Arms, Armor and Militaria

About .41 caliber. 44" octagonal barrel. SN: NSN. Browned metal finish. Curled maple Bedford County style stock has a straight grip with low comb, carved cheekpiece, and full length forearm. Percussion rifle with notch and blade sights. Item features double set triggers, patchbox to right side, and a high forward curving "rat tail" spur hammer typical of the Bedford County School. Stock is carved with raised rococo style C-scroll on left side of butt, raised wave carving in front of cheekpiece, along with incised lines along forearm that end in scroll tendrils and feathered panel carvings on both sides. Brass patchbox is pierced five times, has eight screws, a Q-finial, and scrollwork engravings with simple crosshatching overall. Item features several silver escutcheons including a blank circular vignette to wrist with simple crosshatching and border, two tear drops with simple stars and border to sides of wrist, and an eye shaped escutcheon engraved with an eagle clutching arrows to cheekpiece. Barrel is unmarked, but hand forged lock appears to be marked with a partially obscured J.S. in script, similar to other Stoudenour rifles documented in Hetrick's The Bedford County Rifle and Its Makers. Brass fittings include faceted buttplate, thimbles, triggerguard, and a rounded forend. Includes wood ramrod, possibly added later.

Jacob Stoudenour (1795-1863), is known as one of the finest and most prolific gunmakers to have worked in Bedford County PA. His rifles seem to be the most encountered out of the Bedford school, and he is said to have made many flintlock rifles early in his career (40 to 50). A lot of Stoudenour's rifles have been seen with percussion conversions, suggesting that he also may have employed a number of apprentices, according to Hetrick. One of those apprentices was William Moore.

Stoudenour, is believed to have been trained by Peter White (1778 - 1835), who is considered by Hetrick to be "the dean" of all Bedford County gunmaking, considering his stylistic influence is shown on most rifles from other later Bedford school makers. Tax records show that White's father's name was Andrew, and that he was from Emmitsburg, MD. There is little known about White's life prior to appearing on tax records in 1807. However, it is theorized that he was trained by John Armstrong of the Emmitsburg School, and that one of White's earliest rifles is signed "P.W." and dated to 1794. That same rifle was made for Johannes Snowberger, of the Snow Hill Cloister, based in what is now Franklin County (17 miles from Emmitsburg). Because of this, experts assume that he began his career as a Maryland gunsmith before becoming a Pennsylvania gunsmith. White then shows up again in 1812 after listing an advertisement in Bedford's THE TRUE AMERICAN, desirously seeking a "bright young man as apprentice to learn the gunsmith trade". This young man is believed to have been Jacob Stoudenour, who was from Colerain Township where White was also located. Stoudenour, was also about the age of 17 at the time, which was a likely age for an apprentice.