Born in
Hopewell, New York, Uncle Dan Lefever's gunmaking career began as an apprentice in
Canandaigua, New York in the early 1850s. He married Sarah Stead on June 10, 1857, in Canandaigua. He opened his own gunshop in Canandaigua in 1857. His principal business was making muzzle-loading rifles. In 1862 he joined with James Ellis to form
Lefever & Ellis. They built long-range rifles which were used in the
American Civil War. This partnership broke up in 1867.
Gun factory Sometime before 1870 D. M. Lefever moved to
Auburn, New York where he joined with Francis Dangerfield to form
Dangerfield & Lefever. This firm made primarily
breechloading double
shotguns. They also converted muzzle-loading guns to breech-loading. This firm dissolved in late 1873 or early 1874. In early 1874 D. M. Lefever moved to
Syracuse, New York. Here he joined with Lorenzo Barber to form
Barber & Lefever. Again they made breech-loading shotguns and rifles. This partnership lasted a short two years. D. M. Lefever then joined with John Nichols and formed
Nichols & Lefever. During this time D. M. Lefever worked on the development of the
hammerless shotgun. These guns were cocked with a cocking lever on the side of the breech. In 1878 he won first prize at the St. Louis Bench Show and Sportsman's Association for the best breech-loading shotgun in America.
Automatic hammerless shotgun By the time D. M. Lefever patented his hammerless shotgun in 1880 he had left
Nichols & Lefever and gone into business for himself. In 1883 D. M. Lefever patented the first truly automatic hammerless shotgun. This internalized the cocking mechanism so that the gun was automatically cocked when the breech was closed. He also patented the automatic ejector system which ejected the used shells when the breech was opened. In 1886 D. M. Lefever lost control of his company which by then was called
Lefever Arms Company. However, he remained as superintendent until 1902. In 1902 D. M. Lefever left
Lefever Arms Company to form
D. M. Lefever, Sons & Company with sons Charles F. Lefever (also known as Fred who later invented the
Model 25 Daisy BB pump gun), Frank, and George. They continued to make fine hammerless shotguns, but could not compete with the larger Lefever Arms Company. In 1904 they moved to
Ohio, first in
Defiance and within a year in
Bowling Green. In 1906 they returned to
Syracuse, New York, however, before being able to re-establish a viable company D. M. Lefever died on October 29 in
Syracuse of a
stomach ulcer. His remains are interred, with his wife (who died in 1898), in Woodlawn Cemetery in Syracuse. The
Lefever Arms Company continued to make fine Lefever designed shotguns in
Syracuse until 1916 when they were purchased by the
Ithaca Gun Company. Ithaca continued to produce Lefever-designed guns under the
Lefever Arms Company name in
Ithaca, New York until 1921. These were made using primarily left-over parts from the Syracuse operation. Shortly after that the
Ithaca Gun Company used the Lefever name to market an inexpensive gun, the "Lefever Nitro Special", that was of their own design, having nothing to do with D. M. Lefever except to exploit his name. These were manufactured until the early 1940s. ==Uncle Dan LeFever Cup==