"JW" longrifle

[Nate McKenzie]

Here is an interesting rifle that I recently worked on. It is marked JW on top of the barrel. This may be John Watts or his son James both from Juniata Co. Pa.  Family history says it belonged to Peter Zerbe who moved to Schuylkill Co. in 1828 and supposedly owned the rifle at that time.He used it at live turkey shoots and was so good that the other shooters would go home if he was there. He worked out a deal in which he had to shoot last and only one shot to give the others a chance. The rifle was handed down to his son and has been in the family ever since.

Here are some measurements:
Barrel-
     Cal. about 38
      L-43"
      W- 7/8" no taper
Stock-
      OAL-58"
      LOP-12 1/4"
      Drop at heal- 4 1/8"
      Butt plate height- 4"
      Butt plate width- 1 3/8"
      Wrist-  H-1 5/16"   W-1 3/8"
      Two piece nose cap.



























Here is something I find most interesting. The lock has an external screw with a coned point that wedges under the sear to adjust trigger pull by adjusting sear engagement. Works just as good as a set trigger but I don't know if I trust it enough to build one like it.



Thanks for looking. Comments are welcome.



 

[Mike R]

Was that Zerbe of the same family that owned the Pottsville Republican newspaper back in the 50s-60s? My dad was a friend of the Zerbes in Pottsville.

[Nate McKenzie]

 I have no idea. It went to daughters way back and is now owned by non-Zerbe named relitives.

[Tanselman]

This  is a fine rifle, with incised carving in the style of Leonard Reedy. With the Reedy style carving and Reading, PA style  patchbox finial, we should get  some interesting comments on this gun. Hopefully Henry Bishop will take a look at it and give us his thoughts, since he specializes in Berks Co. guns. Shelby Gallien

[mr. no gold]

The rifle has decided Reading characteristics; if it was made further west, the maker no doubt had learned his craft in Berks County, probably near Womelsdorf somewhere. He could have even apprenticed to Reedy, as Shelby touches on. Nice rifle; thank you for thinking of the rest of us and putting it up for the rest of us to see.
Dick

[flintriflesmith]

I do not think the lock currently on this rifle was ever a flintlock. The complete border of rolled engraving resembles a Gulcher or other percussion era locks of a later period.

The sideplate looks like there was an earlier, two screw, lock associated with it.

Gary

[Don Getz]

Nate.....all of the "John Watts" rifes that I have seen, built in Juniata county, had the initials J.W. on the barrel, however,
they were not engraved in the normal manner.   They were done with a center punch by producing a series of punches to
lay out the letters.     This gun is much nicer than a Juniata county John Watts rifle...........Don

[Nate McKenzie]

Gary. You're right. I was thinking of another gun. The lock is original percussion but it does have two lock bolts. The front one is very hard to see in the picture but it does go all the way through. There is no evidence of a frizzen spring or pan. Wish I would have taken a better picture of the lock alone.

[Spotz]

I wouldn't rule out Jonathan Wetzel from Snyder County, Pennsylvania.  He was a great carver and especailly liked to make deep incised gouges in the carving.  Watts it is not, but Wetzel, perhaps.  I suggest taking a closer look at the signature as I can almost see the "etzel" after the "W."  This guy could really carve and engrave and the overall shape of the rifle looks similar to others I have viewed.  A closer look at the signature, in person, might be worth the time.  The "etzel" is often climbing or descending, at times running off the top flat onto one of the side flats of the barrel.

Jeff 

[HIB]

Nate,  It certainly appears you have a fine rifle.  By the time this gun was made Leonard Reedy had a established business in Gratz, Pa. It is possible J.W. had an association with Reedy but I do not see any definite clues beyond the overall architecture. There are some subtle clues, however, and better photos might help the opinions. The first is the cheek rest itself , the second is the carving surrounding the barrel tang. The barrel tang carving or similar versions were done by Bonewitz, Reedy and Fichthorn Jr. on much earlier guns. It would be interesting to know the birth dates of Wetzel and your J.W. attribution. That info would give us some feel for the earlist dates that this gun could  have been made.

My personal guess would be 1835-1840, Snyder County. And after the gunsmith had either been with Reedy in his shop or seen a number of his guns in the area. As a point of reference Reedy died in 1837 but he was active up to shortly before his passing.

To give you an example of other gunsmiths using this style in the general area, had the initials J. W. not been on the barrel, my first guess would have been Peter Bellis or a member of the Boyer family. I am certain Bellis had contact with Reedy. Not so sure about J.W.  See if you can find the dates requested and fire off the pictures I need so we can all give a better opinion.  Nice gun.     HIB

[Nate McKenzie]

I have no information on Jonathan Wetzel.  Unfortunately the gun is no longer in my possession. It does reside near Snyder Co. however. A large piece of wood was missing between the tang and the lockplate as in this first picture. I replaced the missing piece and made an educated guess as to the carving as in the next two pictures.

[Herb]

There is a very good chance this is a Jacob Wigle rifle, Westmoreland Co, PA 1811-1844.  You can't find any photos of rifles identified as his, so nobody knows about him.  Except me and those I have told about him.  He was a thinking man and seldom did anything the same way twice for the one signed rifle in a museum out here in Vernal, Utah compared to the other two I will reference here and two more that I believe are his.  You can see three photos of the Utah Wigle on the Gun Builders Forum of this site.  Look at "Patch Box Release Mechanisms" where I posted these photos on May 4, this month.

The first rifle is listed as "unidentified" in Whisker's book "Behold the Longrifle".  Compare the carving behind the cheek piece and you will see similarities.  Also check the triggerguard bow and rear tang.  He did really nice brass work.  Check the bow of the sideplate.  The most common element of his rifles are the Jacob Sell butt plates and the trigger guard.  He pinned the butt plate to the toe plate on the rifle out here.  Same rifle in "Longrifles of Western PA" by Rosenberger & Kaufmann,  "Maker Unknown", page 121, but reconverted to flint.

[Herb]

Now see "Longrifle Articles, Volume II" by Shumway, page 89.  This is an article originally published in Muzzle Blasts magazine February, 1968.  Here Shumway reviews this same rifle, but it sure stumped him!  The next rifle is in Whisker's book "Arms Makers of Western Pennsylvania", page 161, "unsigned".   The Utah rifle and the other two all have engraved wear plates.   The Wigle (Weigle) family came to York  in 1732, and that is just south of Juniata and Shuylkill counties.  I posted about Wigle's rifle before on this forum.  Do a search on "Jacob Wigle" by Herb and I think you will find a full length photo of one of my three copies I made of the museum rifle out here.  I have detailed color photos of the orignial Jacob Wigle rifle here if anyone wants more detail, and I have scale drawings and dimensions I made when I restored the rifle for this museum display.  It had been found here in a dry cave burial of a mixed blood Indian child, about 8 years old, in the 1920's.

[Herb]

Another rifle I think Jacob Wigle made was posted by Dan Breitenstein in the Antique Gun Collecting (Archives) February 12, 2007.  Title "Unidentified...your Opinion".  I printed that out but don't know how to find it with the Search feature here.  If someone can tell us how to find that, it has good photos by Dan as well as mine of the signed J. Wigle rifle out here and a third signed Wigle rifle that had been bought from an antique dealer.  It has a very similar patch box.

[Spotz]

They say that one should never say never, but I am not seeing a western Pennsylvania rifle, here.  I indicated that one should not rule out Jonathan Wetzel, as I will admit there are a few inconsistencies between this rifle and the identified Wetzels.  This rifle's signature is a tad different, there isn't an upside down mustache with protruding "v" incorporated in the side plate or inlay under the cheek piece.   The patchbox is a known Upper Susquehanna pattern (Baum and David Young, Middleburg), the shape is good and the color looks right.  I don't have Wetzel's dates handy but I would suspect they fall in the 1810-1850 time frame (I will look).

[Spotz]

Lets bump those dates from 1820-1870, which is interesting considering many of his rifles look quite early with straight rifling and octagon to round barrels.

•Name: Jonathan Wetzel
•Sex: M
•Birth: 21 MAR 1801 (likely in Hereford Township, Berks County)
•Death: 22 APR 1881 (New Berlin, Union County, PA)

Father: Philip Wetzel b: 19 DEC 1751 in PA
Mother: Anna Maria (nee unknown) Wetzel b: 1765 in PA

Marriage 1 Esther Hetty Hoffman b: ABT 1804

[Loudy]

I'll start by saying I have no idea who made this rifle.  However, there's a lot to like about it and I've enjoyed studying the photos.  Thank you for posting these.   

That said...

It's worth noting that gunsmtih Jonathan Wetzel from Union / Snyder County had family roots that extended back to Berks County.  Jonathan's grandfather, John Jacob Wetzel, immigrated to America in 1737 and settled in Berks County.  John Jacob served during the Revolutionary War as did his three sons; Philip, Peter, and Henry.  The three sons all eventually settled in and around what's now Snyder & Union County, PA.  As Jeff noted, Jonathan the gunsmith was the son of Philip Wetzel.  Philip Wetzel was a blacksmith.  Jonathan had an older brother John "Henry" Wetzel that was a gunbarrel maker in Kreamer, Snyder County, PA.

Ref. "Story of Snyder County" by Dunkelburger, 1948

Mark Loudenslager
           

[Breadhead]

This rifle below, signed JW and is attributed to Jonathan Wetzel.  I'm not 100% sure that it isn't published as such somewhere.  Its been in my families collection for ~30 years.  This is a small example (althought I can't remember the exact OAL), we have always considered it the "Boy's Rifle" but that could just as easily be a ladies.

[Nate McKenzie]

Beautiful gun. I like the rack too.  Jonathan Wetzel's dates and location seem to fit into the family history of the "JW" rifle better than some of the other makers, but other than basic stock shape I don't see much similarity in carving or patch boxes. I surely do appreciate all your responses and opinions. Please keep them coming and if anyone knows of a very similar rifle, I sure would like to see pictures. Thanks all.
 

[Breadhead]

Thanks.  I actually made the rack myself. I'll make you one if you want, pm me for pricing.  The stand is made of walnut, as I have that sort of stock and no maple.