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Originally Posted by Frank Srebro
I see their surname is spelled LeFever as is yours. Any idea why Lefever was used in catalogues and adverts? It seems to be the accepted gun maker spelling nowadays?
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Frank,
Great question. The "capital F" topic has come up in discussion before, but I don't think there is a definite answer. From what I know, Dan started out as "Lefever", and the company was named "Lefever Arms Company". At some point I believe Dan began to spell it "LeFever". I don't know if it was a business decision, or a personal decision. It could have been a way for him to separate himself from the Lefever Arms Company, after he left in 1901. I'm not sure if all of his sons followed suit with the change either. I descended from his son, Frank, and he used the capital "F" (see Frank's signature and letterhead on page 173 in Elliott's book).
There is a genealogy book called "The Pennsylvania LeFevres", and the man that did most of the original research for it, felt that "LeFevre" was the original, correct spelling. I don't know the time frame of when he was tracing the family lines across the country, but there certainly is a possibility that he contacted Dan (or his sons) during that process. Maybe this prompted Dan to make the partial change to a capital "F".
Now you've got me wondering. I'll have to start looking back through documents on Ancestry.com and see if I can glean any information as to who and when it started being used.
Sara