I have done some research work on Nicholas Beyer. By far, one of the hardest to research in that very little information exits about him. I know he was born on July 10th, 1777 if you believe John Humphrey's book on Pennsylvania Births. He was the son of Michael Beyer, a wealthy man, who died when Nicholas was 11 years old. Nicholas was released by his guardianship in 1792 at fourteen years old and received money from his father's estate in 1793. Nicholas's grandfather was Benedict Imhoff, an early Womelsdorf gunsmith/doctor. Nicholas should have been of age in 1798 and does show up on the Lebanon tax rolls in 1800 thru 1811 as a gunsmith. His shop was next door to J.P. Beck and he also bought Beck's shop, according to an indenture in Lebanon Co HS, upon Beck's death. Once Lebanon became a county all records disappear. He is only listed in the 1830 and 1850 Federal Census. He didn't marry any of J.P. Beck's daughters since they are all accounted for in their marriage. I couldn't tell you if he ever married and had children as the 1830 only lists a Nicholas Boyer with one male besides himself and no females. He doesn't show in the remaining ceunsus for that area. His rifles show he used Beck's hardware which wouldn't be unusual living next door to the supply. It seems hard to believe that JP Beck would let an apprentice, which it seems he was, move next door and work unless they were working together. I am not sure how to explain the difference in styles if they were working together. Just my thoughts.
VP
