Welcome to Gillespie Rifle Works
T. Dennis Glazener Proprietor
Welcome to my website. Glad you stopped by. I am a GGG Grandson of John Gillespie of East Fork (now Brevard) NC. The rifle at the top of this page is one made by my Great Grand Uncle, Mathew Gillespie. The rifle was made circa 1810. It is an original flintlock with a hand forged 45.25 inch, .41 caliber barrel. The "trough" you see in the butt stock was used to store a mix of bear grease and beeswax. This mixture was used to grease the patched round ball prior to ramming it home.
My hobby is building and shooting flintlock rifles patterned after the rifles made by my Gillespie family. I sell a few parts and also published a book on this family. To see the items I offer for sale click here
I am a retired Project Manager for Lucent Technologies. I retired in Dec of 1997 and worked as a contract Project Manager for several different companies. I pretty much retired from Project Management in 2002 and started to do more research on my family history/genealogy. My Glazener forefathers came to this country from Germany aboard the ship Rawley arriving at Philadelphia 10/23/1752.
While studying the Glazener line I found more and more about my Great Grandmother's Gillespie line. Her father was William Gillespie the oldest son of John Gillespie. John was the first of the well known NC Gillespie gun makers. I was so enthralled with this family of gun makers that I wrote a book about them. If you would be interested in knowing more about the book, "The Gillespie Gun Makers of East Fork NC" see my catalog page for ordering information. If you are related to the Gillespie gun makers I would love to discuss them with you. I may be reached via email at tdg23113 (@) verizon.net or via telephone at (804) 794-4863, I love to share my research with other family members.
Take a look at my favorite website Be sure to check the forum out.
This website is under construction so check back often
