Iver Johnson
| Private | |
| Industry | Manufacturing |
| Fate | Dissolved |
| Predecessor | Johnson Bye & Company |
| Founded | 1871 |
| Founder | Iver Johnson and Martin Bye |
| Defunct | 1993 |
| Headquarters | Jacksonville, Arkansas, U.S |
| Products | firearms, bicycles, and motorcycles |
| Parent | American Military Arms Corp |
Iver Johnson was a U.S. firearms, bicycle, and motorcycle manufacturer from 1871 to 1993. The company shared the same name as its founder, Norwegian-born Iver Johnson (1841–1895). After closing, the name was resold and in 2006 Iver Johnson Arms opened in Rockledge, Florida selling shotguns and M1911 pistols. However, the new Iver Johnson company does not have any parts, guns or information relating to the pre-1993 company, and represents a continuation of it in name only.
Iver Johnson was born in Nordfjord in the year 1841, in Nordfjord, Sogn og Fjordane county, Norway and later emigrated from Norway to the United States. He was educated as a gunsmith in Bergen in 1857 and had a gun store in Oslo. He married Mary Elizabeth Speirs (born January 1847 ) on April 9, 1868, in Worcester, with whom he had 3 sons (Frederick Iver, John Lovell, and Walter Olof) and 2 daughters (Mary Louise and Nellie).
Iver Johnson immigrated to Worcester, Massachusetts from Norway in 1863 at the height of the American Civil War. Johnson was a gunsmith by trade at the time, but also worked as an inventor in his spare time, which would come in handy later on as he sought new and creative uses for his partially idle manufacturing equipment, a thought process which would eventually lead him and his heirs to diversify the corporation's businesses. His early work involved not only gunsmithing locally in Worcester, MA, but it also included providing designs and work to other firearms companies, notably Allen & Wheelock for whom he made so-called "pepperbox" pistols.
In 1871, Johnson joined Martin Bye to form the Johnson Bye & Company, merging his own and Martin Bye's gunsmithing operations. During this period, Johnson and Bye filed for and received several new firearms features and firearms feature improvement patents. Their primary revenues came from the sale of their self designed and manufactured inexpensive models of revolvers. Not much is known about Martin Bye, as there is very little documented information about his life.
...
Wikipedia