Ethan Allen Gunmaker: a brief overview
Introduction
Ethan Allen may not be as famous as Colt or Remington, but he is a key figure in the history of American firearms.
Allen’s weapons were well regarded for their quality, durability, and relatively affordable price. The pepperbox pistol especially was the main rival of the Colt revolver until the 1850s. Allen’s pepperboxes have been produced in fairly large quantities, and they represent a typical kind of weapon in their era and helped shape the American saga.
A brief overview of life, career, production locations and trade names
Ethan Allen was born in on September 2, 1806 in the farming community Bellingham, Massachusetts. Unfortunately, there is little known about Allen’s early years.
In 1831 at the age of 25, he started his own business producing knives and cobblers’ tools in a modest workshop in Milford, Massachusetts. This initial venture provided him with valuable experience in metalworking and commercial production.
While his business flourished, he decided in 1833 to relocated his workshop to Grafton, Massachusetts. It is believed that Ethan Allen acquired his first skills in arms manufacturing around 1835, producing a cane-gun invented by Dr. Roger Lambert of Upton, only a few miles up the road from Milford. Inspired by this experience, Ethan Allen created in 1836 his first own design, the Pocket “Rifle”, a single-shot under-hammer percussion pistol.
When he took the initiative to show his pistol to Adam W. Spies who conducted a hardware and military goods store in New York, Spies was so delighted with the gun that he agreed to buy all that Ethan Allen could produce. This has been the spark for Allen to increase his production capabilities and thinking towards new models.
In 1837, Ethan Allen was doing well enough to form a partnership with one of his brothers-in-law, Charles Thurber, who provided the necessary financial backing to expand the business. The company name and it’s product branding were subsequently changed to ALLEN & THURBER.
Given Ethan Allen birthplace and connections, it’s almost certain he knew the Darling brothers, Benjamin and Barton, and was aware of their April 1836 pepperbox patent. When Ethan Allen filed his first patent (US461) for a double-action pistol on November 11, 1837, he very likely intended to adapt the double-action mechanism to a pepperbox. After beginning production of double-action pistols, Ethan Allen indeed applied his innovative mechanism to the pepperbox, converting the Darling’s brothers’ rather cumbersome design into a highly effective self-defense weapon with unprecedented firepower for the period.
At this time the primary rival to the pepperbox was Colt’s five-shot Paterson revolver. While the Colt was unquestionably the superior firearm, Allen’s pepperboxes sold for roughly one quarter of the Colt’s price, enabling Allen to capture a dominant share of the market. After Colt encountered financial troubles and was forced to liquidate Colt’s Patent Arms Manufacturing Company, Allen effectively held near-monopoly of the American multi-shot market until the mid 1850s.
Production remained in Grafton until 1842 when operations moved to Norwich, Connecticut – a larger industrial center with superior facilities and a more skilled workforce. In Norwich the business prospered: Ethan Allen refined the pepperbox design and introduced a wide range of models and variants. In addition, in 1845 Ethan Allen was granted another patent (US3998) for a simplified double-action system, a development that brought the costs down and made mass production of his double-action pistols and pepperboxes feasible.
The reason for yet another relocation in 1847 to Worcester, Massachusetts, are not definitively recorded, but were likely motivated by lower operating costs and the promise of greater productivity through steam power. Worcester also offered excellent transportation links, including a rail connection to New York city. The firm continued under the same name until 1854, when Thomas P. Wheelock – another of Allen’s brothers-in-law who had been with the company since the Grafton period and played a role in the growth – joined as a partner. The company was renamed to ALLEN, THURBER & CO. Another significant, and far more dramatic event occurred in June 1854. The Merrifield complex, which housed Allen’s production facility, burned to the ground. On a different location in Worcester, Allen had constructed a complete new factory consisting of three structures: a small two-story office building, a three-story manufacturing building, and a single-story forge.
Yet another reorganization occurred in 1856 when, after Charles Thurber retired, the firm became ALLEN & WHEELOCK. Over the ensuing nine years the company completed the transition from pepperboxes to revolvers, introducing numerous new models in both percussion and cartridge formats. Following Thomas Wheelock death in 1864, Ethan Allen restructured the business the next year by admitting his two sons-in-law, Sullivan Forehand and Henry Wadsworth, as partners and renaming the company to E. ALLEN & CO.
Besides the great success as a gun manufacturer, Allen had also formed a very successful cartridge making business and had designed and patented new machinery that was superior to anything else that was available at that time. This activity remained in operation until 1873 when the business was sold to the Union Metallic Cartridge Company.
When Ethan Allen died in 1871, the sons-in-law took over the company and renamed it to FOREHAND & WADSWORTH. The final name change to FOREHAND ARMS COMPANY occurred in 1890 after Henry Wadsworth’s death. The company continued to operate under this name until 1902, when it’s assets and inventory were sold to HOPKINS & ALLEN* MANUFACTURING CO.
* Charles A. Allen was not connected to Ethan Allen’s family.
