New Book Honors the Air Rifle Industry in Plymouth

MT. PLEASANT, S.C. - Sept. 20, 2013 - PRLog -- The newest addition to Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America series is Plymouth’s Air Rifle Industry from local author Elizabeth Kelley Kerstens. The book boasts more than 200 vintage and modern images chronicling the growth and change of this Michigan area.

In the late 19th century, the Rockwellian city of Plymouth, Mich., became the breeding ground for competitive air-rifle companies, putting this still-thriving suburban Detroit community on the map. Plymouth’s Air Rifle Industry hones in on the three air-rifle companies and the spin-off .22-caliber rifle company that dominated the Plymouth landscape for years.

William “Philip” Markham and his company, the Markham Air Rifle Company, first received an air-rifle patent in 1887. The Plymouth Iron Windmill Company entered the competition in 1888, when founder Clarence Hamilton introduced his prototype to the board of directors. After firing the rifle, general manager Lewis Cass Hough declared, “Boy, that’s a Daisy” and the Daisy air rifle was born; the company was renamed in 1895. The Plymouth Air Rifle Company opened in 1888 and ceased to exist after its building burned in 1894. Hamilton went on to develop a .22-caliber rifle and started the Hamilton Manufacturing Company in 1898. The rifle era ended when the last of the competitors, Daisy, moved to Rogers, Arkansas, in 1958.

Highlights of Plymouth’s Air Rifle Industry include:
•   Rarely seen before images, a few of which are from private collections while the majority comes from the collection of the Plymouth Historical Museum.
•   Information on the inventive genius of Clarence Hamilton, who invented improvements in a windmill and in several air and .22 caliber rifles that lead to the founding of three of the four companies featured in the book.
•   Photographs showing the progression of the building that housed the Daisy Manufacturing Company.
•   The author is donating her proceeds from the sale of the book to the Plymouth Historical Museum.

Available at area bookstores, independent retailers, and online retailers, or through Arcadia Publishing at (888)-313-2665 or online.  

Arcadia Publishing is the leading publisher of local and regional history in the United States.  Our mission is to make history accessible and meaningful through the publication of books on the heritage of America’s people and places.  Have we done a book on your town?  Visit www.arcadiapublishing.com/.