MUSEUM 4-30
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Hope everyone’s Easter was a great one.
May is here! The Heritage Seekers May Program will be one that many of you may be interested in.
Marsha Clark will be our guest speaker on the 19th of May.
It will be on “The Enterprising Young Men”, the California Gold Rush Memoir of Robert Mason Clark”. The story line of how some of the young men from Marion, and Rall’s area went on the adventure to California to find Gold. Some of the names mentioned in the book are Clark, Vanschoiake, See, Heckard, Gatewood, Maddox, Anderson, Davenport, Hagar, Fuson, Gosney many others. Will have more on this subject . Watch Facebook and the Spectator.
The Gardner House Museum has a display case dedicated to Hunting and Fishing. One of the items is a Half -Stock Hawken rifle.
Hawkin rifles a muzzle loading rifle that was used in earlier days on the prairies and Rocky Mountains.
Hawkens Brothers Jacob and Samuel moved to St. Louis Missouri opening a gun shop in 1815. In1858 was passed down to William S Hawkens then William L. Watt and finally J.P. Gemmer. Gemmer retired in 1915 and closed the business. The last Hawkins Rifle was sold in 1862 and the last one made was 1884.
A Hawkin rifle was made for a gentleman in 1823;this was one of the earliest dates known on record for the Hawkin rifle.
This rifle had been nicknamed as “Old Bill” It had a 42-inch barrel carrying a ounce ball.
No additional Hawken rile was produced before 1831.
In 1831 the Hawkin was recorded to have been used by fur traders, by 1832 Mountain Men were owning a Hawkens
The rifles were not mass produced but were customed made for the hunter.
They had few employees who worked in small building that produced 100 rifles a year. There were a number of famous men that owned one of these rifles, Kit Carson, and Theodore Roosevelt to mention a couple of them.
Jacob Hawken was influenced by a gunsmith in Virgina, and it is possible that he made the early 1800 rifle from an iron mounted Southeran Bear Rifle.
The rifles are shorter and have a larger caliber than the “Kentucky rifle” from which the style descended. The style is the same as a Harpers Ferry Model in1803, a half-stock rifle, with same lines as a Kentucky rifle. They also made a few with a long stock.
Come on in and check this display out.
Hope everyone has a great week!
Gardner House Museum is open on Fridays 10 to2
The Old Marion County Jail and Research Center is open on Wednesday’s 10 to 2
