Best of luck in your search. In my experience, searching for Armfield rifles is kind of like looking for the Holy Grail. Ithamer Armfield (pronounced I - Thamer according to his grandson) was listed as age 31 in the 1850 Guilford County Census. He was born in Guilford County and was living with his wife Martha off of Mackay Road at the present location of the Adams Farm Townhouses. He and Martha are buried in the Maple Grove Cemetery near their farm. All of the grave stones in this cemetery have been vandalized. Ithamer's grave stone has been knocked off its base, but is not broken.
I started collecting Jamestown rifles in 1980. They seemed easy to find. I purchased a J.S. Armfield rifle in 1983. I was soon contacted by Bob Armfield of Seagrove, N.C. and offered a $500 profit. I figured since they were so easy to find I would sell it to him and find another one next year. Big mistake. I have only seen two others in the last 35 years. One of them is the one Gibster found and restored. I own the bill of sale for parts for this rifle. I have located a third J.S. Armfield out west and offered $5,000.00 for it but the offer has not been accepted.
The youngest of the three brothers was John J. Armfield. He was born in 1830. He served in the Confederate Army, was captured and died at Point Lookout prison in Maryland. I have found only one rifle by him signed "J. A." I have tried to buy it many times with no success.
I have only seen four Ithamer Armfield rifles since 1980. W.W. Pegg put together a nice collection of Jamestown rifles in the Deep River community. His Ithamer Armfield rifle was the best rifle in the collection. I tried several times to purchase the rifle without success in the early 1980's. He gave it to his grandson. Many years later this same rifle surfaced at an auction in Asheville and I was the high bidder. Please keep in touch, it will be available someday.
Here are some photos.
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My new book "The Longrifle Makers of Guilford County" contains 12 pages of transcripts from an interview with Virtner Armfield in 1981 at a Jamestown Rifle collectors meeting. Virtner was in his 90's and was the grandson of Ithamer. It contains a lot of information on Ithamer and describes visiting his gun shop. The book also contains 3 pages of transcripts of an interview with Bob Armfield at the same meeting.
My email address is mbriggs@callcoverage.com .
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