Firearm Factory of the Month: Bay State Arms

The story of the Bay State Arms Company starts with its founder, William Hastings Davenport.

Davenport was born on April 20th, 1828 in Mendon, Massachusetts. He began his gun making career in Providence Rhode Island in 1878, when his company failed in 1883/1884 he moved back home to Massachusetts. 
On March 7th, 1884 Davenport and a man named Joseph Walter Day founded the Bay State Arms Company in Uxbridge. Davenport and Day had already been working on a new tool for refiling barrels, one which they would file a patent on in August of 1884.
It is possible that Day also provided the necessary cash to get the operation running, this invoice shows Day as the President and Davenport as the Superintendent.

The new company rented or purchased an old grist mill on the edge of Capron's Pond where it cascaded over a dam into the Mumford river. This was important as before electricity came to New England, water power was necessary to run the machinery. The old grit mill was built by Seth Read in 1777.

Day may also have become a relative of Davenports, as they both married women with the last name of Taft.

Davenport manufactured his shotguns that he had developed for his first company along with single shot rifles like the one above

Davenport continued to invent and patent improvements on firearms, and the local paper reported on the additions to the building as well as new machinery being added.
In 1887 the local paper reported that Bay State Arms would be relocating their operation to Norwich, CT.
Bay State Arms was to rent space in the Hopkins and Allen factory on the corner of Willow and Franklin Street in downtown Norwich.

Eventually Davenport sold his operation to Hopkins and Allen and dissolved the Bay State name. He then went to work for Hopkins and Allen as Superintendent. The exact time frame is not known, it was sometime in the early 1890s


Davenport would go on to start another company that bore his name, the W.H. Davenport Arms Company in Norwich.

Davenport passed away in 1904 at the age of 76.

What Remains:

The old grist mill in Uxbridge, built by Seth Read still stands, it is now a liquor store. You can find it on Mendon Street (state route 16) in Uxbridge, MA.

The Hopkins and Allen factory burned to the ground on February 4th, 1900.

The name "Bay State" was also used by Harrington and Richardson of Worcester, MA. I do not know if there is any connection to the Bay State Arms.

Sources:

Hamilton, John D: (issue 60 pages 20-28) The Bay State Arms Co. Match Rifle: An Update, The American Society of Arms Collectors Bulletin
URL: http://americansocietyofarmscollectors.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Bay-State-Arms-Company-match-rifle-B060_Hamilton.pdf

Report of the Tax Commissioner, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, (1888), Boston, MA; Harvard College Library