Sometimes we forget that early Tennesse rifles often differed from the later slender, racy guns we most often think of as Tennessee rifles. The earlier gunsmiths were taught elsewhere, and brought those influences to Tennessee and to the rifles they built. It wasn't until after 1800, perhaps well after 1800, that the locally grown gunsmiths began to make those slender, long barreled and captivating Tennessee rifles, often stocked in walnut, that we conjure up in our minds when we think of Tennessee. The early Bogle rifle is a beautiful gun with great stock architecture, but if it didn't have a signed barrel, we might be attributing it to other areas than just Tennessee.
The several Pleasant Wilson rifles I have seen from the flintlock era were made in Kentucky, and have more North Carolina influences than Tennessee. Wilson was born in 1795 in North Carolina and moved with his family to Clay County, Kentucky, between 1805 and 1810. He was 15 years old in 1810, and it was probably at that time that he was apprenticed to the gunsmith's trade. He worked in Clay County until at least 1835, perhaps longer, before moving to Ray County, Missouri with family and friends. By 1850 he was in Andrew Co., MO working as a gunsmith. His son, Philip, worked as a gunsmith with him in MO.
The strongest influences I see in the Wilson rifles are from western North Carolina, particularly the Gillespies and Robert Hughes gunsmiths. We don't know who trained Wilson, but he built long, slender rifles with racy architecture, probably more influenced by western North Carolina gunmaking than Tennessee. He used smaller side opening patchboxes, either round or octagan in shape, and for a southeastern KY gunmaker working down in the dirt poor hill county, he did limited engraving and used a good number of simple silver inlays. Most guns from that region of KY in the late flint era were plain with little to no silver work, and patchboxes were infrequently used. Shelby Gallien
