Below is the newspaper article on Stillman that I failed to attach to my last post.
HISTORICAL SOCIETY SEEKS TO PURCHASE RARE MUSKET
Bristol Press, pages 8-10[/b]
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1977, by James Klaneski
21
BURLINGTON: The Burlington Historical Society has organized a special drive to raise money for the purchase of a rare flintlock musket manufactured here between 1808 and 1812. Members of the Society and community are being asked for their support in the purchase of the musket manufactured by Ethan Stillman. Stillman was one of the seventeen children, he came to Burlington in 1803 belonging to the Seventh Day Baptists community which settled in the vicinity of Covey and Lyon Road.
(He came to Farmington first with his brother Amos and had a contract for guns before 1803) Society President Lois Humphrey first became acquainted with the Stillman Musket manufacturing firm through Surveyor Merton Hodge of Unionville. According to Hodge, she said, the shop was located along the Old Turnpike Road (Route 4) just west of Lyons Road. The shop was built on the south side of the road, she said, near Bunnell Brook, and the Stillman house across the road to the north.
Burlington land records show, Mrs. Humphrey said, that Stillman owned 25 acres and a house on the north side of the road, with nine acres and a shop on the south. The old timers of Burlington, she added, remember that as recently as 50 or 60 years ago the remains of the Stillman dam were visible on Bunnell Brook where the shop once stood.
Proof that Ethan and his brother Amos belonged to the seventh Day Baptist church came from an old record book of that church dated 1796 and now in the possession of a Burlington resident.
According to those records, she added, both brothers helped with the building of the Baptist church on Covey Road which was the first church ever to be organized within the Burlington town lines. Additional proof, Mrs. Humphrey added, came from the Stillman descendants, with whom she has corresponded seeking additional information. According to family genealogical records, Mrs. Humphrey said, the Stillman's were born in and came to Burlington from Westerly Rhode Island as did the rest of the Baptist community. Ironically, however, Humphrey noted, the Stillman family was unaware that Ethan and Amos had been gun manufacturers until she told them.
During his life Ethan was married three times and had nine children. His first wife was
Polly Lewis of Burlington. They were married in 1794 and had six children. Polly died in 1813 and is buried in the Seventh Day Baptist cemetery on Upson Road. In 1814 Stillman married Mehitable Teft who was born in Rhode Island. She bore him three children before her death in 1821.
BUILT GUN SHOP
In 1803 Ethan built a gun shop in Burlington for the making and repairing of muskets. His first contract with the federal government had already been in 1798.
Through her own research in the National Archives, Mrs. Humphrey learned that Ethan and Amos had contracted to provide arms for the militia, and that the contract was completed with the Stillman's delivering 525 Charlesville pattern muskets at a cost of $13.75 each.
A second contract with the federal government was made by Ethan alone on September 14, 1808 following the death of his brother. At this time a new government program provided for contracts leading to the manufacture of 74,000 muskets in all. Under this second contract Stillman agreed to supply 2,500 muskets, to be delivered to the receiver of public arms in New Haven at the rate of 500 per year for five years. Some 825
muskets are recorded to have been delivered by October 7, 1812. Mrs. Humphrey said, at a price of $10.75 each. Those muskets were all marked on the lock plate "E.STILLMAN."
By the time of the second contract, the federal government had begun requiring all private contractors of the musket to stamp their identification mark on the lock plate in an attempt to eliminate possible manufacturing problems. According to gun expert Arcadi Gluckman, Mrs. Humphrey said, some of the muskets made under the 1798 contracts were of poor workmanship and quality. The government took steps, she added, to insure identification of the manufacturer and to also standardize the muskets for general use.
While working to complete the second contract, Stillman encountered financial difficulty and was forced to mortgage everything he owned, Mrs. Humphrey said, including his tools and materials.
All records show that Stillman only delivered 825 muskets of the 2500 for which he had
contracted. (The first delivery) But Mrs. Humphrey believes that the entire contract may have eventually been filled since in 1812 Ethan was able to pay off his entire mortgage. (Later information from Mr. Stillman's diary, "I completed my contract and discharged my debts but it took my farm to do it.")
Very few of the Stillman muskets are known to have survived in their original
condition, Mrs. Humphrey said. The musket on which the Historical Society now has an option is the property of a gun dealer in Cornwall, Connecticut. It has been inspected by members of the Society and was found to be in very good condition. Unlike many m
uskets, it has never been converted from a flintlock to percussion firing and, according to the Society president, only the ramrod and a single screw appear to have been replaced making the gun a particularly valuable piece. The Society first learned of the musket through a gun collector in Harwinton. Robert Dailey approached Mrs. Humphrey recently inquiring about the Stillman gun shop and Mrs. Humphrey reportedly told him what she knew of the Stillman brothers and of their operations before casually mentioning that the Historical Society would be very interested in acquiring one of the muskets that had been manufactured in Burlington.
If purchased, Mrs. Humphrey said, the Stillman musket will be placed on permanent display at the Brown Elton Tavern as part of the tavern acquisition program. (The musket was purchased, and is now in the town vault, cost $750.00.L.R.A.)
