Great Western Gun Works, Johnston, James Hampton (-1915). His son, John A. Johnston, entered the firm about 1888 and took over management in 1896. John A Johnston continued the business until 1923. While the firm operated exclusively in Pittsburgh, its addresses changed periodically, as shown by entries from period directories: Great Western catalogues show guns ranging in price from a low for plain guns of $7.50 to a high of $55 for fancy sporting rifles. He also sold small cannon and handguns. The better Great Western Gun Works firearms can compete with the better guns made in cottage industry shops. The lower priced items compete with poorer grade arms made by inferior workmen and the workaday guns made by any of the individual craftsmen. We have not seen any carved guns made by Great Western. The principal objection collectors have to Great Western products is that they are formula arms, all basically the same. Superior grade arms are simply the plainer grade guns with a bit of decoration and engraving added.
1866‑68, corner Penn & Wayne Sts
1868‑74, 179 Smithfield St
1874‑77, 285 Liberty St.
1877‑83, 169 Smithfield St.
1884‑89, 621 Smithfield St.
1889‑95, 706 Smithfield St.
1895‑1905, 529 Smithfield St.
1908‑23, 639 Liberty St.
Occasionally, other addresses are encountered. Perhaps the manufactory and the office used different addresses. Pittsburgh in the Centennial Year compiled by George H. Thurston said that in 1876 a gun barrel factory employed 20 hands and made products valued at $40,000. In 1881 Thurston reported in Pittsburgh As It Is, or Facts and Figures, that gun manufactories in the city employed 59 gun makers and turned out guns worth $257,000, a goodly portion of which was the production of Great Western Gun Works.
This important industry of Western Pennsylvania was founded by James H. Johnston in 1866, in a small building at the corner of Penn and Wayne Sts., Pittsburgh. The founder being a practical gun maker and possessing natural business qualifications, his venture proved a success from the start. Two years later, in 1868, his little establishment was destroyed by fire, and the proprietor lost almost everything, having little or no insurance. However, with that energy born of a determination to make his way in the world, he recommenced operations at 179 Smithfield St. and soon recovered from the shock. Here business so prospered with him that he was compelled to seek more commodious quarters, and he moved his manufactory to the four story building at 285 Liberty St., in 1874. To give an idea of the rapid growth of the Great Western Gun Works, it may be stated that the first year's business, in 1866, amounted to only $2500 in value; in 1874 it reached over $150,000. The proprietor finds his chief difficulty in obtaining skilled labor, and for this reason is compelled to have some of his finer stock manufactured in Europe. He employs on an average 25 men, all skilled workmen, and obtained after careful selection. He attributes his success to his practical knowledge of gun making and strict attention to the wants of the trade, especially in sporting firearms, for which class of goods he has a constant demand in every State and Territory of the Union. The establishment is devoted exclusively to the manufacture and sale of firearms, and the proprietor gives his undivided attention to the business. He is the largest manufacturer and dealer in his line in the State west of the Alleghenies.
[Manufactories and Manufactures of Pennsylvania, pp. 313‑14]
[James Hampton Johnston] founder and sole proprietor {of the Great Western Gun Works} was born in the town of Waynesboro, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, December 16th, 1836. He grew to manhood in his native place, and there learned the trade of gunmaker. Just previous to the beginning of the late {Civil} War, in 1860, he moved to Pittsburgh, and was appointed Master Armourer at the Arsenal there. In this position he served with credit until the close of the war, a period of five years. In the following year, with a small capital, he established the Great Western Gun Works, one of the most rapid and surprising business successes in the great manufacturing city of Pittsburgh. From a business of $2500 in 1866, in 1874 it had grown to the proportions of $150,000 annually and is still increasing. Nor is this success the result of mere chance and a few speculative ventures; it has been the fruit of methodical business habits and that reliance which, with strict integrity and honesty of purpose, distinguishes the character of all self‑made men.
[Manufactures and Manufactories of Pennsylvania, 314]
