John Mahlon Marlin was born on May 6, 1836 near Windsor Locks, Connecticut. At the age of 18, he became an apprentice machinist with the American Machine Works. He later served as a machinist with Colt Patent Firearms of Hartford. In 1863, he started his own pistol manufacturing business in New Haven, concentrating on production of a small single-shot .22 caliber deringer.
Marlin expanded his efforts to include revolvers in 1870, but became heavily involved in the production of long arms after forming a partnership with Charles H. Ballard, of Worchester, Massachusetts. Ballard patented a design for a breechloading single shot rifle in 1861. The design was cutting edge for the day and Ballard rifles became renowned for their robust and reliable actions. Despite this, Ballard struggled to find a firm to produce his rifles. Approximately 24,000 sporting and military rifles, carbines, and shotguns were manufactured between 1862 and 1873; with a total of five different New England companies producing Ballard's guns. After an economic depression forced Ballard into bankruptcy in 1873, all patent rights, equipment, parts inventories, and properties were purchased by New York arms dealers Schoverling and Daly. The firm contacted John Marlin to produce the Ballard rifles. This partnership would prove to be highly successful not only for Marlin and Ballard, but also for Schoverling and Daly, who handled the sale and marketing of the new arms.
In 1881, the Marlin Firearms Company was incorporated, and production of Ballard rifles continued under the Marlin banner until they were eventually discontinued in 1891 due to the rising popularity of repeating rifles. In recognizing this new trend, Marlin introduced a lever action repeating arm, the "Model 1881" - a large-frame rifle with a strong action capable of handling cartridges as large as .45-70; something Winchester wouldn't accomplish until five years later with their Model 1886 rifle.
With the popularity of the Model 1881, Marlin's focus shifted to lever guns; adopting revolutionary features like side-ejecting receivers and a positive locking breech which was dubbed the "Marlin Safety" - a subtle jab at Winchester implying it was safer than Winchester’s open, top-ejecting system. These features were the result of a collaboration between Marlin and firearms designer and renowned target shooter Lewis Lobdell Hepburn. Hepburn joined Marlin in 1886 and, realizing the firearms world was entering the era of smokeless powder, decided to update the Marlin's Model 1889 by lengthening its action, strengthening the bolt and devising a two-piece firing-pin safety—a feature still in use by Marlin today.
Marlin christened the improved lever-action the Model 1893, and offered it as a rifle or a saddle-ring carbine. Initial chamberings were for the .32-40 and .38-55 blackpowder cartridges Marlin had developed for the Ballard. In 1895, Marlin began chambering its Model 1893 for smokeless powder cartridges, including .30-30 Win. and later the .32 Win. Spl. (which Marlin called the .32 High Power Special) and a proprietary .25-36 Marlin.
