Indian trade rifle

[kansas_volunteer]

Thank you, plmeek, for the info on the three gunsmiths that probably are distant relatives of mine, either cousins or uncles. Both the Tenneys and Bairs seem to be pretty small families. The Bair name is most common in the Tyrol, but not elsewhere. My Tenney great, greats came to Kansas in 1854 from Ohio. I wonder what style these Gunsmiths worked in.

 

[plmeek]

Sylvanus Tenney in Johnsonville, Illinois, 1878-1882, then Elk Falls, Kansas, 1888​

Based on the locations and dates, I would guess the Sylvanus was building and/or working on half stock plains rifles. They could have had bar locks or back action locks. He was working through the beginning of the cartridge era, and undoubtedly worked on those types of guns, also.

John Bair in Jefferson, Pennsylvania, 1807-1815​

Looks like John was working in western Pennsylvania. Depending on where he got his training, but his customers there were likely wanting the Western Penn/Ohio style of rifle. I suspect that area was pretty settled then, and the rifles would have been of small caliber.

W. R. Bair in Camas Valley, Oregon, 1881​

Like Sylvanus, W. R. was probably working on and possibly building some half stock percussion rifles. He probably worked on cartridge guns, too.

 

[kansas_volunteer]

Thanks again, plmeek. The Tenney came from the right area, but is maybe a generation late to be closely related to me, relatively so. My great grandfather Tenny was born about 1850. I understand all the Tenneys in the US are descended from the same man who settled in Massachusetts in 1639.

When my Tenny forebears came to Kansas their were still "wild" Indians living in the creek bottoms around their homestead. I've often wondered how firearms fit into that, not that there was hostility, there wasn't, just trade between them. However the Pottowatamie traded deer for ham and salt. Could trade rifles have factored in?

John Bair is the right age im guessing to be a great great great grandfather. It would be cool to know for sure.

 

[crankshaft]

Hanson has a sketchbook, Trade Rifles. Deringer and Leman Tryon and other rifles have blueprints, kinda.

 

[plmeek]

When my Tenny forebears came to Kansas their were still "wild" Indians living in the creek bottoms around their homestead. I've often wondered how firearms fit into that, not that there was hostility, there wasn't, just trade between them. However the Pottowatamie traded deer for ham and salt. Could trade rifles have factored in?

Trading is part of human nature and trading between settlers and Indians was pretty common among those whose prejudices weren't too strong. Guns may have been traded occasionally, but I doubt that many settlers had surplus guns that they could trade away.

There were professional traders still working the frontier. Pierre Chouteau Jr. & Co. was ordering J. Henry, Edward Tryon, and Henry Leman rifles through the 1850s. So were the Ewing Brothers.

There were other small private traders that ran trading posts along the main transportation routes.

 

[Rudyard]

Nice to see a realistic appraisal of working rifles versus the fancy ones . A classic case of more can be less & less can be more .' For Trade & Treaty 'exellent work , In appreciation Rudyard . .