Who Was a Self-Made Businessman Oliver Winchester

Oliver Fisher Winchester came out of a difficult childhood, marked by poverty, hunger, abuse, and abandonment.

Together with his twin brother Samuel Croft, they managed to transform the weight of their past into a driving force that fueled their ambition.

Winchester's success story begun when two brothers started the clothing company named Winchester & Company.

Oliver Winchester was described as a robust and cold man with one life purpose: to leave a financial dynasty behind him.

With the shirt business growing, Oliver had enough money to invest, and with the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, there was no better market than the arms market.

Having an eye for opportunity, Oliver acquired the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company of New Haven in 1857, promptly restructuring it as the New Haven Arms Company. Ten years later, this company would be known under the name of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company.

One of the most popular and iconic rifles produced by Winchester was the Winchester Model 1894, also known as the Winchester '94—the gun that would later gain popularity in Hollywood movies and marketing campaigns as the 'Gun that Won the West’.

When Oliver passed away on December 10, 1880, his son William Winchester took over the company. But fate took a cruel turn and William passed away from tuberculosis in March of the next year. Following this, his wife Sarah moved to San Jose, California where she started building the strange house today known as Winchester Mystery House.

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