South Carolina D. T. Peden rifle found

[AZshot]

This is a signed D. T. Peden (1840-1875), son of Thomas Peden (1799-1858), from the Greenville area of South Carolina.  This was a family of gunsmiths, I found an elder also is listed in a census as a gunsmith, prior to Thomas.  DT was Thomas' only son.  He is reputed to be married in 1855, so I need to do some better geneology research on his birth years.  Even then, you didn't marry at 15 very often.  I estimate this rifle as being made right before the Civil War.  He follows a lot of his father's style.

This rifle in one of 5 known that I found.  Three are from the father, 2 from the son. The stepped buttplate and unique patchboxes are hallmarks of the family, as is the trigger guard. I believe the barrel wedge escuchions too, I need to research. It is about 62" long overall, with a 42" barrel, about 45 caliber it feels like.  I hope you enjoy this SC rifle.

[AZshot]

Now some of the details.

[mr. no gold]

Now, that is a mighty fine southern gun! Thank you for bringing her in. Looks like you are on the right track to find some really good unheralded pieces. Don't stop chasin em
because you haven't found the best one yet; close though. Not to soon to start thinking about a book as you turn up more.
Dick

[Avlrc]

Unique.  Great find IMO.

[AZshot]

Thanks both, I'm excited about it because I have relatives on both sides that were in the Greenville SC area from the mid 1800s on.  My ggggGreat Grandfather moved down to the Pickins area from Mills River in the late 1850s, leaving several grown sons.  His son's were pretty familiar with rifle making, worked with and married into the Gillespie line.  My mom's side had several direct ancestors in the area too.

Here is the tang, also engraved.

[BOB HILL]

Thanks for sharing this great find with us. Always a pleasure when one surfaces.
Bob

[Rajin cajun]

Wow, very nice..!
Bob

[JTR]

Now that's an interesting rifle! The guy certainly enjoyed using his imagination.
Thanks for letting us enjoy seeing it.
John

[RAT]

Do you know who made the breech plug and tang? The tang is a style often used by J & S Hawken, but clearly they didn't produce these. They show up on guns across America. I've been on the search to find out if these have a makers stamp on them. A Tryon product perhaps? I've only contacted a few people. One collector removed the tang from a rifle he owned but there was no stamp on the underside.

[AZshot]

I do not know who made the tang.  I do have another rifle or two with that oblong shape though.  I don't think they're hooked breech.

[AZshot]

On the engravings, it occurred to me that they have a very distinctive look.  Then in came to me.  Rice plants.  South Carolina was the biggest producer of Rice for 200 years.  The Carolina Gold variety was world famous, and plantations in the low country grew rice by the thousands of pounds a year.  It was very profitable, and rice became an icon that symbolized wealth.  There is rice featured in carvings, on bedposts, picture frames, on cloth, on doorknobs, from the 1700s until the mid 1800s.  When I was growing up we'd visit my grandmother in Orangeburg, SC, and the big meal was called "Supper" because "Dinner" was lunch.  And they served rice.  Still do.  You make a beef roast, you serve rice with it, with gravy.  BBQ? Rice.  And so on, it was a big part of SC.  So to me (my interpretation), this looks like rice, albeit Greenville is quite a distance from the rice plantations. 


See: https://www.knowitall.org/video/when-rice-was-king-2-south-carolinas-rice-economy

[RobertS]

Wow, I love it.  THanks for putting it up!

[TDM]

Beautiful workmanship, a treasure.

[Shreckmeister]

Or sheaths of wheat.
Reminds me of this tang as well.  Also on a hooked breech.






identity pics

[AZshot]

Nice rifle. 
But I'm not sure much wheat was grown in South Carolina pre Civil War.  I'm sure some was.  Rice - that was bigtime. "By 1860 South Carolina farmers were producing more than ... 117 million pounds of rice annually." https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/agriculture/

That bed post I show is a known iconic, "Rice Bed" from Charleston.