Maybe these are all by old George Angstadt! (haha Eric).
In downtown Reading, based on records and documents, below is kind of a brief overview of gun makers in downtown Reading early on based on my research so far:
Wolfgang Hachen - recorded to be working and living in Reading by 1752, but likely there a couple of years prior. Records indicate he was also paid for arms work during F&I war, and later Rev war, but I'll have to find the documents.
William Graeff - we do have proof that he made rifles - was working and living in Reading by 1752 (born 1732).
John Schreit - working and living in Reading by 1756. He is documented as having a musket contract in 1776, with the musket locks made in Reading also (see further down). I believe that I found that Schreit was either born in Pennsylvania, or immigrated as a small child and not trained in Europe which is interesting given his training and the style of his rifle.
George Schroyer - working and living in Reading by 1764, left sometime after 1769.
William Shaner - living and working in Reading by 1769
John Reiffsnyder - again proof he made rifles, was in Reading by 1775. He was apprenticed to William Graeff. He died in 1793.
Anthony Bobb, by 1774 to 1781, disappears after that.
Andrew Fichthorn Sr., by 1779
Conrad Fesig, by 1779, later also made tall case clocks.
John Kerlin, during the war documented making muskets in Reading in fall of 1776.
Henry Hahn Sr., listed as an "armorer" in 1753 document. Living and working in town by 1752
Henry Hahn Jr. - born 1754 - made musket locks for Schreit for Schreit's contract in 1776. later made tall case clocks.
John Gonter, son of Peter Gonter Sr is documented as living in Reading in 1776.
Peter Gontrer Jr. of course also was assumed by others there to learn the trade but I found no hard evidence of that yet.
Charles Witz, gunsmith / locksmith was living and working in Reading by 1779. He was from the Falckner Swamp area and identified there as a gunsmith as early as 1755. He was in Douglass Township, eastern berks in the 1760's.
Peter Baltzly, who later moved to Carlisle and was a gunsmith - was an orphan who had my ancestor Nicholas Madary, and Wolfgang Hachen, as his guardians. I believe that my ancestor, taxed as a stone mason, assisted Hachen making locks or other work in the down months as a mason - his father in switerland was a blacksmith.
John Eister (Oyster). He was from Rockland Township and entered the "service" in 1776, in Reading, to serve as blacksmith and gunsmith there for a period of 6 months before his regiment left. He noted that he made "a number of weapons, including tomahawks" while in Reading in 1776, for the war effort.
There are a bunch of other blacksmiths and locksmiths in these early days, and others listed as "artificers" during the rev war, that I have not even gotten to look into yet. My thinking is that many of the guns from Reading are unsigned because this group worked together more as a team / consortium / or factory.
One note about the Reading church records - something that was extremely confusing but I eventually figured out is that the "Schwartzwald" church records, by RE. Boos, were compiled with other churches in the area, and the data for Hachen is actually for his congregation work at the First Reformed Church in downtown Reading. There is no documentation that Hachen ever physically was at the Schwartzwald church in Exeter Twp. Interestingly, both Hachen and Schreit were tied also to the Muddy Run Church in eastern Lancaster County.
Eric - you may appreciate this. It is off topic a bit, but adds mystery to the Reading / Berks area gunmakers: I found estate records for Johann Michael Fries, "blacksmith", in Albany Township in northern Berks County. He was born in 1690 in Rossbach, Germany, and died in Albany Township in 1762. He had 200 acres just outside the town of Albany near modern day Kempton. His estate included two rifles, smith's tools, a sword, a pistol, an old gun barrel, two old gun locks, 2400 feet of boards, and lots of wood tools. His two sons also died around that time - Henry Fries, born 1730, died 1759- the son's estate had a rifle, a gun, smith tools, 2 gun barrels, 40 lb of iron. And another son was a blacksmith. Not proof that they were gunsmiths but maybe, and interesting!
