Late period muzzleloaders

[Hungry Horse]

I own two small caliber muzzleloaders that might have been built in California. Both makers are known in other locations. John Rogers is known as an Indiana gunsmith, and W.H.Brown is known in Pennsylvania, as well as other areas. Both guns are percussion, the Rogers rifle is half stocked, while the Brown rifle is full stocked. Both guns were purchased from estate sales in Lake County California. Both guns have unusual features. The Brown full stock has double cheek pieces, German silver inlays, Brass furniture, and a back action lock marked Neffwanton& Co. Warrantee. It is .30 Cal., stocked in curly maple, and appears to be of high quality.
 The Rogers rifle  has no cheek piece, or under rib, is stocked in black walnut, with iron fittings, including cap box (mounted in the stock backwards). The lock is Marked Josh Goulcher and is of the hardware store variety i.e. no half cock or bridle over the tumbler. The barrel of this gun is very heavy being 41" long and 1-1/16" across the flats and .36 Caliber. The triggers on this rifle very unusual in that the rear trigger when touch breaks away like a single set trigger, but doesn't set the front trigger until it is pulled farther rearward. The first position only allows the lock to be cocked without the trigger being set. This guns barrel is stamped J. Rogers, Maker, Elkhart Indiana, but the Elkhart Indiana stamp is over stamped with the signature stamp. I'm not sure just what that means. This gun was rumored to have been built in Lakeport, Calif. The triggers may be Charles Slotterbek patented triggers. He was a gunsmith in Lakeport toward the end of the muzzleloading era.
 Anybody have any info on these makers?

                   Hungry Horse

[Hurricane ( of Virginia)]

Please post pictures? EMail them to me, if you wish, and I will post them for you.
Hurricane
(fgarner@verizon.net)

[Curt J]

There were apparently two different gunsmiths named W. H. Brown. The one who worked in California was born in Vermont in 1811. He was in California by 1849, with a shop at 209 Clay Street, San Francisco. He was still living in California in 1870, although no longer in the gunsmithing business.

The other W. H. Brown (William H. Brown) was born in New Jersey in 1803 or 1804. He was a gunsmith in Perrysville, Fountain County, Indiana, 1846-1859 and later.  He is listed in the 1880 census as a gunsmith in Danville, Vermilion County, Illinois, which is only about twelve miles from Perrysville, Indiana.  He taught the trade to several other gunsmiths in that area, including J. S. Davis, who worked in Danville and later Paris, Edgar County, Illinois. I have owned two rifles by this maker, and still own one. Both are tiger-maple fullstocks. I suspect that your rifle might have been made by this man, rather than the California maker.