Howdy
There is a bit more to the story than that. Oliver Winchester became a major investor in a company run by a couple of guys named Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson that was producing a small lever operated handgun and rifle. The rifle was an interesting development on the Jennings repeating rifle. After an article in Scientific American describing the 'volcanic' rate of fire of the little rifle, the company was renamed the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company. But the Volcanic was never a commercial success, mainly because the 'Rocket Ball' ammunition it fired was under powered. In 1855 several investors, including Winchester, who had made a lot of money mass producing shirts, sunk new funds into the Volcanic company, but the tiny rocket ball ammunition was still the problem. At about this time Smith and Wesson left the Volcanic company to found a new company to produce revolvers. Winchester bought out the other investors and hired Benjamin Tyler Henry to redesign the ammunition. He came up with a rimfire 44 caliber cartridge that was much more powerful than the little rocket ball ammunition. Then Winchester assigned Henry to design a new rifle to fire the new ammunition. The new rifle was much larger than the little Volcanics, and it included an extractor to extract spent cases. The rocket ball ammo did not have a case to extract, everything went down the barrel. The patents for the new rifle were issued in 1860 with Henry's name on them, but the patents were actually owned by Winchester's company, which he had renamed the New Haven Arms company after moving it to New Haven Connecticut.
Actual production of the Henry rifle did not start until 1862, and there were some bumps along the way, but eventually the Henry rifle, as produced by the New Haven Arms Company became a commercial success. Winchester had been working hard getting the company going, and in 1866 he took a vacation. He sailed to Europe. Henry, who was only an employee of the company, not one of the owners, felt he was not being paid enough, and in Winchester's absence approached the Connecticut legislature and attempted to have the company awarded to him. Winchester caught wind of the plot, hurried home from Europe, and reorganized the company as the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. The Winchester Model 1866, the first rifle to bear the Winchester name, was the first product of the new company. The Model 1866 fired the same 44 caliber rimfire cartridge, because Winchester owned the patents. The Model 1866 did away with the front loading feature of the Henry rifle, using the King patented loading gate. The 1866 Winchester was the first lever gun to have a wooden forestock, because the magazine follower of the Henry ran in a slot at the bottom of the magazine, preventing the use of a wooden forestock.
This is a photo of my Uberti replica of the 1860 Iron Frame Henry. Notice it lacks a forestock. The tab of the follower can be seen protruding out of the bottom of the magazine.
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After leaving the company owned by Winchester, Henry worked as a gunsmith until his death in 1898.
