Morning journal and courier., 1880-12-11
Death of Ex-Lieutenant Governor
 Winchester.
Prominent Man and vaIuabIs. CttIzel "A Sketch of His Career-His Grea

EX-l10uG6nanG AT0F0ruOE- O11N0E H4SAACA Winchester died at his residence on Prospect street yesterday morning at about seven o'clock, aged seventy-one years and ten months. About year ago he received a par alytic shock. He recovered from it's effects somewhat but his splendid constitution was broken, and after brave struggle he sue cumbed and utter physical prostration en- sued, resulting at last in death. His death is much regretted.
 Mr. Winchester was native of Boston, Mass, born in 181O When seven years of age he went to live on farm near that city. He remained there four years, attending school, as was the custom of farm boys, in the winter only. At fourteen, after having obtained limited education, he became ap- prenticed to a carpenter in Boston. and work ed at this trade for six years. He then bought the remaining year of his apprenticeship and went to Baltimore, where he became master builder The first year he secured contract for building a church-an unusual achieve ment in one so young. It illustrated in a measure the enterprise which marked his en- tire life. Until 1887 he remained builder, but seeing better field he relinquished the trade and opened the first gentlemen's fur nishing goods store in Maryland. That this store was the initial one of the kind is stated on the authority of gentleman at that time living in Baltimore He began this under taking in year of financial disaster, but re- mained in it eleven years. The store was on Baltimore street near Calvert, within stones throw of Barnums Hotel. He sold out to Will liam A. Danskin and came to this city. While in the gents furnishing line he invented "a perfectly fitting dress shirt, a patent for which was issued to him February1 184S. In the course of his business he made the &C.,
 quaintance of John M. Davies of J. M. Davies, Jones $ Co.,, leading importers and jobbers in gents furnishing goods in New York, and business relations were thus begun between the two gentlemen which eliminated in the establishment of the long prominent firm of Winchester & Davies, shirt manufac- turers of this city. When Mir. Winchester came to New Haven he began the manufac ture of shirts in the old Garfield building on State street, one half of which still remains, occupied by A. Foote Co. The business rapidly increased and larger quarters were demanded, and MT. Davies built part of the afterward great manufactory of Win chester Davies on Court street. which, in the height of it's prosperity, one of
 the largest, if not the largest5-shirt manufac- turing establishments in the world The es- tablishment was also one of the first, if not | the first, shirt manufactories of the country, l the firm of Winchester < Davies thus intro 1 ducing a new manufacturing industry into l the country. The Winchester & Davies shirts ! were long pre-eminent in the market and at tained great sale, and a great number of l hands were employed, the business materially l promoting the prosperity of New Haven. It is worthy of note that in the early l days of this enterprise the sewing was done | mainly by held in adjoining country | towns; and the making of shirts, previously to MT. Winchester's invention, was almost wholly confined to the department of domes | tic economy in home circles. In 1852, when sewing machines were introduced, the | business received new impetus. The busy l mind of Mir. Winchester was never at rest l He was always planning, and no obstacle l seemed too great for his indomitabIe will and l enterprise. In 1857 he became one of the principal stockholders in the then Volcan- 1 ic Arms Co.,, which that year was incorpor- ated Previously he had examined into the
 merits of the gun. invented by Tyler Henry, deceased, which the Volcanic Arms company manufactured. Their factory was on Arti- san street, in the premises now occupied by ! the American Fish-book and Needle compa- ny. MT. Winchester then resided on Court l .4
 manufactory. His love of horticulture led him to the erection of handsome conserva- 1 tories, which for years adorned his gardens
 The weapon made by the Volcanic Arms com pany was one of the earliest of the class l known as repeating or magazine guns. It's | main peculiarity, retained in the Winchester ! repeating firearms, is the tube, nearly the 1 length of the barrel, for holding the cart ] ridges, through and from which they are suc-
 cessively propelled by spiral spring. The
 mechanism for receiving the cartridge from 1 the tube and feeding it into the breach of the l barrel was invented and patented February 14, 1854, by Horace Smith and Daniel B.
 Wesson, then of Norwich, Conn. The Vol canic Arms company was not successful and MT. Winchester, having purchased it's entire stock, formed a new organization in 1S6O under the firm name of the New Ha- ven Arms company, of which, as its presi- dent, he assumed the general executive man. agement. In October of this same year, patent was issued to Benjamin T. Henry, the superintendent, for an improvement on the patent, which received the name of the Henry rife. Concerned with Mr. Winches- ter in the Henry rife was the late N. H. Gas ton, man of some note, who built and re- sided in the residence now State Attorney T. E. Doolittle's During the next six years a large quantity of these firearms were manu- factured, and they were partially adopted by the government in the civil war.
 In 1865 special charter was obtained, and the company was reorganized as the Winches- ter Repeating Arms company with capital of $500, GOO. Mir. Winchester now sold out his interest in the firm of Winches- ter & Davies, and devoted himself to the business of the company with which his name had now become identified. During that year and the next the Henry rife was further improved, and the name of the weapon was changed to the Winchester re-
 
 ther changes in the weapon, including several to adapt the arm to sporting or to target pur- poses. In 1876 the company, to meet the demand for some arms of larger range, prepared the model known as 'sThe Centen nial." The company shortly after began to manufacture the Hotchkiss magazine gun, having purchased the exclusive right under the patents of the original inventor, B. B. Hotchkiss. His arm, as altered and improved, has been adopted for the use of the United States army.
 In 1872 the company began the manufac- ture of metallic cartridges, and now the ca pacity of the concern is equal to the produc- tion of one and a half million of cartridges, of every variety, in day. The buildings of the company have been erected from time to time, as the business demanded They cover a quadrangular area of about four acres.
 An immense quantity of ammunition was furnished by the Winchester shops to the Turkish government in its war with Russia.