To talk about her most recent book this talk is taped by cspan if you could speak loud and clear into it that would be fantastic. She has worked for the bbcs is 1993 reporting for radio and television programs. Her first book chronicles her in english roots. Having already read the book she has the story of the rise of the winchesters i have retained the most interesting thing of the family. If you weeks ago i led a group of people and around the site if not for her book away not have known what that meant or the role he played in the rise of the winchester. That is still steadily one piece of the of Winchester History there also buried in evergreen now foreword great great great granddaughter to share more thoughts. [applause] thinks to all of you for being here i cannot tell you , excited i am the you are here for when i talk about my pet project so i am thrilled the has a wider audience also to cspan i would watch it all the time and now i learn about american politics through that. So it has come full circle because they did just pass my american citizenship test [applause] although i dont yet have to do a swearingin vice do think i can say my fellow americans so they give for that generous will the also for reading the book i cannot tell you what a privilege it is to have people read your book. [laughter] i always read the book and they say you actually read it . Not just a press release . And do not allimportant it is ideal planned to talk about half an hour that i will take any questions that you have. I shin apologized it advance today avenue mall bifocal contact lenses because i am getting older so my closeup vision is outstanding but distances truly awful song oho with the familys summer compound up the road in seem to americans live their lives and everything was so fantastic then we were at the compound and they were shooting squirrels in things that did not have been in britain. And then altogether a different setting. And then when we moved here in 2004 but winchester was born 1810 as was the away back then his father had been married several times many who went to got to be successful as a fascinating side note from michigan. And went to school when there was no work on the farm. But some not the age of 14 to become the apprentice as a church builder. That this is not for them. But they were such a skilled technician and then he patented the invention and then there was a haberdashery shop in the did very well did he move to new haven with the air of mechanization and oliver pounced upon the new technology and then they are turning these out that he became so rich as it is the case with successful investors and wanted a place to put the cash. So this is where we are now becomes to new haven that is full of people who make carriages and clocks there it is discord between the groups but he is looking around what do i do with that money . They have an opportunity to look for investors in this is where the timing is so magnificent. Because up and tell that period so you only had one shot to. The whole business was link me but then the rifle is being developed and then also had to fire more than one round at the time . And and oliver with a shrewd good timing and then the chief engineer is about what you would expect it was about as worthless that reasonable ballistics and who knew anything about ballistics but not before they put in to become president. And they all made someone who did know about ballistics through tyler henry. And then civil war is on the horizon. Then we have this fantastic repeating rifle. This will be great for the boys saw and the union side. They will lead realizes would revolutionize the war and then youll be less dangerous so lets go. In fact, lincoln was interested in the idea than declared that to be a superior piece of technology but as it is often the case of the bureaucrats got in the way. Em brigadiergeneral bought the repeating rifles to waste money. And he did not say it would not be effective with the newfangled technology and deliberately went slowly. With the result fewer were actually the word in did spread of the union side. To by the henry repeating rifle. They all have the henry rifle. So even though the army with all of its wisdom. Of individual soldiers and they all have great delight. And they were all thrilled by that. So the end of the civil war the gate the rifles of course, we have a new era of american history. And what will be finer cowboy use that for killing buffaloes or with the native americans. In did they use that they call that the spirit because this strange quality to continue to fire. This africanamerican woman in the book there she is with her winchester rifle. Is anybody who did anything dangerous back then in concert with the colts pistol in the winchester rifle and it is a popular combination in deed. And then with geronimo with his winchester because it was such a Lethal Weapon and whenever they could get their hands on them. I guess in a way that the battle of little big horn. When custer and all his men were surrounded. Twentyfive rather bpd rifles said it was the of winchester. Meanwhile the love lost that day are picking up the is actually making money. The really it is the 1873 and i was thrilled to go take a picture right now. That was a clever bit of advertising and then married into the family to become the chief engineer. They want that to his the salesman went to mexico with thousands of rifles and then the turks want that. So then another character in tears so then handed his wife chains jane may die before them but the ones who didnt that she made extremely fortuitous to marry one Thomas Gray Bennett he was a bastion of the civil war of that africanamerican white man regiment because he was only 17 during the civil war and he talks about just how difficult this one was but this is what the civil war is all about with antislavery. That is just how were still having the struggles even today. So it turns out that they are better but joining winchester as an engineer and then marries into the family straightaway. So he puts bennett in charge around the world. The only way that you could communicate by a telegram it takes weeks to get anything done. And then he goes to london for their ballistics he is a smart guy one but also is a brilliant writer. Also the key to the Historical Society for keeping the letters. So then he says how did the british make any money . And they will say that he does not like the london fog. No one is there. But one of my favorite lessons it is rarely a love story and 150 years later it jumps off the page. But she wants address from france. She finds us address but has not seen her for three months. I just thought that was fantastic city banalities years later the eight which to do some important work but one of the of brilliant things that he does in 1883 for him to come from utah and of course, that took three days but he declares the west to be overrated and it is nothing like it is corrected to be but he writes to occur every single night this is the era when they be live what they did that day in the same with the letters that callback and he meets the browning brothers mendez making brothers in bennett being the shrewd person that he is hell about 8,000 for this and then the next three that you make base say no that is more money than they have ever heard so they say yes actually the brownings make those big winchester models from 1886 theyre all made by browning because they dont get royalties did make the guns he gets the pattern and he does all the work and it is protected by the patent they put a package around every single gun that was there so i gave them the monopoly over that period so by 1902 they realized to say we want the ability deal that is the end of the relationship and they do think that bennett regretted it. And he did not pay royalties to anyone but think of the money that they made that this this up period of what it really becomes embedded in Popular Culture to show buffalo bill and a marketing man stream as he tries to reinvent himself he writes a book called about big game hunting and how much he loves it and this is a love affair that continues for him than very much later when he is in the white house he spent 18 months at least twice a week with my great great grandfather here about his guns and ammunition for the elephants know you are not allowed to say you are making the guns for me so being the marketing genius to exploit the connection but one of my favorite is of the ignition in this poor horse is collapsing under the weight from the big game hunting trips now Oliver Winchester himself died 1880 he felt pretty pleased that the company was in good shape next was a philanthropic for the first observatory into be interested in greenhouses and into their regular guarding competitions i city car carrying on his legacy thinking that everything is in good shape that he assumed that his son william would inherit the company but tragically he died tuberculosis one year after oliver died and the wife of william is sarah winchester. So sarah becomes wildly rich earth father and her husband dies that her mother of god dies soon after leaving her with millions and millions. And then before that the baby daughter died actually she was the daughter she complained instruments curb beautiful wife justice appeared so this is where the legend comes by the spirit of the dead did americans they told her as long as she kept building house then she would be fined as spirits would never get her. But is still a great story. But she is also highly intelligent she is did daddy but she is griefstricken because her husband died sushi is assessed she is writing back here about the fuel and maintenance funeral in regions and how would it would be but she was so happy if the present all she could think about is the future but she was dead to be reunited with william and her baby daughter it is extraordinarily morbid and was assessed with all the trinkets and the gift and if they could have a silver from tiffanys and then to worry the really the legacy is right here in new haven and what she did with her millions because her husband died of tuberculosis she wanted to be a cure for tuberculosis when that hospital was set up here early in the 20th century sarah happily gave millions to it not only that issue is very for rethinking and with his early death she sets up a brilliant system she puts millions antitrust fund for her nieces and nephews there is of black sheep of the family but she thought you should not give them the money just a trust fund to generate the income so she did this and she stipulated in her will 11 i someone they die it would revert back to the Tuberculosis Hospital which is incredible. In the course of writing that book aias difference what of legacy meijis said it is astounding that now that other diseases of the test enable people to be treated and it to me that is so moving and that shows that message that she wasnt just a brat from california she was clever and had foresight and a brilliant in that legacy she has done something much more sensible with it in after this quest continues to generate money so i am incredibly proud of her to be blighted by a brief and their children died before they did. Think the did does not happen very often but this was part of the very fabric itself. But that is sarah so to return to the theme of decline to have built the thicket fence that normal people are buying in shooting everybody wants a winchester their returns a people to send rifles to was not a problem but then there was the First World War on the horizon and so for the first time winchesters orders dropped off and now joining the company he married the sister of law says what do we did this as a government contract . In space said no good will come of that economic money off of the government said zero Thomas Gray Bennett has a son but is not in the mold of Oliver Winchester. To speak french and is usually accomplished through the richest kid in new haven but his parents who love to talk together would talk about the nervous anxiety and talk about how they are quite anxious. And then is thrilled for the first chemistry professor at yale. She resists the advances of first the debtor father says that she must marry him. I dont suppose they were rich but as a brilliant academic so then she makes that best of it that there is always something wrong. There is a beautiful portrait of susan and she had a diary in even she says shes a terrible groom he causes chaos. But what did is we dont know but what we do know is that he does die of brights disease about 15 years for the psychiatric facility to say weve met with a wonderful doctor at last. In for the treatment of those with addiction os talking about being in pain the cousin say he was never much good after lunch. It is a big mystery but it is something so he is at the helm and i have to give you this quotation he has spent all these years she is off to paris herself and says when you get back lets live instead of waiting around onestop to consider of the foolishness of our little lives so she writes back to say absolutely so he does then winchester takes the helm and then the war begins but the allies want the winchester to help them so he says we went by tomorrow and meet my did modified. They said that will not have been. A said these are the orders why dont you get somebody else . Because they are patriotic so they take this passive order to modify the rifles and it is the disaster. They end up having to cancel the contract because that america is coming into the war. Theyre making incredible amounts of emission like it 400 every couple of days now 273 million rounds of the ignition there is more people than they ever had before. And also to take on all this work so they make what turns out to be a fatal mistake to build the New Buildings and they figure will work out. Then the americans come into the war with the 10 profit builtin and the cost of labor goes up then winchester ends the war in a horrible financial position in the middle of the war and sarah has a are he has a near miss episode than steps down. Set this point he is in his mid70s but he is the only person that knows the company sought after the war theyre wondering what to do so many who worked at at company said what about louis . And for the reasons that the biggest emission was all of this excess production you need to go into retail they said that does make sense but much to the horror of bed bugs he was making i. C. E. Skates coppery washing machines baseball bats theyve made everything that they could out of steel. And part of that Retail Project they would never open their wallets unless they had to. They dont know what to do so they were buckingham really Expensive Stores on fifth avenue were supposedly the housewives would flock but of course, it proved wildly expensive so things go from bad to deplorable and with exquisite timing so then the company goes into receivership and with a western partridge said then that is the end of family ownership. We go from rags to riches they let winchester hang their but they were just desperate to sell soleil bought it at 8 million and then they turned around from the former success really that is the extent of the Family Involvement of loss of the women behind them like the matriarch of jane bennett who is married but that brought these largerthanlife characters the reason i hope you will enjoy the book and seems it is that a very particular time at a fascinating time with this whole war and then the depression after so i feel so privileged and would come here this evening. So if you have any questions there is up microphone and that would be delighted to answer them best i can. [applause] lewis in is bold enough to be the first questioner quick. You mind coming to the microphone thank you for your patience. To another road that was named. No i dont you read the second person to mention that because he was then all of the Fruit Growing so maybe it was for his private garden the gardens were designed. This was extensive. Guess. So i wonder yes. Exactly. I dont know if i was guessing at would guess that is what would be his award winning. I believe so but if eight that is where was. Note . During prohibition . Now i know. [laughter] is the Winchester House still in existence . Denied that penthouse, no. But there is a picture end of book but then it looks to me like it was pulled back down with the incredible greenhouses. So the twig house to the Winchester House that does still exist. Was there any relationship with the colts because they did parallel . The lot of people say why did they ever have the pistol why did colton never had a rifle it seems theyve had a gentlemans agreement to keep out to in the early days they were all very competitive once the money was coming and. I am pretty sure what is located next to the that house that is now at the International Center so i got here late pet why did he leave the of Baltimore Area . He had his haberdashery in new haven but back then it was much smaller because at that point it seemed to have more opportunity so he sold this business for a decent some my assumption is that he saw a bigger market. Days to run the chamber of commerce but from the research that i did is because it was free labor and he did not make that the workforce was comfortable with the ability of the free labor there was a lot of irish labor. And italian and german. The italians came later but they built the canal which is why he had a freight yard. That is fascinating. And then they would scale that up very quickly. You taught me something that i did not know. Thankyou. My brother worked 44 years and they made batteries and i was 33 years so the up repeating alarms that is what it became . Here is some history here. And that was up period of good labor relations. He is the son of winchester he developed tuberculosis married to sarah so she died monday she died young. Because of his staff i guess oliver started the hospital. Actually that was sarah that gave the money. But that building was a hospital fort for tuberculosis in west haven now is the site of the v. A. Hospital. [inaudible] right. Before it became huang negative interesting. He said it was an orphanage. But then it was the hospital spirit guess that is the latest. Exactly once and tuberculosis was eradicated that building was closed so now it treats a wide variety i was at that clinic because it does take care of all expenses if they dont have their own money. Then thanks to sarah. [applause] makes for that did history. My dad worked at winchester all his life her father worked at the factory and the winchester would pay for them to come down to set them up then you hear about the bear in who treated his employees very well that had to be the late twenties or early 30s. They did seem to be a family concern at that point but i am glad to hear that figure so much i appreciate that. Might dad worked there 40 years and that the peak of his employment from the 40s through the 80s there was talk magazine the winchester and i have copies at home and the pitcher president eisenhower and they were very clever with the Publicrelations Department when i was bored by name was in the magazine and the actual data Bowling Alley at winchester and then later you can see well went out last and also 35 years ago supposedly they built that. Yes because so many lives there. Into being in that basement my dad worked in that Carpentry Department and we brought him over to the house and was built 1909 worked for them. And that magazine that you are holding this is the era as there is an attempt to suppress that. And there are some more recipes for you to put cup. He also had a Baseball Team there were 20,000 employees we have a photo of him but an african american. What period is this . Been making in the mid40s and also they played yale and i heard about this he thought it was the exhibition game of friend of mine who announced the of doubleteam side that can map the Football Association antisense i will check on that and call me one week later not only did they play than it was on the regular schedule. They played them over several years so it was an honor to be on the team but they had womens bowling teams but it was a Community Within a community. Thats incredible. [applause] also thinks to everyone who worked at the factory i love that it is a memory now that you now would has been turned into a luxury loft but it is fantastic to see all the relatives of the people who built the company. Does anybody have another question . What remains of that physical records. And the archives it ended at being purchased ultimately to the Buffalo Bills center of the last everything when there. It is an ad that it left new haven that they thought this was the center so everything is there. One more question . Or an observation there was one more thing and wanted to say but i forgot even after the civil war was slavery had ended as you know, that was a difficult period and there was the School Teacher called igo wells and she advocated for the use of the winchester rifle for selfdefense. African americans were using them to defend themselves and she is a School Teacher so where every afroamerican deserves a place of honor in every black palm. The more he is insulted so to me it shows that is where everybody saw the utility but they also wanted to use that but also an africanamerican history as well last question cspan has come all this way. The house hopping is still on prospect. And then as they came here to new haven as finicky had nothing to do with the gun tracker . Gimmicky was an investor he was not the big investor but was not prepared to lose money and he made his money with oliver that way thanks for coming. [applause] and all of your reminiscence and i will be signing the books downstairs. Have a great night. [inaudible conversations] and [inaudible conversations] every biographer of mentioned she was with them all lot but the memoirs that i learned that the confederate would track her movements also. The rougher approximation of her travels but it doesnt show the shorter trips. No matter ishbosheth traveled more than 10,000 miles during the civil war to be whether has been. Why . I found the answers as amazing as it is and she traveled so far with four children in tow into Enemy Territory is even more astonishing when you realize that she did it with a disability. And made her eyes look crossed which a barrister all of her life she preferred to be photographed in profile in made it difficult to read and write but not impossible she never saw anything in three dimensions it had no depth perception a not insignificant challenge in an era at traveled by horses and carriages. But similar to the disfigured allen to fall tim love with julia despite her disability. They fell a mother and stayed that way nearly 40 years
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