The gun developed by Baker was a breech loading gun. The company began with eight employees and three milling machines. It had a large shooting gallery located on the roof for testing purposes. Burns soon provided Smith with the necessary funds to purchase a gun-manufacturing plant located near the Armory off Walton Street in 1877. Smith’s father-in-law had made his fortune in the saddlery business through his lucrative contract with the Union Army. Flora Burns, daughter of former Syracuse Mayor Peter Burns. Smith had recently made the acquaintance of Ms. Baker, convinced him that the future was in the manufacturing of guns, namely his Baker gun. Soon after his arrival in Syracuse, L.C.’s hometown friend, W. The lumber business was booming at the time due to the building requirements of the salt making industry. and his brother, Leroy, to Syracuse to set up a lumberyard on the corner of Burt and South Salina Streets. Smith moved to New York City when he was age 23, but returned to Lisle penniless within two years. L.C.’s father was extremely entrepreneurial, making a comfortable living as a general merchant, sawmill owner, and operator and tanner. located in Broome County, just north of Binghamton. At the age of nine, his family moved to Lisle, N.Y. Before the typewriter industry that made him his greatest fame and fortune, Lyman Cornelius Smith was a renown Syracuse gun manufacturer. However, Syracuse was an exception to that statement. Guns are not usually associated with typewriters considering their primary purposes are vastly different. Smith factory in 1885 (PHOTO CREDIT: OHA Collection)