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HARVEY S. FAUCETT DIES
Last of Group Who Risked Lives With Buffalo Bill, TRIED TO SAVE GEN. CUSTER Rode Until His Horse Fell Dead-- Once Condemned by Indians to Be Burned at Stake. Captured and Sentenced to Die. His Last Battle.
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Historically, He Was Known as"Arapahoe Harve, the Eagle of the Trail" - Here Since 1896.
LOT 3019
Incredibly Historic Providence Tool Co. Peabody- Martini “Kill Deer” Rifle Presentation Inscribed
to Frontier Scout and Lawman Harvey S. Faucett from Zechariah Chafee - Serial no. 280, 45/70 cal.,
28 inch part octagon bbl., blue/casehardened finish, walnut stock. The origin story of this fascinating historical rifle from its recipient’s own writing reads like something from a classic Wild West novel: two experienced frontier scouts, Henry “Ranger Hank” Wormwood and Harvey “Arapahoe Harve” S. Faucett, guide a pair of Eastern intellectuals, Professor Henry Newton and his young assistant “the college kid” Zechariah “Zack” Chafee, in the Black Hills in 1877 during a time of Native American raids following the Great Sioux War. The professor searches for gold and studies the geology of the region with the help of
the kid who is also drawn to hunting and fishing. The scouts rescue the kid after he gets lost hunting deer and then together fight off a voracious pack of wolves that surrounded their camp eying the fresh venison. Soon, the professor gets sick and dies in the legendary frontier town of Deadwood, Dakota Territory.
Heartbroken at the loss of their companion, the three remaining men agree to travel together with the professor’s body some 300 miles in order to get his body to the railroad at Sidney, Nebraska. They are armed to the teeth with revolvers and Winchester lever action rifles. Comically, the kid’s sidearm is a .22 revolver, presumably a Smith & Wesson No. 1. They watch for Native American raiders as they make their way east through the inhospitable Badlands towards Nebraska. Again they are faced with a wolf pack, but they withhold their fire to avoid announcing their situation to other hostiles that might be on the prowl. After 8 days of travel, they reach the safety of Sydney and see the kid and the professor’s remains off to complete their journey to New York by train.
Ranger Hank and Arapahoe Harve set off back to the West to continue their rugged lives on the plains and later both become respected lawmen. Arapahoe Harve soon receives a letter from the kid, Chafee, asking if they wish to have anything to remember the professor
by. They ask for only his photograph if possible but instead are sent two beautiful Providence Tool Co. Peabody-Martini rifles inscribed to them from Chafee. Arapahoe Harve keeps his rifle for his remaining years and continues to correspond with the Chafee who goes on to be a successful businessman in the East. Decades later during World War I, Arapahoe Harve, now an old man, writes to his old friend and requests a replacement peep for his trusty rifle’s rear sight in case he needs to use it to do his part should the Germans come. Both rifles exist today and remain incredible artifacts from the West connected to this exciting
tale. Arapahoe Harve’s is now available at auction.
It is accompanied by an extraordinary amount of documentation and information related to Harvey S. Faucett and his exciting life in the American West.
The rifle itself is a scarce example of a “Kill Deer” variant of Providence Tool Co. Peabody-Martini rifle. These innovative rifles were only manufactured from
c. 1875 into the 1880s. Like the famous “Killdeer” Pennsylvania longrifle of Hawkeye in James Fenimore Cooper’s “The Last of the Mohicans,” these rifles were specially designed for hunting. They featured either
28 or 30 inch part octagon barrels chambered in the popular frontier cartridge .45-70 Government, the same cartridge as the Springfield trapdoors, and have “Kill Deer” inscribed on the right side along with simple scroll and border designs and “PEABODY & MARTINI PATENTS.” The barrel has a combination blade and folding globe front sight, notch and folding ladder
rear sight (sliding aperture absent, more on that below), and “MANUFACTURED BY THE PROVIDENCE TOOL CO. PROVIDENCE R.I. U.S.A.” on top ahead of
the rear sight. The bottom of the barrel at the breech
is marked “280.” The serial number is also marked on the inside of the forend and on the frame under the lever. It has a straight stock with a smooth shotgun buttplate. The left side of the frame of this rifle has the historical inscription “H.S. Faucett/From Z. Chafee for Services/1877” surrounded by light scroll patterns.