The year was 1886. France had just given the bright copper Statue of Liberty to the United States. Coca-Cola had just been invented and was only available as a syrup mixed with soda water. The Plymouth Iron Windmill Company in Plymouth, Michigan, just outside of Detroit, had for four years been making iron windmills for farmers. However a premium item, given free to farmers who purchased these windmills, was about to change that company’s destiny.
Windmill sales did not take off as expected and the company came close in 1888 to liquidating. The vote failed by one vote - that of General Manager Lewis Cass Hough. While the “Chicago” air rifle–made almost entirely of wood - had been made since 1885 by the Markham Air Rifle Company of Plymouth, Hamilton was the first to develop a metal air rifle. After firing the gun (first at a basket of red-ink covered paper and then an old shingle), Hough exclaimed in the slang of the time, “Boy, that’s a Daisy!” and later convinced the Board of Directors to use the metal air rifle as a premium item.
The popularity of the premium item was huge. Farmers were more interested in the “Daisy” than the windmill– so much so that the focus of the company shifted from windmills to airguns. By 1890, the twenty-five employees of Plymouth Iron Windmill Company were producing 50,000 guns, most of which were distributed within a radius of one hundred miles of the factory.
1891 - Charles Bennett is hired to serve as the Company’s first salesman at a salary of $85/month plus expenses. Two days after being hired, Bennett makes a trip to Chicago and sell 10,000 guns to Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Company. The order is filled in 6 months.
For everyone that their first gun was a Dasiy airgun, know you can have a Daisy Airgun tin sign to bring back all the old memories to share with your kids.