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Only 13 states had open carry bans prior to 1900, 3 of which were repealed before 1900, and 2 more shortly thereafter. Mainly it was in the South where all forms of carry were banned before the 20th century. You’ll notice from reading these that there is often an evolutionary process and the legislators were basically guessing on what might make violence stop. After the 20th century, immigration pressures and increasing urbanization seem to have spurred the adoption of greater handgun regulation. Before this, the history shows concealed weapon laws were an attempt at crime control; "If they can't carry guns, then they won't shoot each other!" Well, we know that experiment failed. My research is incomplete and stops around the 1920s-1930s due to the limitations of online databases. I've also stopped at the early modern era, going up to the late 1910s and 1920s "Model Pistol Acts" that were the predecessors and inspiration for the National Firearms Act. You'll notice that western states repealed their bans, as did other states. The "why" is what remains to research. In some cases they just wrote the new laws to either exclude (or include, in those cases) open carry. Idaho's supreme court threw out the open carry ban, as did Georgia's, except the latter went ahead and reinstated it later anyway. Some of these laws may be debatable: South Carolina's 1901 restriction made it so that basically any pratical handgun was unable to be carried; I suppose AR pistols would have been kosher. A Tennessee court decision that would do today's 9th Circuit proud allowed one to openly carry a pistol in the hand, i.e. as one would use while chasing a burglar or defending himself (sorta like California today!), although no one in their right mind would just walk around normally with a pistol in their hand. 
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