Guns in walls

[Levy]

My friend woodsrunner's (Rich) story about the trapdoor reminded me that I worked on 16 1868 Mod. Trapdoor muskets that were recovered from Lake DeSoto in Lake City, FL many years ago.  They were used by occupation troops to guard the polls during elections.  The men went into a local establishment to eat and were told they'd have to leave their guns outside.  While they were eating the guns were taken and thrown into the lake and never recovered until the lake was pumped down.  We cleaned up the remaining metal parts, bought a few bands and screws from DGW and some of them are now on display in the Courthouse there.  They were all 50/70 Gvt. and two of them had buckshot loads still in the barrels when recovered.  The loads of buckshot were sandwiched between wadding in the barrels, but the brass cartridge cases had been removed.  Presumably,  The bullets had been pulled from the cartridges before using them like this.   Four dug-out canoes were also found.  Apparently, a sheriff in the late 40's early 50's disposed of a number of confiscated handguns in the lake too.  In with the bunch of expected small caliber bellyguns were a couple of French military revolvers, a couple of Model 10 S&W's, a .32 cal. S&W rimfire that had pearl grips, engraved and nickel plated (Mod 1875 I believe).  The one I liked best was an Navy Model Allen and Wheelock .36 cal. percussion revolver with serial no. 247.

James Levy

[Sam Everly]

A friend of mine told me about this one . When he was about 14 or 15 he had a paper route in Mooresville NC. in the early 1960's. He made friends with a old fellow and he told him about his guns he collected over the years . All where pre 1900's and he told him he had them stashed in the walls. The old fellow died and the house was cleaned out. One day after school he was passing by and the fire dept, was burning down the old house . He did not think much about it , the next day or so he stopped by and was just looking around . He found the guns, or what was left of them , he told his dad and they went and picked them up and took them home. It must have been about 50 to 75 from what he told me , all Muzzle loaders. They ended up getting rid of them , to bad to do any thing with . That would make a grown man cry.           

[Gary]

Gun confiscation was quite common during the American Civil War.  I suspect more guns were hidden in the South than in the North (since the Confederates really didn't north as frequently as Northerners went south).

[A.Merrill]

    The last one I know of around here, was a round barrel Fowler. The hammer and frizzen was missing, walnut stock, brass mounts. The wood is near black. A guy I know was tearing down an old house this past summer. The city is getting ready to tear down the house next door to me. I wonder if I will get lucky .    AL

[Curt J]

I have a percussion double-shotgun made by JAS. DONN & BRO. CANTON ILLS. which was found inside an interior wall of a house being remodeled in Dubuque, Iowa.

Also~

About forty years ago I knew an elderly gentleman who had been an antique dealer for most of his life, beginning in the 1930's.  He said he believed he had bought and sold at least three hundred muzzle-loading long guns for $3 to $5, before WWII. He told me that he had cleaned out the attic of a large victorian home, for an elderly lady, in exchange for the contents of the attic. When he thought he had finished, she told him there were three old guns down inside an interior wall that could be accessed from the attic. She instructed him to "get them out of there".  He had to lie on the attic floor and reach his arm down inside the wall to retrieve them. Two were longrifles, which he was able to reach and pull up quite easily. The third was a percussion double-shotgun. It being shorter, he was just able to insert  two fingers into the muzzles and thus pull it out. After he got it out of the wall and looked at it, he realized that both barrels were loaded, both nipples were capped, and both hammers were cocked.

[JBlk]

My son works for a property management company.Just the other night he called and said that one of his fellow employees was spraying for insects in one of the properties that they manage when he discovered that he had sprayed a gun hidden in the basement rafters.He contacted the tenant and told him that he had accidentally sprayed his gun and suggested that the weapon be cleaned immediately to prevent damage.The tenant replied that he didn't own any guns.After removing the gun from its hiding place they discovered it was a hammer double that had probably been there for untold years.The resident of the property didn't want the weapon so it quickly was given to the finder, talk about luck.In about 1982 in the small town of 2500 people that I reside in they demolished a old red brick house for a parking area.When the high hoe broke into a area near the chimney area the air was suddenly full of Confederate script that had been hidden there.Allot of the script blew away before they discovered what it was, but there was many thousands of dollars.How all that money got up here in Yankee land is anybodies guess.

[GrampaJack]

My great grandparents lived in Warren PA. We would travel down from Jamestown once a month or so for dinner on Sunday. Hanging on the wall in the kitchen was an old lever gun that the old man told me he used to shoot buffalo in S. Dakota when he was a youth. This would have been in 1955 or there abouts. He would get the gun down and let me hold it while he told stories of shooting buffalo from a train car being pushed down the track. He always promised me that when he passed I would have the gun. Well, both he and Grandma died within 2 months of each other in 1968. They were both over 100 at the time and I was in college and could not get home for the funerals. One of my aunts was at the house a few days after the last funeral and a used furniture dealer came to the door and told her he would save the family the problems of getting rid of all the "junk". He paid her $100 and cleaned out the house, barn, workshop, and even took their car and the family photos. The gun was presumed to have been included. Now the worst part - the only thing I can remember about the gun was the receiver was brass and Grandpa referred to it as "old Henry".  After over 40 years it still bugs me. Jack 

[Curt J]

JBlk,
I noticed that you are in Farmington, IL, not far from me.  I wonder whether that old double might have been made by JAS. DONN & BRO. CANTON ILLS. ?  Donn was a prolific maker of both percussion and breechloading doubles. Needless to say, they are fairly common in your area, since Canton and Farmington are both in Fulton County.