On this date in 1836, Samuel Colt received a patent for a revolver. His invention enabled a handgun to be fired multiple times without reloading. He formed a company to produce the gun, but sales were slow. Colt was afraid he would have to go out of business. But then the Army placed an order for 1,000 Colt revolvers. Instead of going out of business, Colt opened the world’s largest armament factory.
The lawlessness of the West has been wildly exaggerated. Gunfights in the middle of the street were a rarity. Towns often required visitors to leave their guns with the sheriff while they were in town. Few people were involved in gunfights or stagecoach robberies.
But while the Wild West was not as wild as we think, people did carry guns. And the most popular gun was the Colt. It was affordable and reliable.
Perhaps the most notable episode of old West style gunplay in Dakota Territory involved Teddy Roosevelt in 1884. Teddy Roosevelt was still new to the Territory when late one evening he arrived at a hotel. It seemed like a rough place. He didn’t want to go in, but he didn’t have any other choice. When he entered, Teddy saw a man with a gun in each hand pacing the floor. The other patrons of the bar looked nervous. When Teddy came in the man dubbed him “Four Eyes” for the glasses he was wearing. He called out, “Four Eyes is going to treat.” Teddy brushed it off and sat down. The man towered over him. “I said you were going to treat.”
In Teddy’s words, here’s what happened next: “As I rose, I struck quick and hard with my right just to one side of the point of his jaw, hitting with my left as I straightened out, and then again with my right. He fired the guns, but I do not know if he was trying to shoot at me. He struck the corner of the bar with his head and was knocked senseless.”
Seems the man brought a gun to a fistfight, and lost.
Dakota Datebook written by Carole Butcher
Source:
History.com. “Samuel Colt.” https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/samuel-colt Accessed 19 February 2019.
