in lecture halls and museums. Samuel Colt passed away aged 47 years, at Hartford, Connecticut, in 1862,[1] and his estate was worth around $15 million dollars, which is $350 million by 2009 comparison standards. The Blackest Bird. [citation needed], One of his slogans, God created men, Col. Colt made them equal, (claiming that any person could, regardless of physical strength, defend themselves with a Colt gun) became a popular adage in American culture.