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You're listening to a podcast.
So you're doing something else too, like maybe scrolling home listings on Redfin, saving places you like without thinking you'll get them. Because that's what house hunting has become. But Redfin isn't built for endless browsing. It's built to help you find and own a home. Redfin agents close twice as many deals as other agents, which means when you find a place you love, you've got a real shot at getting it.
Redfin helps turn saved listings into Real addresses. Get started at redfin.com. Own the dream. And we continue with Our American Stories. And here to tell another great American story is our own Angeli Lubinsky, a frequent contributor here at Our American Stories.
He is the former co-host of Discovery Channel's Master of Arms. The former curator in charge of the Cody Firearms Museum, and she's the co-founder of the University of Wyoming College of Law's Firearms Research Center. Here's Ashley. Mm-hmm. A lot of people know the name Winchester.
They know that we name Winchester as the quote-unquote gun that won the West. They know the name from any Western movie that's ever been made since Buffalo Bill filmed some of his work.
So, the Winchester name is so prominent. That sometimes you forget that there are other people. behind the company name. And one of the people who was Attributed with making Winchester really what it was was a guy named Thomas Bennett.
Now, that's a name you probably don't recognize, but he basically built the company into what it was. He went to Yale, very smart. He was a college wrestler.
So, Thomas Bennett was a very kind of big, stocky individual, and he was an avid sportsman and loved fishing, hunting, all of that stuff.
So, you know, perfect fit for Winchester, right? And this is a really interesting part of his backstory: he's actually a first lieutenant in an African-American regiment during the Civil War. And so, he ends up starting for Winchester in 1870, and he's an apprentice engineer.
So, he starts kind of bottom of the totem pole. Oliver Winchester came from a clothing background.
So he's not a gun guy, he's the businessman. He really liked Bennett. He was priming him for leadership positions within the company because Bennett also proved to be a very good businessman. What nobody anticipated though was the fact that Oliver Winchester's sons would pass away. But Thomas Bennett does marry his daughter Jenny in 1872.
And some say that they met at a company picnic.
So Bennett becomes Winchester's foreign affairs guy initially.
So he becomes the guy that. Is all over the world, and he brings Winchester kind of into the global market. You know, it's part of the reason why everybody knows what Winchester is because what a lot of people don't realize is early on in Winchester history, they almost go bankrupt like a lot. And so, you see, successful, successful, you know, but it's actually a company that really needs some help early on. And so, he helps with that and takes the name Winchester and he goes around the world and he promotes the brand, he promotes the company.
The one thing that happens though during this time period is that he misses his family. I mean, how cute is that, right? And so, he writes love letters to his wife for 50 years and he calls her my dear girl in the letters. But what's funny is he recognizes that he's kind of rough on the whole love letter thing early on.
So, in his first love letter, he literally writes, This is the first love letter that I have ever wrote.
So, you must not despair because there is not much love in it.
So he improves upon his abilities over the years. But all of this travel really, you know, takes a toll on him and he misses his daughter's first steps. And he also keeps it a little spicy. You know, you can't, you know, sext during that period. But he found a way to communicate overseas with his wife.
And so in one instance, he was in France, I believe, and he bought her this beautiful dress and he sent it to her and he wrote a letter that very lovingly says, he got better at writing, right? Very lovingly says, wouldn't I like to see you in it or indeed out of it, my dear girl? I feel like when you think about historical figures, that is not how you see historical figures, but there were people too, right?
So Thomas Bennett is A wonderful businessman, and he makes Winchester what it is. But he also is credited with finding one of the greatest gun designers of all time, and that is John Moses Browning. And he hears about them, and he ultimately is the person that pays for Browning's first design and quickly another design. And Browning becomes almost synonymous with Winchester nowadays. Most people didn't necessarily know his name back then.
But so many Winchester guns for 20 years almost are initial designs by Browning that come in-house that he basically sells the patent rights to, and then Winchester has the ability to decide if they're going to make it or not. And they have their in-house designers do that, and then they push, you know, they push the product out on the commercial market. He's also such a. Strong-headed individual that he's the reason that Browning and him end their relationship.
So, in around, I think around like 19, it's turned in the 20th century, it's like 1902, 1903. Browning has already developed this really advanced piece of technology and he brings it to Bennett and he says, I want a royalty because he knows this is going to be huge, right? And so Bennett says, No, thank you, we're good. And so that was it. I mean, the Browning relationship was totally over, and it didn't rekindle until World War I, right before Browning passes away.
But it's this 20-year relationship that ends because of a change in contract. And Bennett. Does not mince his words with how he feels about Browning after the fact. He writes a letter to the salespeople that we call, in my field, the sour grapes letter. And it basically says that John Moses Browning is not that big of a deal, that Winchester had to modify the guns so much in-house to make them available for the commercial market.
He calls John Moses' brother Matthew a difficult proposition. That's a direct quote. And then basically, at the end of the letter, he says that they're going to be much better off without Browning. And he can't say the same for Browning without Winchester. But if you do know that history, you know that is not how that goes.
But I digress. It's a great anecdote, though, to see that Bennett was this powerhouse within the company. And he's trying to retire by 1910. And he wants to keep it in the family like Oliver Winchester did. And so one of the people that is now starting to take on the reins is his son, Winchester Bennett.
I like the little sneaky way of involving that family name. But Winchester Bennett is not. As qualified as his father. His father has very high expectations for him. And Winchester Bennett is politely phrased, he's sickly, and he's also prone to anxiety, severe nervous disorders.
And so he kind of goes in and out of the hospital, makes some bad decisions for Winchester. And so, as a result, while Thomas Bennett is trying to build this house and spend his golden years with his wife, whom he loves so much, he's kind of having to step in and out of his role with Winchester. And so. Then it ends up Staying involved, he actually stays with Winchester on and off and has his 50-year anniversary with the company, and they call it Bennett Day.
So, you can see that even though things aren't always as good, the people still have a very strong respect for him. But what ends up happening is after the war, World War I, they think they need to diversify in order to keep the company afloat. And so, one of the decisions that is made is that they will go into the retail market.
So, they sell figure skates, they sell aftershave, they sell all kinds of things to try to keep the money afloat. But the bankers are already getting involved, things are going south. And I think to me, this one of the saddest things that happens is right before Thomas Bennett's wife dies, she ends up signing over the rest of her shares to the bank. You know, the man who built the company basically has to come back to see the company fall. And he passes away at 86 on August 30th, which is six months before the company goes into receivership in January of.
1931. And the story behind Winchester after that is they get bought out by a guy named Olin, and Olin still owns the company today.
So when you see the company Winchester Ammunition, that is Olin, which is the most closely connected to the original Winchester company. When you see Winchester names associated with anything else, like the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, that is by Browning, which is also affiliated with a Belgian-based company called FN, and they licensed the name Winchester from Olin.
So once Olin gets a hold of it, they don't let go and they still have it today. And when you see Winchester Ammunition, you're looking at the closest company to the original one. And a terrific job on the editing, production, and storytelling by our own Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to Ashley Lubinsky for bringing her passion, her enthusiasm. Her firearms, and my goodness, what stories she tells us.
And we learn about the man behind the man or the woman behind the man, as sometimes is the case. as well, the man behind the man that powered Winchester, and that is Thomas Bennett, a Yaley, a college wrestler, loved fishing and hunting, and he was the first lieutenant in an African American regiment. In the Civil War, a fascinating guy, and he hustled and traveled around the country. To keep Winchester in business, we've also done a story about Browning, another force behind the Winchester brand as well. The story of a great American brand and the person whose name you didn't know who powered it.
Here on Our American Story. This is Julian Edelman from Games with Names. I want to take a second to talk about something that's personal to me. I've had the privilege of working closely with Robert Kraft for a long time. And one thing I've always respected is how seriously he takes up standing up to hate.
As a Jewish athlete my identity is something I am proud of. But I also know what it feels like to be singled out for it. That's why this new commercial for the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate that aired during the big game really hit home. It's about showing up for someone when they're targeted, even if you don't have the perfect words. And sometimes standing next to someone is enough.
And you can show support by sharing the blue square. CBS Tuesday is NCIS Night with new episodes of NCIS, NCIS Origins, and NCIS Sydney. Possible abduction of the Marines we need to move anybody's potential target. We're gonna do what we do and we're gonna figure out answers Whatever they're planning it's going down here MCIS MCIS night is all new is a night you've never seen CBS Tuesday, starting with 7 Central and streaming on Paramount Plus. Uh Life gets messy.
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Mm-hmm.
