ALR Museum: Unknown Gunsmith with Ohio attribution ????

[Hurricane ( of Virginia)]

Here is an interesting utilitarian half stock whose attribution is even in question.
Ohio??? yet it has some iron furniture?? Made with "parts available" or by design?
Does it challenge the often expressed thought that "iron" means Southern just as recent posting of very fine artistically merited longrifles were not made in the South has clearly been shown not to be true.


http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=4742.0

Post your comments here as a "reply."

[G-Man]

Is the cheekpiece the only reason the attribution is to Ohio?  Or is there other evidence/ history that leads to the Ohio connection.  Just curious.

Iron mounts are not unusual on Ohio rifles and I often wonder how many guns attributed to areas farther south actually could have been made north of the Ohio River.  Southeastern Ohio is on the western flanks of the Appalachians - there were numerous bloomeries and forges throughout the region, just like SW Virgnia, east Tennessee, etc.  And there are a number of makers who worked in both iron and brass and you would be hard pressed to tell their work from southern mountain rifles.  Jerman Jordan is one (Ross County, Ohio) - I've seen three attributed and one "maybe" iron mounted rifle by him and all have guards very similar to the Joseph Bogle rifle - some without buttplates, grease holes in the stock, etc.  In fact, there is another "unknown" iron mounted rifle on the virtual museum that I have wondered if it is from Ohio.  I've also heard (not seen) of the "Mad River School" of longrifles that I think some of the Sheets family was associated with - this is well outside the Appalachian region of Ohio but they apparently made iron mounted guns that look a lot like southern mountain rifles.

Guy

[mr. no gold]

Right on the mark, Guy! M. (Michael?) Sheets moved up to the Dayton area from Virginia and  joined in with the Mad River School. His rifles, for the most part, are iron mounted, plain and stocked in good maple. They are very Southern looking, none the less. Most have great architecture, and very small calibers. 
One, I have seen, has a J.G. Stutsman Hdwe (Dayton, OH) lock on it, which appears to be original percussion. Not sure if Stutsman provided flint locks, or not.
Sheets passed away by 1850, or earlier, so his rifles seem to be somewhat scarce.
I will try to get some photographs of the one mentioned above. There are some nice little carved details that indicate that he may have been capable of more ornamentation than he oftentimes proudced on his rifles.
Dick