I have a Hacker Martin flintlock pistol he made for me in June, 1969 at his last residence in Appomattox Co., VA. I went to his place on a Sunday afternoon and stayed in his house while he worked on the pistol. He finished it Friday afternoon and I left the next morning. He worked on it for a few hours after supper every day. He provided the meals for my stay as part of the price of the pistol. He did all the cooking as his wife had passed away a couple of years before. Breakfast was corn meal mush which I had never heard of despite being from a rural Virginia background. It wasn't very good. He was using a shed roof chicken house as his shop because his mill shop had burned several years before. He lost everything in that fire and never fully recovered.
As to the pistol, well it is rough. Mr. Martin's eye sight was failing, his hands shook to the point he could no longer play the fiddle and just generally couldn't turn out the work he had done in the past. I was there in June, '69 and he passed away the following May. The price of the pistol was $150.00 including lodging (back bedroom of his old farmhouse) and meals. I still have the pistol but that isn't the most important part to me. I had, in my mid-20's, the opportunity to spend nearly a week with the last living link with our muzzle loading past. He knew and told me about the old days in East Tenn. when a man did not leave home with out his rifle. He also had a lot of humorous stories (not jokes) about that time and place. He served in WWI as an airplane mechanic. I took some B&W photos which aren't so good but they are great keepsakes from that stay with Hacker Martin.
This has been longer that I intended but I kind of relived my experience 46 1/2 years ago while writing this.
Regards,
Greg
