Which Gun Actually Won the West?

I recently had a reader contact me about one of my HHH blog posts from 2018, in which I mentioned the Colt Peacemaker as “the gun that won the West.” Said reader suggested that, in reality, it was the Winchester rifle that held those bragging rights. I was certain the Colt Peacemaker had been known as the gun that won the west, but to do my due diligence, I went digging just to be sure.

Here’s the fun information that I found.

Both the Colt 1873 Single-Action Army Revolver (better known as the “Peacemaker”) and the Winchester Model 1873 Repeating Rifle were made in…well, 1873. Both were also manufactured in Connecticut—the former in Hartford, and the latter in New Haven. However, neither was known as “the gun that won the West” until after the turn of the 20^thcentury. And then, both were. 

Confused yet? Let’s back up a bit and see how these two gun-makers, Samuel Colt, and Oliver Winchester, even began in the industry.

Samuel Colt 

Colt was born to a textile manufacturer in Hartford, CT, on July 19, 1814. He was quite an industrious and in inquisitive child, often disassembling machines to see how they worked. It was when he was just sixteen years old that he served a stint as a seaman and became fascinated with how the ship’s wheel worked. Based on the same concept, he created a wooden prototype of a rotating cylinder to feed six shots of ammunition into a handgun before reloading. He applied for and was granted the patent on his revolving-chamber pistol in 1836. In the same year, he set up his first manufacturing shop in New Jersey. However, sales were low, and it didn’t take long for the 22-year-old businessman to turn his attention to other more lucrative things. It didn’t appear the U.S. consumer was ready for such a progressive weapon.

The Colt "Walker" pistol used during the Mexican-American War

However, there was a segment of the population that did take notice of these unusual handguns. The militia members in both Texas and Florida, where Indian troubles were in full swing. It seemed these revolving-chamber pistols were favored by the front-line fighters in both the hotspots. So as the Mexican-American War ramped up, Army Captain Samuel Walker worked with Colt to design “The Walker” pistol—and the United States government ordered 1,000 handguns. Colt’s focus shifted back to gun manufacturing, and he incorporated the Colt Patent Fire Arms Company in Hartford, where he could eventually turn out 150 pistols per day.

The Colt Peacemaker

While Samuel Colt himself died in 1862, the company went on to supply many handguns for the Civil War between 1861 and 1865, and then in 1873, they manufactured the Colt “Peacemaker” that was so popular in the American West.

Oliver Winchester

Oliver Winchester was also in manufacturing, but his path into gun-making came about much differently. He was born in 1810 in Boston, MA, and years later, he got his feet wet in industry when he patented an improved men’s neckband to “remedy the evil of a too-tight collar.” He opened shop in New Haven, CT, in 1848. Now, it’s said that he wasn’t one who liked or owned guns, so how did such a man end up being most well-known for the repeating rifle bearing his name? He invested in the failing Volcanic Repeating Firearms Company in 1855. Over time, Winchester eventually became the chief shareholder, and the company was ultimately renamed the Winchester Repeating Arms Company in 1866. His manufacturing company could turn out 200 guns a day, which at the time, was mind-boggling to those living around the Winchester Repeating Arms property. They postulated that, at most, Winchester would operate his company three or four days a year, and the remainder of the time, be closed—because who in heaven’s name would need that many rifles? Obviously, hindsight is 20/20, and we know that firearms were in high demand across America—and particularly, the West—starting at about that point and going for decades to come, but at the time, Winchester’s neighbors didn’t have such insight.

The Winchester Model 1873 Repeating Rifle

So Which Gun Actually Won The West?

Back in 1873, neither Colt nor Winchester had any idea of how well their respective products would sell over time. As stated above, the phrase “the gun that won the West” didn’t come into use until after the turn of the twentieth century. It appears that Winchester was the first to lay claim to the tagline in a full-page ad from 1919. It was a wonderful marketing campaign, though wholly unprovable in any measurable way. 

As the “moving picture” industry came along, and with it, the western, the Colt Peacemaker’s popularity and glory grew afresh. Cowboys carried Peacemakers in the movies, and so the “gun that won the West” moniker attached itself to the handgun as well—broadly helped by Colt’s own marketing campaigns touting the line. But again, there was no real way to prove such a claim.

In all reality, both guns were widely popular in the Old West, and since there’s no way to measure which of the guns did more to tame or settle the wild and wooly western territories, it’s a toss-up. Or, perhaps it’s not—both guns can lay claim: the Colt Peacemaker as the handgun that won the West, and the Winchester repeater as the rifle that won the West.

It’s Your Turn: Leave me a comment about what you found most interesting in this interesting tidbit from history, making sure to include your email address, and you’ll be entered in a drawing for a signed copy of Courting Calamity.

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has finaled and won in numerous writing competitions, and been on the ECPA best-seller list several times. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers, Women Writing the West, and is a lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband, college-aged son, and four fur children.

Courting Calamity—Available Now

Heroes Needed for Four Damsels in Distress

Despite the determination to be strong and independent, four women of bygone days are in need of a hero. On the journey to California, the deed to Mattie’s hopes and dreams is stolen. Elizabeth has been saddled with too many responsibilities at the family mercantile. Unexpectedly married, Sofia is ill-prepared for a husband and the society she is thrust into. When her sister is accosted, Aileen will do almost anything to support her. Accepting help isn’t easy when these women don’t want to show weakness, but it is more appealing when it comes with a handsome face.

Women Behind the Keys

My mother was an excellent typist and worked “keeping books” for my father’s several small businesses. It wasn’t long before I mimicked her, sitting at the typewriter-stand-on-wheels, pecking away at the keys.

During my junior year in high school, I took a night class for typing at the local college and, thereby, set the course of my life.

I’ve been typing – or keyboarding – ever since.

The keys that make my living.

I dare say that typing skills have served me in every job I’ve had, from secretary to schoolteacher, journalist to novelist. It’s difficult to imagine making it through life without the ability to type.

However, this specialized skill changed the course of more lives than mine, particularly that of women in the public workforce during the 1880s. As typists, women could do more than they had as telegraphers, clerks, and copyists in the previous decades.

Both men and women worked as typists, but they were not referred to as such. Research indicates that there were discrepancies in the spelling of typewriter or type-writer. Sources differ in their opinions as to which denoted the machine and which denoted the operator.

Newspaper articles of the day touted the type-writer as a great invention. By 1885, it was credited with expediting business and coming close to replacing the pen. The Remington Standard Type-Writer was heralded as the premier machine.

Remington had previously been associated with firearms (and sewing machines), and the company had several under its belt, including pistols, rifles, and shotguns.

William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody himself reportedly carried a Remington New Model Army .44 from 1863 to 1906.

We haven’t heard that he carried a typewriter.

Remington was founded in 1816 by Eliphalet Remington in Ilion, New York, and later became E. Remington and Sons in 1839. It was not the first company to produce a writing machine, but by 1873 became known for manufacturing the first successful commercial typewriter.

Another writing-machine company, Sholes and Glidden, sold their patent to financial backers Densmore and Yost who negotiated with E. Remington and Sons for production. Remington introduced Sholes’s QWERTY board in their model, and the Remington No. 2 of 1878 became a wildly successful typewriter with both upper- and lower-case letters accessed by a shift key.

Today it’s hard to imagine anything else.

Sholes & Glidden Type-Writer, invented by Christopher Latham Sholes, Carlos Glidden, and Samuel W. Soule in 1868, and manufactured by Remington & Sons, Ilion, New York, USA, between 1874 and 1878. This was the first typewriter to be manufactured commercially (about 5000 were made), the first to use the Universal or QWERTY keyboard which Sholes invented, and the first to be called a 'typewriter'; Sholes coined the term. The colorful flowery decorations may have been intended to appeal to women, who were entering the typist profession. Wikimedia Commons.

The QWERTY keyboard design was so named for the lineup of letters on the top letter row of keys, with other letters placed elsewhere based on frequency of use. With a few changes in other letter/character positions, it remains in use today with Latin-script alphabets. Wisconsin newspaper editor and printer Christopher Latham Scholes came up with the layout after earlier designs resulted in the jamming of keys.

Scholes's QWERTY, 1878. Wiki-Commons

The Remington typewriter was used in law offices, counting rooms, and mercantiles in European and American cities, employing young women with wages ranging from $12 to $15 per week. 

Even my old Oliver from 1914 has the QWERTY layout.

The abandoned heroine of my novel, An Unexpected Redemption, is one such young woman who finds employment as a type-writer in a Denver law firm and later in her hometown of Olin Springs, Colorado. Her not-so-portable Remington No. 2 model typewriter influences the course of her life, as does her other Remington, which you can read about here.

Funny, how a few little letters—and the ability to manipulate them—can change a person's life for the better.

~

Davalynn Spencer

Wife and mother of professional rodeo bullfighters, Davalynn Spencer can’t stop #lovingthecowboy. She writes Western romance with rugged heroes, teaches writing workshops, and plays a different keyboard on her church worship team – when she’s not wrangling Blue the Cowdog and mouse detectors Annie and Oakley. Connect with her at www.davalynnspencer.com.