Page 148 - 88-BOOK3

LOT 3209
Rare S. Hawken Signed Full-Stock Percussion Rifle - NSN, 54 cal., 36 inch octagon bbl., blue/casehardened finish, maple stock. Jacob (1786-1849) and Samuel Hawken (1792-1884) are among the most famous makers of American muzzle loaders and were active together in St. Louis starting in 1825. They have long been associated with the 19th century mountain men, and their early rifles are known to have been used by the mountain men active in the fur trade in the 1830s, including by General William Henry Ashley and the American Fur Company. Many of their rifles, including this one, date to after the heyday of the Rocky Mountain fur trade when Hawken rifles continued to be in demand, including by former fur trappers like Jim Bridger
and Kit Carson who found new work as hunters, guides, and scouts. They were also in demand by the new wave of migrants heading to the West in search of gold or fertile farmland. For example, in the gold fields of Denver in 1860, Thomas Pollock is recorded in the papers as striking claim jumper William McCarty on the head with “a heavy Hawken’s rifle, laying open his scalp, and effectually rendering him hors du combat for the remainder of the campaign” after McCarty threatened to cut his throat with a Bowie knife. “Had he given him the contents of his rifle in a vulnerable place, it would, no doubt, have terminated the trouble, and, as everybody says, served him right.” McCarty had been part of group.
146