Ledford Family Geneology: Short history - They moved into the Greensboro
area, actually more around Tomasville, by 1750, my great [5] William
Ledford helped found the Primitive Baptist Church on Abbots creek,
William had a son, John, john had a son, George, George had a son
"Henry". Henry was the long rifle maker and we believe that he got his
training in the Volger gun shop in Old Salem.
Comments:
Another nice Ledford rifle; glad to see these. This rifle appears to be in an unaltered condition and pretty much closet condition. Apparently the Ledfords made rifles sans patchboxes with some frequency based on the fact that two are presented at this time and others extant.
Both of these are half stocked and neither have boxes. The inlays are quite nice, as is the architecture and the molding lines.
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I take it this is not a signed rifle? I have seen earlier rifles by Henry Ledford but am not familiar with later half-stocks which he made. The buttstock architecture certainly looks right. It would be helpful to viewers to know if it is signed or unsigned and, if unsigned, what attributes suggest an attribution to Ledford. I don't doubt it; just thinking about what would be educational to visitors to the Library. The family history is nice to have.
