Who made this rifle?

[Avlrc]

Homerifle & myself displayed some HC rifles yesterday & today at our annual Peach Festival.  The traffic by our tables & response was the best of any we have experienced  doing this in our hometown. Much interest kept both of us busy.

A fellow brought this rifle by today and wanted to know the maker, neither one of us had a clue. We told him someone on ALR would know & he ask that we post these pictures. This  rifle has been his family for several generations. Backaction/Halfstock with Leman on lock. Any help would be appreciated.   P.S. The patchbox & toe plate appear to be silver, don't know why they look brass color, in person they looked  more silver.

[Avlrc]

More pics,

[Dennis Glazener]

Notn like anything I am familiar with. The rear 4 patchbox piercings look familiar but the rest of the patchbox isn't. Very interesting wrist to cheek rest transition, I have never seen one like that.
Dennis

[Shreckmeister]

The Patchbox strongly reminds me of Abias Butler Smith.  Clearly not the signature but certainly some relationship there

[JTR]

The last name on the barrel looks like Higgins, or something similar to that. Certainly not Wiley, but there was more than one Higgins.
John

[Shreckmeister]

The more I look at that box, the more A.B. Smith I see.  Note the toe plate also.  Reverse termination of the one in the
library.  I found shreckengost made them both ways like that.  I think he cut them and used one on a rifle
and the remaining brass on another.  Less waste.  The engraving has a similar hand also.

[Majorjoel]

There were a few gunsmiths from Allegheny County (western PA) that used this acorn finial patchbox. I do not believe this example was made by A.B. Smith as the engraving is far different from what I have seen of his work.   The book "Gunsmith's Of Western Pennsylvania" Allegheny and Westmorland Counties by Charlie Kauffman has a few rifles listed showing this patchbox design. 

I would say the rifle is from that area from around the 1840-50 time frame. Being a half stock and with the stock wood of cherry or walnut??  Is kind of unusual.

[Brent English]

Is it just me or are the patchbox and toe plate clearly much nicer than the rest of the gun?  Could they have been from a different, maybe earlier gun and put onto what is otherwise a plain-jane utility halfstock of the mid 19th century?

[Majorjoel]

Taking a second look at the wood and see from the forestock that it is maple.  Still believe it is from western PA. 

[Don Stith]

Looks very Western PA to me too
  The signature is not clear enough to make out for sure, but is very similar in style to Thomas Allysson

[Avlrc]

Thanks for all the input. Here is some  pics I took this morning.

[Collector]

Back-action lock - single escutcheon - no panel, but rounded -  set trigger - barrel is likely stamped 'Remington' on the underside - 'leaf/spear shaped tang - typical trigger guard and butt plate - plain-ish wood -  cheek pieces are optional:

Guessing the barrel is held with a round pin instead of a key.

Patchbox and toe plate are probably later upgrades.  Maybe a later PA owner.

I'd go with a Western New York origin.

A nice looking rifle.