As usual, your posting is well researched and quite interesting. Being a collector and interested in the guns of James Stapleton, I picked up on your summary of William B and wife. Strangely, although not definitive, I can find no gun business located in Saxton on either of the 1905 or 1911 SANBORN Fire Insurance maps (even though it shows barbers, printing offices, hotels, department stores, etc). I wish I could find a business directory to see if Stapleton really had a business location there. Also, I've learned from many census observations to take the enumerator's entries with a grain of salt. Specifically William was listed as a machinist after the days of individual gun building were past and, with his wife Vester tied down with two little kids to raise, I find it difficult to believe that she was really a "gunsmith who was working at home" as declared in the 1910 census. Please note that I'm often wrong and that I am too suspicious of old records, but I'd sure hope that there was some other corroboration that she really was a "gunsmith".
