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The rifle is featured on the cover of November 1980 issue “The Gun Report” (copy included) and is
pictured and discussed in the article “H.G.H. Reed’s One of One Thousand” by David V. Stroud inside. He indicates that this rifle
appears to be a factory smoothbore One of One Thousand and that he had discussed it with George Madis who noted that two other One of One Thousands that appear to be factory smoothbores were known. Madis stated, “If the bore had been reamed it would measure .490, and 2 1/2 thousandths of an inch on each side would have to be removed.”This rifle’s bore measures as .445. which is larger than a usual .44-40. As Stroud notes, it could not have been made from a .38-40 barrel as that caliber had not been introduced in 1876. As such this rare smoothbore rifle may be one
of only three smoothbore One of One Thousands known. The Gun Report article states, “Under the barrel are markings applied after the rifling. These are normally three letters or three numbers denoting the three steps that had been completed. Under the barrel of the Reed Winchester there are four marks, ‘2 0 1 A’. The final mark indicates the fourth step had been taken, and the letter ‘A’ may have denoted smoothbore.” Stroud indicates the rifle was owned by Horatio Gates Howard Reed (April 22, 1828-May
31, 1902) and provides useful details of his life but was unable to confirm the why and how Reed received the rifle, although he states “There is a 1876 Milwaukee newspaper article reporting that a man named Reed
had taken part in a pigeon shoot, a sporting event that would
call for a smoothbore weapon!” Said article has been located at the time of writing this description in The Daily Milwaukee News, dated August
10, 1876 (the same exact date as the shipment of this rifle!), in which it states, “At a pigeon shoot which occured at the Layton house yesterday, the crack shooting was done by messrs. Grout, Reed, Deeves, Dickens, and Dawson, all of whom, at two or three different trials brought down their full score of birds, not missing a shot. Another trial of skill is in occur at 2 P.M. today.” It is also of important note that this rifle has a specially ordered heavyweight stock (very noticeable when holding), which would make perfect sense considering Reed had intentions for using it in pigeon shooting competition.
Horatio Gates Howard Reed was born in Marshfield, Massachusetts, came west to Wisconsin in 1856, and became wealthy through his work in the railroad industry. He first worked with the Boston & Maine Railroad in 1847, worked for Manchester & Lawrence Company, was the chief engineer
of the South Reading Railway, the chief engineer and superintendent of the Saugus Branch Railroad, and later moved to Wisconsin where he was the chief engineer and later the superintendent of the Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western Railroad Company. He became the superintendent of the latter in 1871. He is also credited with building the Sheboygan Fond Du Lac Railroad, was the general manager of the Lake Shore Traffic Company and the Kaukauana Water Power Company, and was a Democratic state
assemblyman from Sheboygan in 1869 and 1870. In 1868, he invented a “device for heading and unheading barrels” per Stroud’s articles. Stroud also notes that Reed had been presented a gold watch and chain by
the Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western Railroad Company in 1874. The inscription on this One of One Thousand could have been in relation to the famous Centennial International Exhibition of 1876 in Philadelphia, the United States’ first World’s Fair which was on going at the time. Given his prominent place in American industry and the 10,000,000 visitors the fair attracted, Reed may have been there and have ordered the rifle after seeing Winchester’s display at the fair on August 3, 1876. Other events definitively connected to Reed are also documented in 1876: his son Harry C. Reed is noted as coming to Milwaukee that year and attended Spencerian Business College, the elder Reed became a member of the Chamber of Commerce of the City of Milwaukee that year, and the Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western Railroad extended 21 miles that year to connect to the Green Bay & Minnesota Railroad. The railroad that year spanned one hundred and forty-six miles. In 1885, he had a grand home built on Lake Butte des Morts based on a design by William Waters.
He later moved to Bradenton, Florida, due to declining health.
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AS PICTURED AND DESCRIBED IN THE BOOK WINCHESTER: THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICAN GUNMAKING AND THE WINCHESTER 1 OF 1000 BY WILSON AND FEATURED IN THE NOVEMBER 1980 ISSUE OF "THE GUN REPORT"