Charles was no firearm expert, so he hired William H. and the business was contracted to produce 15,000 Model 1861 Springfield rifled muskets for the Union with total earnings equaling $285,000. When the Civil War hit the states in 1860, the company changed its name to the Parker Snow Co. As time went on, he assigned his son Wilbur Parker to look over some of these investments. It is quite likely that the business-minded Parker invested in these companies to expand his portfolio and have multiple sources of incomes in different markets. As the company expanded, it started to print catalogs of not only his plant-produced items, but also of goods that other companies in the area were selling.
With a crew of 120 men, the business began to produce the machinery and steel products needed by so many new and flourishing businesses.Īs time went on, Parker was producing more than just coffee mills at the plant: lamps, tools, silverware, grain mills, and dozens of other necessities of the time were made at the factory.
Success within the plant is largely due to the fact that it was the era of inventions and industrial growth.
The business functioned as a machinery and foundry, and in time made numerous household and factory items. Once the business saw success, he upgraded to steam engine power to fit the growing producing demand of the plant in 1844.ġ844 was an eventful year for Parker not only because of the power upgrade, he also joined with a pair of business partners to form the company that would start his firearms career: Parker, Snow, Brooks, & Company. It was a hard path to success with ups and downs throughout, but Parker never faltered. His brother Edmund joined him in the business in 1833 and was involved with the factory on and off for around a decade. Today, that seems like an unusual way to power a plant, but in that day and age, it was a common power source. The plant ran strictly on horse power for twelve years. In 1832, with $70.00 and a dream of what could be, he started his first coffee mill production plant. After four years of working for someone else, Parker decided it was time to be his own boss. He first started work as a button maker, and in the typical “rags-to-riches” narrative style, he was then hired by a well-known business man Patrick Lewis to make coffee mills. In his teens, he had been a farmhand to help his family make a living, and by age 18 made his way up north to Meriden, Connecticut to start making a name for himself. From a young age, Parker knew that he was destined for success. He was the eleventh of twelve children in his impoverished family. Charles Parker was born on Januin Cheshire, Connecticut. The story begins in Connecticut, the state still referred to as, “America’s Arsenal” because of its deep roots in early firearms development in the United States. The company has a long and detailed story with its roots laid well before the Civil War. One man who thought he might take a stab at the world of firearms development was Charles Parker, the founder of Parker Brothers shotguns. When thinking about longstanding firearm companies, one question that frequently comes to mind is, “Where did these businesses get their start?” The origin of a firearm company is usually not a simple and easy story the gun industry was, and truly still is, an extremely competitive field.