It's just a story, the records they have go up around 355000, 1906, the family sold the company 1915 and changed hands a few more times after WW1. There was no law that they had to keep the the records. It might of been cleaning house and starting new.

 

This "fire" myth has been going on forever, and it's based on a couple other fires that happened at firearms companies. Winchester did have a fire about this time, and halted serial numbering about the same time. Savage had a suspicious fire in the 1920's after Congress was investigating war profiteering after WWI. Funny that the fire at Savage is said to be contained to their records room, and any records during the War got destroyed!

 

One other interesting part of Marlin records revolves around the Ballard line of single shot rifles Marlin built. In probably close to 50,000 Ballard rifles that Marlin produced, only about 16 got recorded between 1875-1891.
So why didn't Marlin record the Ballard rifles, and why did about 16 of them get recorded one day?
The answer is likely because John Marlin never owned the patent rights to Charles Ballard's design, as it was owned by Schoverling, Daley, and Gales. John Marlin was given 5% of Ballard sales, plus paid for each rifle he produced. So not having a large interest in the Ballard, he saw no interest in recording them.
The 16 that got recorded one day. Likely whoever was their full time recorder was unable to get to work that day, and his temp replacement didn't know not to record the Ballard rifles. So he added those finished that day to the records, and of course nobody was going to scribble them out of the ledger the next day.

Were it not for the success of the Ballard rifles for John Marlin, it's questionable if Marlin would have ever gotten into the lever action repeating rifles we love so much! John Marlin had never built a rifle in his career at Colt, or at Marlin before 1875 when SD&G approached him to take over the Ballard manufacture. But he was so successful that it supplied enough profit and experience to allow Marlin to venture into the lever action rifle business. Sadly that success also allowed John Marlin to tell SD&G he had no interest in continuing the Ballard rifles in 1890, and the Ballard rifle ceased to exist.

 

One other interesting part of Marlin records revolves around the Ballard line of single shot rifles Marlin built. In probably close to 50,000 Ballard rifles that Marlin produced, only about 16 got recorded between 1875-1891.
So why didn't Marlin record the Ballard rifles, and why did about 16 of them get recorded one day?
The answer is likely because John Marlin never owned the patent rights to Charles Ballard's design, as it was owned by Schoverling, Daley, and Gales. John Marlin was given 5% of Ballard sales, plus paid for each rifle he produced. So not having a large interest in the Ballard, he saw no interest in recording them.
The 16 that got recorded one day. Likely whoever was their full time recorder was unable to get to work that day, and his temp replacement didn't know not to record the Ballard rifles. So he added those finished that day to the records, and of course nobody was going to scribble them out of the ledger the next day.

Were it not for the success of the Ballard rifles for John Marlin, it's questionable if Marlin would have ever gotten into the lever action repeating rifles we love so much! John Marlin had never built a rifle in his career at Colt, or at Marlin before 1875 when SD&G approached him to take over the Ballard manufacture. But he was so successful that it supplied enough profit and experience to allow Marlin to venture into the lever action rifle business. Sadly that success also allowed John Marlin to tell SD&G he had no interest in continuing the Ballard rifles in 1890, and the Ballard rifle ceased to exist.
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One other interesting part of Marlin records revolves around the Ballard line of single shot rifles Marlin built. In probably close to 50,000 Ballard rifles that Marlin produced, only about 16 got recorded between 1875-1891.
So why didn't Marlin record the Ballard rifles, and why did about 16 of them get recorded one day?
The answer is likely because John Marlin never owned the patent rights to Charles Ballard's design, as it was owned by Schoverling, Daley, and Gales. John Marlin was given 5% of Ballard sales, plus paid for each rifle he produced. So not having a large interest in the Ballard, he saw no interest in recording them.
The 16 that got recorded one day. Likely whoever was their full time recorder was unable to get to work that day, and his temp replacement didn't know not to record the Ballard rifles. So he added those finished that day to the records, and of course nobody was going to scribble them out of the ledger the next day.

Were it not for the success of the Ballard rifles for John Marlin, it's questionable if Marlin would have ever gotten into the lever action repeating rifles we love so much! John Marlin had never built a rifle in his career at Colt, or at Marlin before 1875 when SD&G approached him to take over the Ballard manufacture. But he was so successful that it supplied enough profit and experience to allow Marlin to venture into the lever action rifle business. Sadly that success also allowed John Marlin to tell SD&G he had no interest in continuing the Ballard rifles in 1890, and the Ballard rifle ceased to exist.

I imagine in those days without the convenience of computers, poor lighting conditions, and even poor eyewear, these works were very tedious & time-consuming - maybe only one specialized person was allowed to do the job as well. I look at the Cody records on my 1893 Marlin - the record-keeping seems to be written/copied very quickly & many abbreviations were used as many repetitions. I can almost hear the supervisor repeatedly reminding the clerk to double & triple-check those serial numbers records & dates for correctness! It's all quite amazing to picture them working & doing their parts in the Marlin factory. And each firearm was priced at say $25 each & add $2 if you preferred an octagonal barrel )

 

Great historical information. Thanks to you all for posting.