I think you are mistaking "made by Ithaca" and "made in Ithaca". When the Ithaca Gun Co. took over the Lefever Arms Co. in 1916 they continued to make guns in Syracuse until 1919. Then they made a few guns in Ithaca which are labeled Ithaca, NY.
We have no evidence that the Lefever Arms Co. under the Durston family was short on cash or unprofitable. However, they lost their inventor and designer in 1901. The guns did not change appreciably from that point forward with the exception of the introduction of a single trigger. However, even that was invented by Dan Lefever before he left.
I believe that the fact that the Durstons had nobody to keep up with technical innovations which were rampant at this point in time led them to sell off in pursuit of a more lucrative business in the rapidly expanding automobile industry.
There are a number of distinguishing features of Ithaca assembled guns that have been identified. There are limited records available from Abercrombie and Fitch which reliably identify some Ithaca assembled guns and have allowed us to examine those features and identify those that are associated with the Ithaca Arms Co.
