Revocation of Edict

Inventor, pioneer in shotgun designing, manufacturer, and "colorful character" - all of these could describe Daniel Myron Lefever. Daniel was born August 27, 1835, on a farm in Hopewell, Ontario County, New York. His father, David Lefever, died soon after Daniel's birth and it is thought his mother must have died sometime in the late 1840s. The 1850 census shows Daniel and his sister, Mary, living with their uncle, Christian, in Seneca, New York. When Uncle Christian and other members of the family left New York to migrate west, Daniel remained. He began an apprenticeship in gunmaking in Canandaigua, New York, which led to a lifelong career in that trade. He became known as the greatest gun designer of his time.

Unfortunately, Daniel Lefever was not a very good businessman. Over the years he established businesses and formed partnerships which all fell on hard times.

In 1878 in competition with twenty one different makes of guns, foreign and American, he won two gold medals for the best gun in the world and for the best American gun. In 1880 he patented his hammerless shotgun. In 1883 he patented the first truly automatic hammerless shotgun. During the period 1872-1906 he received patents for cocking mechanisms, trigger devices, ejectors, breech loading firearms and improvements. In 1886 after losing control of his company (The Lefever Arms Company) he remained as Superintendent until 1902. Then forming a new company with his sons, Charles F., Frank, and George, they soon realized they could not compete with the larger Lefever Arms Company and moved to Ohio. They returned to Syracuse in 1906 but Daniel died before they were able to re-establish a viable company.

The Lefever Arms Company continued making Lefever designed shotguns in Syracuse until they were purchased by the Ithaca Gun Company in 1916. That company also produced Lefever guns under the Lefever Arms Company name until 1921. The Ithaca Gun Company used the Lefever name to market the "Lefever Nitro Special", an inexpensive gun of their own design that had nothing to do with D. M. Lefever except to exploit his name.

Daniel Lefever was known as "Uncle Dan" to everyone. Occasionally, at the end of a workday, he would walk to the local tavern and leave sufficient money to buy all of his employees (about 80) a five cent beer.

Daniel married Sarah (Todd? Snead?) about 1857. They had seven children.

Suffering from a stomach ulcer, Daniel Myron Lefever died October 29, 1906. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Syracuse, New York.

Sources: by George Newton Lefevre;"The Great American Double Guns" by Chuck Hawks; Mike Smoke's "Family Tree Maker's Genealogy Site: Genealogy Report: Descendants of Daniel Ferree";"The Lefever Forum: "New Notes on D.M. Lefever" by H.J. Swinney; "Shotgun World Photo Gallery", shotgunworld.com; "Wikipedia", wikipedia.org; " US Census Records" .