John Mahlon Marlin (May 6, 1836 – July 1, 1901) was an American firearms manufacturer and inventor.
Marlin was born in
Boston Neck
The Boston Neck or Roxbury Neck was an isthmus, a narrow strip of land connecting the then-peninsular city of Boston to the mainland city of Roxbury (now a neighborhood of Boston). The surrounding area was gradually filled in as the city of Bo ...
, near
Windsor Locks
Windsor Locks is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 12,613. It is the site of Bradley International Airport, which serves the Greater Hartford-Springfield region and occupies approxim ...
,
Hartford County, Connecticut
Hartford County is a county located in the north central part of the U.S. state of Connecticut. According to the 2020 census, the population was 899,498, making it the second-most populous county in Connecticut. Hartford County contains the ...
as the son of Mahlon Marlin and Jennette Bradford.
He worked at the
Colt
Colt(s) or COLT may refer to:
*Colt (horse), an intact (uncastrated) male horse under four years of age
People
* Colt (given name)
*Colt (surname)
Places
*Colt, Arkansas, United States
*Colt, Louisiana, an unincorporated community, United States ...
plant in
Hartford
Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...
during the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
. Starting in 1863, he made
pistol
A pistol is a handgun, more specifically one with the chamber integral to its gun barrel, though in common usage the two terms are often used interchangeably. The English word was introduced in , when early handguns were produced in Europe, an ...
s in
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...
, expanding into manufacturing pistols and then different types of firearms by 1872, then called ''Marlin Fire Arms Company'', today
Marlin Firearms
Marlin Firearms Co. is an American manufacturer of semi-automatic, lever-action, and bolt-action rifles. In the past, the company, now based in Madison, North Carolina, and formerly based in North Haven, Connecticut, made shotguns, derringers, ...
.
Initially producing single-shot weapons only, his company started manufacturing
lever-action repeating rifles in 1881.
Marlin married Martha Susan ''nee'' Moore on May 27, 1862 in Windsor Locks. They had four children, two of which died young. Their sons Mahlon Henry and John Howard took over the company after their father's death in 1901.
Further reading
* William S. Brophy: ''Marlin Firearms: A History Of The Guns & The Company That Made Them''
External links
Short biography and picture
1836 births
1901 deaths
Gunsmiths
People from Windsor Locks, Connecticut
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