(Excerpt from Simeon North, First Official Pistol Maker of...)
Excerpt from Simeon North, First Official Pistol Maker of the United States: A Memoir Becoming interested in the achievements of their ancestor in the manufacture of pistols and guns for government use, they were surprised to find that there nowhere existed, in any public form, any record of these achievements, nor any knowledge of them on the part of the historians of the subject. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)
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Simeon North was born on July 13, 1765 in Berlin, Connecticut, United States. He was the fourth son of Jedediah and Sarah (Wilcox) North, and of the sixth generation in descent from John North, who came from England in 1635 and settled in Farmington, Connecticut.
North had not the advantages of college training.
Like his father and grandfather, Simeon began life as a farmer. On his sixteenth birthday, in 1781, he shouldered his gun and walked to Saybrook, where he attempted to enlist in the Continental Army, but he was rejected by the recruiting officer.
In 1795 he began a business of making scythes in an old mill adjoining his farm, and on March 9, 1799, he secured his first contract with the War Department for 500 horse-pistols to be delivered within one year. It is probable that previously he had made some pistols for private sales. Other government contracts followed, some of which were for pistols for the Navy Department. It is not definitely known whether it was North or the more famous Eli Whitney who first devised tools and machines for making separate parts and was, therefore, the first American manufacturer to make arms whose parts should be interchangeable one with the other, but it is quite certain that the system of interchangeable parts had its birth in the work of these two men, both engaged in manufacturing arms for the federal government. In North's contract for 20, 000 pistols, dated April 16, 1813, there was this provision which he himself had recommended: "The component parts of pistols are to correspond so exactly that any limb or part of one Pistol may be fitted to any other Pistol of the twenty thousand. " The contract price per pistol was $7. 00. His work for the government was invariably well done. His last pistol contract was made August 18, 1828; all subsequent contracts were for rifles and carbines. His first rifle contract was dated December 10, 1823, and called for 6, 000 rifles to be delivered at the rate of 1, 200 a year for five years. He delivered them all in four years. The last order received by him from the government was dated February 5, 1850, for 3, 000 guns. In 1825 he made a multicharge repeating rifle capable of firing ten charges without reloading. One of these weapons is now owned by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company of New Haven, Connecticut.
In 1811 North was elected lieutenant-colonel of the 6th Connecticut Regiment, but resigned the office in 1813, although the title "Colonel" clung to him.
(Excerpt from Simeon North, First Official Pistol Maker of...)
(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)
Although a generous supporter and regular attendant of the village Congregational church, North was not a member of any religious body.
North had a well-disciplined mind, was well-informed, and kept abreast of the world's affairs by reading the New York papers. He indicated his appreciation of education by participating in the establishment of the first Berlin Academy which was incorporated in 1802. He was a man of stalwart and erect figure, tireless energy, genial temperament, quiet and modest manner.
He brought up his children strictly in accordance with his own principles of personal honor, the dignity of conscientious labor, the need of square dealing with every one, and the necessity of self-reliance.
In 1786 North married Lucy, daughter of Jonathan and Elizabeth Ranney Savage of Berlin, Connecticut. She died in 1811, after bearing him five sons and three daughters. His second wife, Lydia, whom he married March 2, 1812, was the daughter of Reverend Enoch Huntington of Middletown, Connecticut. She bore him one daughter. His four older sons were associated with him in business, but the youngest, Simeon, was sent to Yale, where he graduated as valedictorian of his class, was ordained to the ministry, and became president of Hamilton College.
