DESCRIPTION
Historic Documented Southern Style Percussion Long Rifle Inscribed "From the Cotton Bails at New Orleans" Once Owned by Famed 19th Century Hunter, Pioneer, and Mountain Man Seth Kinman Dr. Alan Maki, in the article noted below, indicates this rifle was hung in Kinman's museum until the museum was sold by the family in 1893 and then remained in the family for several generations until he purchased it from Kinman's great-great granddaughter. The swamped octagon barrel of this massive rifle is marked "Seth Kinman Old C[otton] B[ale]" (bracketed areas illegible) on the long barrel tang which extends back nearly to the buttplate, "Gave Many an Englishman the Belly ake(sic)" (lower right flat) and "From off the Cotton Bails(sic) at New Orleans" (upper flat) and "Jan. the 8 1815 Old Kentuck" (left flat). According to Seth Kinman's (1815-1888) own tall tales, his rifle was used by a Kentucky rifleman under the command of General Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans the year he was born to kill British General Edward Pakenham, and Kinman's father purchased the rifle in 1831 from a man named Bridges from Kentucky who told him the tale of his own father using it at New Orleans. Kinman inherited the rifle when his father died 1839 and used it the rest of his life. The original stock was reportedly damaged by a grizzly that chased him up a tree, and he subsequently restocked it himself. The rifle appears in many of the photographs of Kinman from the 1860s into the 1870s. The current length of the forend can be seen in the photograph of him with then presidential candidate and Ohio Governor Rutherford B. Hayes in September 1876. The buttplate, toe plate, and current lock plate were apparently added later, reportedly by Kinman in the period of use. Included with the rifle is a copy of "Seth Kinman's Manuscript and Scrapbook," "I'm a Gonna Tell Ya a Yarn," a framed display on Kinman including a photograph of him holding the rifle, and copies of articles and other texts relating to Kinman's life. Among those is the article "The Last of the Mountain Men and His Remarkable Rifle" by Dr. Alan W. Maki in the April 2018 issue of the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association's "Muzzle Blasts" magazine which details Kinman's life and his rifle and also includes photographs both from the period and present showing the rifle. Kinman was born in Union County, Pennsylvania but moved with his family to Illinois in 1830. His father reportedly served alongside future president Abraham Lincoln during the Black Hawk War in 1832. In 1849, Kinman went to California to join the Gold Rush. In the early 1850s, he first started making a living supplying meat to the U.S. soldiers at Ft. Humboldt in Northern California and also supplied meat to others in the region. He is also known to have helped eliminate all of the grizzlies in the county by 1868. He also claims and was reported to have killed a number of Native Americans in California and may have been one of the perpetrators of the brutal 1860 Wiyot massacre in Humboldt County. He had gained his first fame for the chair he presented to President Buchanan in 1857 after which he reportedly received an appointment to remove Native Americans on the West Coast for $1,300 a year, and Kinman capitalized on the publicity. In 1861, Kinman was already selling chairs, photographs of himself, and other items, including scalps; playing his fiddles, telling tales, and putting on exhibitions to make a profit. He also opened up a museum to contain his artifacts. Kinman presented additional elk antler or grizzly bear chairs to Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, and Rutherford Hayes as well as Vice-President William A. Wheeler. He cultivated a friendship with President Lincoln. A drawing of Lincoln holding Kinman's rifle while accepting the gift of Kinman's chair on November 26, 1864, was sketched by Alfred Waud. Kinman reportedly spoke with Lincoln the day before his assassination and witnessed the attack at Ford's Theater. He was also part of two or more of Lincoln's funeral processions and gathered attention for his distinctive attire and rifle. Per the New York Times, "Much attention was attracted to Mr. Kinman, who walked in a full hunting suit of buckskin and fur, rifle on shoulder. Mr. Kinman, it will be remembered, presented to Mr. Lincoln some time ago a chair made of California elk-horn, and continuing his acquaintance with him, it is said, enjoyed quite a long conversation with him the very day before the murder." While in the East, he had many of the well-known portraits of him and his chairs taken by Mathew Brady's famous studio. Despite his disheveled appearance and tattered animal skin clothes, he was actually a successful businessman. He died as a result of complications from a self-inflicted accidental gunshot wound to the leg and subsequent amputation in 1888. Manufacturer: Kentucky Model: Percussion BBL: 47 1/2 inch octagon Stock: hardwood Gauge: 68 Finish: brown Grips: Serial Number: NSN Class: Antique Condition: OG - POOR- major or minor parts replaced; major replacement parts required and extensive restoration needed; metal deeply pitted; principal lettering, numerals and design obliterated, wood badly scratched, bruised, cracked or broken; mechanically inoperative; generally undesirable as a collectors firearm in its present state.
CONDITION
See Description
BUYER'S PREMIUM
21.5%
Documented Southern Style Percussion Long Rifle
