John Mahlon Marlin (May 6, 1836 – July 1, 1901) was an American firearms manufacturer and inventor. Marlin was born in

Boston Neck The Boston Neck or Roxbury Neck was a narrow strip of land connecting the then-peninsular city of Boston to the mainland city of Roxbury (now a neighborhood of Boston). The surrounding area was gradually filled in as the city of Boston expan ...

, near

Windsor Locks Windsor Locks is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Capitol Planning Region. As of the 2020 census, its population was 12,613. It is the site of Bradley International Airport, which serves the Greate ...

Hartford County, Connecticut Hartford County is a county located in the north central part of the U.S. state of Connecticut. According to the 2020 census, the population was 899,498, making it the second-most populous county in Connecticut. Hartford County contains t ...

, as the son of Mahlon Marlin and Jennette Bradford. He worked at the Colt plant in

Hartford Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. Starting in 1863, he made

pistol A pistol is a type of handgun, characterised by a gun barrel, barrel with an integral chamber (firearms), chamber. The word "pistol" derives from the Middle French ''pistolet'' (), meaning a small gun or knife, and first appeared in the Englis ...

s in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is List ...

, expanding into manufacturing pistols and then different types of firearms by 1872, then called ''Marlin Fire Arms Company'', today

Marlin Firearms Marlin Firearms is an American firearms manufacturer, manufacturer of semi-automatic firearm, semi-automatic, lever-action and bolt-action rifles. In the past the company (based in Madison, North Carolina and formerly based in North Haven, Conne ...

. Initially only producing

single-shot In firearm designs, the term single-shot refers to guns that can hold only a single round of ammunition inside and thus must be reloaded manually after every shot. Compared to multi-shot repeating firearms ("repeaters"), single-shot designs have ...

firearms, his company started manufacturing lever-action repeating rifles in 1881. Marlin married Martha Susan ''nee'' Moore on May 27, 1862, in Windsor Locks. They had four children, two of whom died young. Their sons, Mahlon Henry and John Howard, took over the company after their father's death in 1901.

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Short biography and picture

1836 births 1901 deaths Gunsmiths People from Windsor Locks, Connecticut {{US-inventor-stub

Further reading

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