Warning: If you are only seeking hardball measurements of specific guns, or rather mystical, esoteric interpretations of the squiggles on any of them, stop reading here; don't waste your time. This is simply background tidbit stuff about the rifles; the target audience is us retirees who have already seen most of the good guns out there, handled them, smelled their patchboxes, and really got to know them. In some cases, we even kept a few.
First, anyone who wants to get a taste of what life was like in Paxton during the F&I war must read Conrad Richter's Light in the Forest. Kentucky rifles play a direct part in the tale. Essentially it is the story of one John Cameron Butler, kidnapped by Lenne Lenape Indians as a young child and raised by them in the forest...the light in the forest. In the story, he is "liberated" in 1765 in a land deal wherein the Indians agreed to return all white captives for some rocky land. In short, after having seen white culture, he becomes depressed and wants no parts of it. He escapes and returns to the woods and to the family that loved and raised him. I won't ruin things by telling you the end, but the story is far from over. John (True Son) had a rifle with a shiny brass patchbox which was the envy of all who saw it. Now, find the book and enjoy. Richter is one of America's great historical novelists and my personal favorite in the genre. Incidentally, anyone who has stopped to read the local state history road markers knows that kidnappings of white children was not uncommon. The Indians tended around these parts to take and care for the children rather than kill them.
Now, all of this is set in and around Paxton (contiguous to present-day Harrisburg). Paxton Presbyterian Church was the community hub here at that time. Rumor had it that the church still had a rifle rack in the narthex. I have dispelled that one. By physical examination and cross referencing with the church historian, I can rule out the presence of any rack today. But I can tell you that it is documented in county history and by the church historian himself that it was business as usual for the Kentucky Rifles to be carried to church on a regular basis. The Indians knew the white man's custom of assembling on Sunday mornings to worship collectively the great spirit, an opportune time to sack their barns and burn their cabins. The only question about the rifles is whether they were put by the door or carried to the pews. The church historian tends to go with the former notion.
Incidentally, the two best trails for sacking Harris Ferry/Paxton was the trail down the Susquehanna or the upper route through Heckert's Gap (present day Piketown). Check the official topographic maps for the name of the gap; yes, they were my direct ancestors and they are buried at the base of the mountain in Wenrich's Cemetery (Linglestown). My family was here at the time and I don't know, nor do I wish to know, whether any of my kin rode with the Paxton Boys. I do know that my ancestors had longrifles. Circa 1960, my great uncle showed me what looked like an unsigned early-mid Lancaster, plain with a floral box finial. It reportedly came from his grandfather. I examined it many times. It went to my nephew who sold it for a down payment on a Toyota. Wayne
