Johnnie's Gun Collection

  Image of Oliver Winchester from Wikipedia, common domain

Vake told me that Uncle John had a collection of guns that was "nearly complete." Here's the best available information today.

I asked cousin Jon, “When you get a chance, will you write up something for the family lore blog about your father’s rifle collection? Wasn’t it Winchesters, and nearly a complete collection until somebody burgled particularly good pieces from a display at the Western Lane County fair, and again from the display well above the reach of most people, within the hardware store? Or do I have that right? What ever became of the collection? If you and Dean still have it, we wouldn’t want to tell, for security reasons. Thanks! SueS”

Jon replied: I think that Dad's gun collection grew out of his offering for sale modern weapons, and some customers asking if there might be a 'trade-in' value for some 'old pieces' they may have had around their homes. As he took in some of these, he most likely hung some of the 'collectible' ones on the wall in the little nook where the TV's were displayed. And so on.....and so on....! I remember the time the store was broken into and some pieces were removed (I think he may have gotten some of them back). I don't remember the county fair 'incident.' He ended up with a pretty good mix of both rifles & pistols - all what you might call 'collectible.' When he sold the store & moved to the lake, he hung most of the rifles from wooden pegs on the back wall of his fireplace (in his office). At some point, I encouraged him to check into selling the collection, which he did, but any offer (s?) were cents on the dollar. He decided instead to give the collection to his grandsons (Rusty & Jeff) in recognition for all the things (work, etc.) they'd done for him over the years. I think they moved their pieces into gun safes. Dad had a few left over in 'hidey holes,' which Dean & I ended up with.

One of the more valuable pistols, which I bought from Dean, has the words: "G. R. Martin, Ada, Ore." scratched on the inside of one of the hand grips. The words "Jake Hartsell" are scratched inside the other one. There is a local collector (which I made the mistake of showing this piece to) who keeps bugging me to buy it (at the cheap).

Hope this helps, jl