Author Topic: A Plain Kentucky Gun That Helps Us Understand Western Kentucky's Rifles  (Read 2019 times)

Offline Tanselman

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Sometimes a plain, unassuming rifle comes along that has more significance than first glance would suggest. Kentucky’s Barrens School of gunmaking covered a large area of southcentral Kentucky. Bordering counties around the school are not considered part of the school until a rifle is found that documents that county's guns as being similar to Barrens School guns. Recently, a fresh rifle from Butler County bordering on the Barrens School sold at auction, and it was one of those rifles. The rifle was made by William Stephens of Reedyville, and it linked Butler County to Kentucky's Barrens School where rifles are described as: well-made but lack decorative details including molding lines, inlays, and carving. The simplicity of an otherwise well-made rifle is what sets the Barrens School rifles apart from Kentucky's fancier eastern Bluegrass schools.

William Stephens was born in England in 1797, trained as a gunsmith, and moved to America in 1828 to work for gunmaker Joseph Henry of Pennsylvania. Stephens was hired to make high quality, rollered flintlocks for Henry’s better guns. Stephens returned to England in 1846 and brought sons William Jr. and John back to America. He then settled in Brown County, Ohio, on the Ohio River across from Kentucky. About 1850 he moved to Butler County, Kentucky, on the northern fringe of Kentucky's Barrens School of gunmaking, where he opened a gun shop in Reedyville. The shop closed during the Civil War when the sons left to serve in the Confederate Army as gunsmiths. After the war, the sons returned and reopened the shop, but William Sr. remained retired from gunsmithing on his 150-acre farm near Reedyville, where he died in 1870. The sons closed the gun shop permanently in 1885.

When a new rifle links a Kentucky county to a nearby gunmaking school, it is a significant discovery. The William Stephens rifle was such a rifle, putting Butler County into the Barrens School where rifles were well-made but lacked the decorative details seen on eastern Kentucky guns. It is also interesting to note that a highly trained English gunsmith who initially made high quality, rollered locks eventually became a county gunsmith turning out "standard" Kentucky guns that followed local customs. Rifle specs: barrel 40-1/2" long, .40 caliber bore.

Shelby Gallien









« Last Edit: January 26, 2025, 04:12:21 AM by Tanselman »

Offline kenwood

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Re: A Plain Kentucky Gun That Helps Us Understand Western Kentucky's Rifles
« Reply #1 on: January 21, 2025, 03:14:07 PM »
Very clean lines. Neat and tidy.
Ken

Offline Seth Isaacson

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Re: A Plain Kentucky Gun That Helps Us Understand Western Kentucky's Rifles
« Reply #2 on: January 21, 2025, 05:06:06 PM »
Love it! Thanks for sharing. I don't see anything "uninspiring" about that one.
I am the Lead Historian/Firearms Specialist at Rock Island Auction Co., but I am here out of my own personal interests in muzzle loading and history.
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Offline AZshot

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Re: A Plain Kentucky Gun That Helps Us Understand Western Kentucky's Rifles
« Reply #3 on: January 21, 2025, 07:07:16 PM »
I agree, it's a very slim, nice looking long rifle.

Offline VP

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Re: A Plain Kentucky Gun That Helps Us Understand Western Kentucky's Rifles
« Reply #4 on: January 22, 2025, 03:56:07 AM »
It's always welcome to see more information gathered about the different gun making areas of Kentucky. Definitely a lot of gunsmiths were working their trade. Thanks for sharing.

VP

Offline Carl Young

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Re: A Plain Kentucky Gun That Helps Us Understand Western Kentucky's Rifles
« Reply #5 on: January 22, 2025, 07:00:44 AM »
Thanks Shelby.

Dr. Carl Young
KRA/CLA/NRA-Life
Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses. -Juvenal

Offline Keith Zimmerman

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Re: A Plain Kentucky Gun That Helps Us Understand Western Kentucky's Rifles
« Reply #6 on: January 25, 2025, 03:04:05 AM »
Shes a beauty.

Offline parve

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Re: A Plain Kentucky Gun That Helps Us Understand Western Kentucky's Rifles
« Reply #7 on: January 25, 2025, 10:52:37 PM »
Kentucky's Barrens School where rifles are described as: well-made but lack decorative details including molding lines, inlays, and carving. The simplicity of an otherwise well-made rifle is what sets the Barrens School rifles apart from Kentucky's fancier eastern Bluegrass schools.

I know nothing about the schools of Kentucky longrifles, so I ask for forgiveness in advance if my following question is uninformed. Is the Barrens school only defined by the lack of decoration? Are there any similarities in architecture among the various makers of this school? I ask because the schools that I've been focusing my attention on produced rifles with a wide range of decoration, from the simplest of rifles with no carving, engraving, nose caps, or ramrod entry pipes, to rifles with all of the decorative details possible on a longrifle and then some. But despite the range of ornamentation, the underlying architecture of the plainest to the finest rifles is distinctly of that school.
Phil A.

Offline Tanselman

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Re: A Plain Kentucky Gun That Helps Us Understand Western Kentucky's Rifles
« Reply #8 on: January 26, 2025, 01:31:18 AM »
Phil,

You partially answered your own question. Other schools produced guns in a wide range of decoration, as you pointed out, from the barest "poor boy" type guns to elaborate guns with full patchboxes and silver inlay work. I omit carving as a decorative detail here since it was so rare in Kentucky. A few early rifles had relief carving... but it is impossible to tell if they were actually made in Kentucky, or made back east before the gunsmith moved to Kentucky. A few KY guns have incised carving, but that is also rare. So the primary, or most obvious, similarity of Barrens School rifles is their consistent lack of embellishments such as inlays and the basic butt and forestock molding lines found in most other schools.

Rifles in the northern end of the Barrens School retained architecture more related to finer central KY guns, while guns in the southern end of the Barrens School picked up influences from Tennessee gunmakers, primarily because northern Tennessee counties "donated" gunsmiths to southern KY counties during the area's early settlement days. Therefore, there are a few subtle differences in stock architecture in guns from the northern end vs. southern end. Also, on average, barrels were a little shorter on Barrens School guns than central KY guns, since as gunmaking went farther west in KY, barrel length became less of an artistic statement, i.e., longer barrels were more attractive, and more of a basic functionality [and cost] issue... of which decoration didn't play a major part.

A final comment on design consistency in Kentucky's two largest multiple-county schools, the Mountain Rifles of southeastern KY, and its southcentral Barrens School, is needed. Most gunmaking schools we think of, such as those of PA, MD, or VA, covered rather small, uniform areas. We can all recognize a York Co. gun, or a Berks Co. gun, or Lancaster Co. gun rather quickly, since the school was localized around a large city, or perhaps a single county. In states farther west like KY there were still easily recognized schools, such as the Lexington School or Bardstown School. Those schools were similar to the easily recognized eastern schools in that they centered around major towns, or perhaps a county. But as one moves farther west, population was sparser, towns smaller, and areas were less uniform in population make-up and artistic preferences. The end result in KY's larger schools like the Barrens School is more variation in its firearms, just as there was in its citizens. Yet to be able to study and understand firearms in those areas and how they relate to other areas in the state, assigning "schools" based on a larger area's common details is important, even if more variation is present than in smaller, more tightly knit gunsmithing schools. I hope that answers your very good question. And if you really want to learn about Kentucky gunmaking schools, its early gunsmiths, and how local styles evolved, the "Kentucky Gunmakers 1775-1900" books are still available at www.kentuckygunmakers.com.

Shelby Gallien


« Last Edit: February 06, 2025, 02:53:34 AM by Tanselman »

Offline EGG17601

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Re: A Plain Kentucky Gun That Helps Us Understand Western Kentucky's Rifles
« Reply #9 on: January 26, 2025, 02:46:51 AM »
This is a great mini essay with great info that is much appreciated.

Ed

Offline parve

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Re: A Plain Kentucky Gun That Helps Us Understand Western Kentucky's Rifles
« Reply #10 on: January 27, 2025, 02:02:41 AM »
Shelby, thank you for taking the time to provide that response. I guess in my mind the Barrens School is like the Appalachian School of western North Carolina; no truly unified traits due to the wide dispersion of gunsmiths throughout the mountains, but overall enough similarities (lack of ornamentation being one) to lump them into their own category. I have added your books to my list of literature to add to my bookshelf. While my focus lies North Carolina, I can always appreciated well-documented and photographed rifles.
Phil A.

Offline Tanselman

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Re: A Plain Kentucky Gun That Helps Us Understand Western Kentucky's Rifles
« Reply #11 on: January 27, 2025, 03:07:14 AM »
Parve,

When you look at some of the finer stocked Bluegrass guns from Kentucky's Lexington and Clark County Schools, you are looking at the vestiges of North Carolina gun making in Kentucky. My favorite rifle from Kentucky is a beautiful, understated flint full-stocked rifle by Pleasant Wilson of Clay County from the Mountain Rifle School in Kentucky's southeastern Appalachian [Cumberland Plateau] region. Superb stock architecture and overall stocking. Again, you are looking at stock architecture straight from North Carolina... my second favorite state's guns... so you picked a good state to study!

Shelby Gallien