Leman Northwest Trade Gun

[leviathan]

Just a few questions... did H.E Leman make any trade guns in in his factory in the style of the smoothbore Northwest guns?  If so, what years did he make them and where did he send them? Would illinois and Wisconsin be out of the question? Were any sent to Southern states like the Carolinas for Hardware store sales to settlers and farmers?  Also. were many of these Northwest guns converted to percussion? I'm just wondering if any of these Northwest style guns were sent  to the South during the 1850-1865 period for hardware sales.

[Seth Isaacson]

Check this out:
http://americansocietyofarmscollectors.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/B051_Hanson.pdf

Edit:
Just to answer your questions partially: The Chouteaus in St. Louis were Leman customers and are known to have supplied traders operating in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois, but Leman guns are not likely to have ended up in Illinois or Wisconsin in large numbers since most Native American groups were forced out of those states and relocated west of the Mississippi after the Black Hawk War in 1832. Since his wares were sent to St. Louis, many no doubt went up the Missouri or down the Sante Fe Trail and elsewhere westward. Many were converted or made as percussion guns. I'd be really surprised to see something suggesting his Northwest guns were in hardware stores in the Carolinas.

[Craig Wilcox]

Thanks for posting that link, RH.  I never thought Leman had made so very many rifles.  Really a good businessman as well as a great gun maker.