Bacon Mfg Co. was started in 1852 in Norwich, Connecticut on the banks of the Yantic River, just below the falls.
After the Civil War ended, hard times fell on the gun maker and two of it's employees were given the responsibility of selling the company's assets. The two employees: Samuel S. Hopkins and Charles Converse, decided to recruit some former Bacon employees and some local gunsmiths and businessmen to start a new enterprise. The year was 1867.
Samuel's brother Charles Hopkins worked for Bacon Mfg, Manhattan Firearms Co. and Allen & Thurber (the predecessor of Forehand and Wadsworth, a company that would later be purchased by Hopkins and Allen...).
They also teamed up with a local gunsmith by the name of Charles H. Allen (not related to Allen & Thurber) and local business man Horace Briggs.
With $6,000 of capital the team purchased the old Bacon Mfg plant at Yantic Falls (they needed the water for power, as this was before electricity). With 5 principles and 12 employees they were up and running.
In 1874 founder Charles Converse sold his interest in the company to William and Milan Hulbert. This gave the Hulbert brothers a 50% stake in Hopkins and Allen.
Two years later the Hulbert brothers formed a new business with gunsmith/gun designer Joseph Merwin. The new endeavor was called Merwin-Hulbert. That is another story for another day....
By 1877 sales were strong enough that they found themselves in need of a larger facility. Sometime in 1877 or 1878 they moved to an existing factory that sat on the corner of Willow and Franklin streets in downtown Norwich.
The plant was the previous home to the Allen Spool and Printing Co, owned by Edwin Allen, a relative of founder Charles Allen. I believe this factory was powered by a coal fired steam engine.
In 1888 Joseph Merwin passed away and the Hulbert Brothers reorganized as Hulbert Brothers and Co. In 1894, due to some failures of other companies they owned, the Hulbert brothers declared bankruptcy and in 1896 their assets were liquidated.
In 1895 Hopkins and Allen purchased the Bay State Arms Co. of Worcester, MA.
Hopkins and Allen continued to make revolvers and shotguns, but in 1898 Hopkins and Allen were also in financial difficulty and had to reorganize as Hopkins and Allen Arms Co.
On February 4th, 1900 the Hopkins and Allen Factory at the corner of Willow and Franklin streets caught fire. A night watchman discovered the fire around 6AM, stating that he heard some loud bangs just before discovering the flames.
A new 80,000 sq ft building was erected on the site and rededicated in March of 1901.
Later that year Hopkins and Allen purchased the assets of the W.H. Davenport Fire Arms Co.
In 1902 Hopkins and Allen purchased the Forehand and Wadsworth company, a firm for which they had been making guns for.
In 1915 (during WWI) Hopkins and Allen received an order to produce Mauser 98 rifles for the Belgian government. The contract fell through when Germany invaded Belgium, which left Hopkins and Allen in a bind, financially.
In 1916 Hopkins and Allen went bankrupt, their assets were purchased by Marlin-Rockwell (the new owners of Marlin Firearms Co.) and the factory was used to produce machine gun barrels and parts during WWI.
While I found no official numbers online (and maybe they don't exist), but I would estimate from my research that Hopkins and Allen produced somewhere in the neighborhood of 800,000 to over 1 million firearms.
They would often brand label guns for merchants and other arms makers, which makes it very difficult to pin down any reasonably accurate production numbers....some of the trade names included:
A smattering of the guns produced by Hopkins & Allen:
I happen to own a Dictator No2 revolver, made in the old Franklin street factory (1880s-1890s), see my write up on it here
What remains
The factory buildings at Yanic Falls still exist, although I do not know which one of these was the old Bacon Mfg/Hopkins & Allen building. The area is now on the Registry of Historic Places
The building at the corner of Willow and Franklin, built in 1901 (after the fire) still stands. It can be found at 132-176 Franklin Street in downtown Norwich, CT.
Sources:
NY Times
Connecticut Mills
Cornell
American Society of Arms Collectors
The Forgotten Founders
True West Magazine
Wikipedia
NRA Museum
