January 4, 1847
On this day, godfather of the side arm, Samuel Colt, sold 1,000 revolvers to the Texas Rangers. It was the sale of a lifetime, vaulting the gun maker into Western legend.
Before that day, Colt (right) had left a trail of business failures. He founded his first company, the Patent Arms Manufacturing Company in Paterson, New Jersey, with a loan from his lawyer/politician cousin, Dudley Seldon. Granted a patent for a “revolving gun,” his percussion cap and the development of interchangeable parts were innovations.
But the first 1,000 revolvers sat unsold. Attempting to stay afloat, he turned to manufacturing an underwater detonator of his own design and a waterproof cable. Fellow inventor, Samuel Morse, (right) made history with Colt’s tar-coated cable and his newfangled telegraph.
Congress actually appropriated money for the purchase of his underwater detonator after he demonstrated its ability to destroy a moving enemy vessel. The project was soon scuttled due to strong opposition by John Quincy Adams, the country’s sixth president and at that time, a powerful member of the House of Representative.
It wasn’t the first time he’d lost funding for one of his inventions. As a teen, his father refused to finance a second attempt at a new revolver after the first exploded. Undaunted, he went on the road with a supply of nitrous oxide, 
billing himself as “The Celebrated Dr. Coult of New York, London and Calcutta” giving laughing gas demonstrations.
When ticket sales stalled, he commissioned burgeoning Cincinnati sculptor, Hiram Powers, (right) to create wax figures and detailed paintings of characters from Dante’s “Divine Comedy.” Always fascinated by things that exploded, Colt accompanied 
Powers’ demons, she-wolves and mummies with extravagant pyrotechnics.
It was famed Texas Ranger, Capt. Samuel Walker (left) who was responsible for rescuing Colt from life as a Madison Avenue-style pitch man. Ordering 1,000 revolvers, Walker asked that the chamber be modified to hold six cartridges instead of the original five. It turned out to be a marketing gold mine, the “six shooter.” It’s doubtful the “five shooter” would have had the same appeal.
Proceeds from the Texas sale launched Colt’s Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company in Hartford, Connecticut, which eventually became Colt’s Armory. Suddenly Colt became one of the richest men in the country.
His next promotional scheme was to engage famed Western painter George Catlin (left) to create Western scenes prominently featuring his firearms. It’s the first recorded use of the 21st Century technique of “product placement.”
One of Catlin’s Western drawings featuring Colt firearms
All his marketing savvy didn’t save him from controversy, however. His practice of providing arms to both sides in a number of conflicts led to charges of treason during the Civil War. As late as 1861, the company had, in fact, sold 2,000 weapons to well-known Confederate John Forsythe. To counter the negative publicity, he arranged to be commissioned a colonel in the 1st Regiment Colts Revolving Rifles of Connecticut.
His wealth couldn’t save him from a troubled personal life, either. His mother had died of tuberculosis when he was six and a number of his siblings suffered misfortunes. One sister died in childhood and another at age 19, both presumably from the illness that killed their mother. A third sister committed suicide at 31.
Two brothers successfully made it to adulthood and successful careers but it was older brother, John Colt, at the heart of a sensational murder trial. A fur trader, teacher, short-term Marine, he was unlikely expert on double entry bookkeeping. He ran afoul of the law when his printer, John Adams, turned up dead following a dispute over the bill for Colt’s text on bookkeeping. At some point the author either whacked Adams with a hatchet or shot him in the head with a handy family firearm.
Claiming 
it was self-defense that caused him to kill the printer and temporary insanity that caused him to hide the body, he was found guilty and sentenced to hang.
The condemned man waited until the eleventh hour to become a bridegroom, marrying Caroline Henshaw on the morning of his scheduled execution, November 14, 1842, . He escaped the gallows, however, committing suicide with a knife reportedly provided by a “family member.” He was just 32. (Above, newspaper illustration.)
Samuel died young, as well, from complications of gout on January 10, 1862, at age 47. His $15 million estate, estimated worth as much as $380 million today, went to his wife, Elizabeth Jarvis Colt and their young son, Caldwell. (Left)
The only other provision in his will was for a second child amounting to several million now. The boy was ostensibly his brother John’s son. But when Samuel’s widow, and her brother, Richard Jarvis, contested the bequest they were presented with an 1838 Scottish Certificate of Marriage between Caroline Henshaw and Samuel Colt.
Historians say that Henshaw was already John’s common law wife at the time of his death. She and her son were reportedly abandoned by Samuel, who believed she was not suitable to be the wife of an American industrialist. John’s belated nuptials were thought to be a way of finally legitimizing the child.
Few characters in the Colt drama were long-lived. Samuel and Elizabeth’s only surviving child, Caldwell, followed in his father’s footsteps, inventing and manufacturing firearms. A well-known yachtsman, he drowned off the Florida coast while sailing his ship, “The Dauntless.” He was 35.
The Texas Ranger who saved Colt’s company and became the namesake of the Walker Colt, Samuel Walker, barely made it to 30. He died at Huamantle, Mexico, in 1847 during the Mexican-American War.
The famed “Walker Colt”
The Jarvis clan was more durable. Elizabeth, revered as “the first lady of Connecticut,” was an exuberant philanthropist, organizing day-care for working mothers, relief for Civil War soldiers and financing the state’s first Suffragette convention. She died at 78 and is buried by Samuel in Hartford’s historic Cedar Hill Cemetery.
Elizabeth’s brother, Richard, headed the Colt Armory from the end of the Civil War until 1887. He died at 73 in 1903.
Colt’s firearms proved to be immortal, however, most becoming legends on the frontier. By all accounts, Samuel never made it farther West than Cincinnati.
Greg Martin Colt Gallery, Autry Museum of the American West, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Los Angeles features “The Colt Revolver in the American West.” The exhibit explores the gun’s place in frontier history. Included, a number of engraved, rare and prototype revolvers as well as Teddy Roosevelt’s single-action revolver and a modern model designed by famed jewelers, Tiffany and Co. Many of these unique artifacts were donated to The Autry by it’s members and fans.
Founded by actor and entrepreneur Gene Autry in 1988, the museum includes more than 20,000 paintings, textiles, costumes, firearms, toys and more from multiple cultures. Forums and year-round children’s programs are held at both locations. The “Native Voices” equity theatre is unparalleled in presenting works by Native American, Alaska Native, and First Nation playwrights. The museum and store are open 10 to 4 Tuesday through Friday, 10 to 5 on weekends. The Crossroad Cafe opens at 9 on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Guided tours at 11, 1 and 3 are available on weekends.
Admission is $14 for adults, $6 for children 3 to 12, under three free, $10 for students and seniors. Active military, veterans, peace officers and park rangers are always free. For more information go to theautry.org, call (323) 667-2000 or write Autry Museum of the American West, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Los Angeles, CA 90027.
© Text Only – 2019 – Headin’ West LLC – All photos – public domain or fair use.
*Head On West strives for historic accuracy and uses a number of sources considered reliable. When research differs on significant facts, the various points of view will be cited.