My diagnosis is that you have an interesting relic of a bygone era, but one of little value and certainly not worth restoring. At some time, someone apparently removed heavy rust with a chemical rust remover, and polished some of the gun.
The story of those revolvers is part of the history of Iver Johnson. When IJ came out with their transfer bar safety around 1894, they had a batch of parts left over for their old guns. Since they wanted the Iver Johnson name to be associated with their new line, they formed another company, called the U.S. Revolver Co. to make inexpensive revolvers using the old parts. Those guns were sold cheaply and only through mail order distributors like Montgomery Ward and Sears. The project was so successful that "U.S. Revolver Co." ended up making guns from scratch. So your revolver was a "second line" gun in its day; it sold for around $2.00 in the 1895-1910 era.
I will add that if it functions and the barrel is clear, it is probably safe to shoot since the cartridge is very low power, but I think it is a wall hanger.
Jim
