George W Glaze Part II

Here is another high relief carved rifle by Glaze in attic condition with minimal conservancy.

Click Picture for Larger View.

Glaze signed in silver inlay on top of barrel. 

Seven pierced patchbox, with  different panel designs and completely different engraving  of the Glaze rifle in part I.  

39.5 inch barrel. .44 caliber.

Superb high relief carving. 

Engraved eagle in silver oval in cheek-piece. The eagle represents freedom. 

 Engraved brass side plate. 

Brass vent pick holder & hash marks on molding of cheek piece. 

Silver fore stock inlay.  Incised carving is placed in panels between inlays.

Ketland & Adams  flintlock converted to percussion  using Bedford hammer. 

Fore-stock molding. 

Carved termination of fore stock molding. 

Nicely done engraving on the brass toe plate.

Below is yet another high relief Glaze rifle.

Artistic wonderful   engraved silver inlays, with over the top high relief carving. 

Unmolested as found. 

"Rare" nine piercings in yet another beautifully  engraved patchbox by Glaze.

Altered during period of use to half-stock. 

Signed Glaze.

The following rifle is  one of his earlier guns. You can also see it on page 33 in " Long Rifles of Virginia" by Butler & Whisker.  The barrel is 41 " long, but no doubt cut sometime. The flintlock is a reconversion. 

                                                                     

Engraved brass patch box. Push button release. 

Incised molding. 

Very low relief carving. You can see the influence of the Lauck shop in Winchester Virginia. 

Early style side plate with counter sunk bolt holes. 

Single Trigger.

                                                          Remnants of carving.

The last rifle in this group of Glaze rifles is one of his later rifles. While some in the past may have thought this a late Maryland rifle, we believe that it is an Indiana Rifle. This rifle was made during a period when many if not most  rifles were  more utilitarian , he still produced a refined product.

G W Glaze

He changed his signature a little from earlier guns.

George was not afraid to do different styles, this expanded panel patch box is unlike any we have seen on other rifles by him.

This box has a friction release, while others he made may  have a hidden release, or a push button through the toe plate. Again, he did not cast his rifles in a mold. 

Incised carving near the entry pipe.

A very long slender rifle, sporting a 45" barrel.

Incised carved molding.

Nicely engraved side plate.

Double set trigger.

More of the Midwestern style or contour.

Double spur brass trigger guard. 

.31 caliber,  rifling still sharp

Deep incised carving.

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 GLAZE KENTUCKY PISTOL

As many of you know a genuine antique Kentucky pistol is very hard to find.  Discovering a  signed Virginia/WV specimen  would be like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack. I would think one  in original condition , with the original W. Ketland & Co. flintlock, is a gift from Divine Providence.


The following George W Glaze pistol was made about 1810,  at Glazes gun shop along the South Branch of the Potomac 3 miles from Springfield WV.
                                                                   

W. Ketland & Co. Flintlock

8.5"  barrel 48 caliber.

G W Glaze

Hope you enjoyed seeing some of the wonderful work of George W Glaze. Thanks to the collectors who shared  them with us.
Please do not reproduce pictures.
JDM BMS

GEORGE W GLAZE Part I

George W Glaze was born in 1779 in Hampshire County, son of George Glaze.  He grew up on the South Branch of the Potomac near Springfield, WV. While he learned to make guns from his father, there is evidence that in the early 1800s, he worked in Winchester, Virginia, for a short period.  Speculation is with one of the Lauck Gunsmiths. Records indicate that he was in Hampshire County, WV & Oldtown, Maryland, until 1827, when he went to Pickaway County, Ohio, just after his father's death, George, who moved there in 1808.  We do not know precisely how long he stayed in Ohio. The 1840 Census puts him in Hendricks, IN. George remained there until he died in 1862.

The following rifle by George W Glaze is exquisite and in pristine condition. As you will see with this rifle and subsequent photos, his rifles are works of art. They are as good as any masters working in the Golden Age period, and Glaze doesn't take a back seat for anyone.  Take special note of this particular piece, which you will see in the following photos.  The lock is one of a kind. The carving is not a cookie-cutter design.  In fact, all of his carvings vary to some degree on his rifles to express himself to the best of his ability.  No major restoration has been done on this rifle you are about to see. It is in its unaltered state, with only minimal work done to conserve it.   This is the first time any photos of this rifle have been shared publicly.   

Signed in Silver Inlay on Barrel

Click Picture for larger Image, then scroll to advance to next image.

Barrel 35" long.

This is for everyone interested in schools of long rifles and is a student of them.  Here are some elements that we think you will enjoy.  The architecture is early Hampshire County's "Golden Age" at its best.  The relief carving blends the Cumberland, Maryland School and the Winchester, Virginia School.  The butt plate return is definitely Winchester School, as is the silver hunter star and wire inlay.  The brass under cheekpiece inlay using silver-headed round nails is found in the Cumberland School. The heart inlay at the wrist is held in place with a silver rectangular-headed nail and is found in the Winchester and Hampshire County Schools.  The wrist carving is of the Winchester and Hampshire Schools.  The blending of the schools results in a superb presentation piece.  

This lock made & signed by Glaze is one of a kind we have not seen before.  We have no idea why he built this lock.  Could it be to see a vision come to fruition, or was it made to strengthen the area where the lock mortise, trigger & guard are usually found?  If indeed he made it for these reasons, he saw his vision come to reality. With all the internals now externals on the lock, the area is now stronger than any normal rifle.  Take a few moments to study this lock. 

G W G

Termination of stock molding only adds to the artistic merit of this rifle. 

The only non embellished area on this rifle.  Actually this lets your eyes fixate on the fantastic relief carving on the cheek side of rifle. 

This seven-pierced patch box is one of our favorite designs. It is also found on rifles by the great masters of this area, Frederick Sheetz and William Britton.

A hidden lid release is found on the bottom panel of the patchbox. Pushing below the lower left-hand screw releases the lid. 

Note the line in the lower butt-stock region in the above picture. This is found on a few early Hampshire County rifles. The wood was added during construction as not to waste a premium piece of maple. 

Silver wire inlay surrounding the hunter star. 

Church Steeple, arrowhead or pointed  finial. 

To some the  silver heart inlay represents the "Fifth wound of Christ".  Beautiful relief carving on wrist. 

Silver captured key inlay. Incised forestock molding. 

Vent pick holder. 

Incised carving on nose of fore-stock abruptly terminates due to a early repair. 

Tastefully  engraved brass toe plate. 

Vent pick or feather hole. 

Incised & low relief flower terminating the fore stock molding near rear entry pipe.

Metal to wood fit on rear entry pipe precisely done. 

Detailed image of high relief carving is found on George W Glaze's work well past the Golden Age era.

Round silver nails.

Long blade on front sight dominates his work 

.45 caliber.

Virginia School rectangular head nails used to fasten silver thumb plate. 

High relief carving. 

Case hardened tang. 

Winchester School brass butt plate. 

Patchbox cavity. 

Special thanks to the caretaker of this fantastic antique long rifle. Please do not copy pictures. 

GLAZE PART II

BMS JDM

Roland Savage Dayton Preacher,Gunsmith & Farmer

Roland Savage Dayton born April 21, 1814 in Hampshire County VA, present day Mineral County WV.  In the 1850 census he is listed as a gunsmith. His brother Oliver is also listed as a blacksmith and lived next door to Frederick Sheetz,  gunsmith and mill owner of Sheetz’ Mill. Roland was just two doors down from his brother Oliver. Sometime just after the Civil War, Sheetz’ Mill name was changed to Headsville.

Click Pictures for Larger View

Due to the close proximity to Frederick Sheetz would be a good guess that Roland may  have apprenticed to Sheetz.

On the few surviving rifles  that Roland made, we find most are signed on the barrel flat between the rear sight and breech R S D or R S Dayton, in script. All surviving rifles are percussion. His work is neat and of very good quality. His capbox lids have a nice finial, similar to ones found on patchboxes. Naturally they are stocked in Maple, as most  rifles of this area are.

In the 1860 census Roland is found in Allegany County  Maryland near McCool. The following story related to me from a descendant of Dayton, is a testament to his  faith in God.

“During the Civil War the Methodist Church at Sheetz’ Mill, present day Headsville, was occupied by soldiers. For a time after the war there wasn’t any preachers assigned to the church. Rev. Roland Savage Dayton walked from 21^st Bridge near McCool Maryland to hold services”

That is a distance of over 10 miles.

Rev. Roland Savage Dayton died August 3, 1900.  It was said that he preached over 6000 sermons, no mention to how many rifles he may have built.

A few years back I visited his grave, at the end of 21 First Bridge, on a bluff on the Maryland side of the North Branch of the Potomac, Dayton Cemetery.
See: 

Hampshire County Long Rifle: FREDERICK SHEETZ, GUNSMITH EXTRAORDINAIRE !

JAMES SIMS

James Sims (1754-1845), Gunsmith of Nicholas County

James Sims, my 5th great-grandfather, was a gunsmith and blacksmith. The Sims rifle was praised for its accuracy.[1]In his book Gunsmiths of West Virginia, on p. 105, James P. Whisker wrote he had never seen a Sims rifle. Several descendants of James Sims owned rifles in 1947 when interviewed by William H. Maginnis and in 1993 as related to me in 2002 by Rose Mary Sims Rudy. William Sims, who made the rifle, was a gunsmith of wide fame according to J.T. Peters and H.B. Carden.

I used to correspond with a "relative" who has since died (1998). He sent me this photograph of the "Mountain Rifle that William (Billy Gunsmith) Sims made." It was in his possession at the time the photo was made in 1993. We talked just before he died and he was giving it to his son!! He was responsible for securing a grave marker for our ancestor James - the date was assumed to be 1838.  In correspondence he stated "his great uncle Eugene Simms reported that James was still drawing his RW pension when he died."  He says that the Mountain Rifle has been in the family for many years passed to him by his grandfather and father. William Sims is written on the barrel. His father once told him of a wild hog chasing him up a tree and his brother coming to his rescue with this gun.

                                                              

Nicholas County was the early stomping ground of the Sims family. When James Sims settled there with his large family the county had not yet been formed from Kanawha County. James brought his Negro slaves and the tools of his blacksmith and gunsmith trades with him. Rev. Shirley Donelly, well-known for his column "Yesterday and Today" in the Beckley Post- Herald, wrote, "His rifles became noted and won an enviable reputation. Some years ago, one of these guns was shown to me but they now have all but disappeared from local circles. The Simms rifle ranked with the fine rifles produced in Raleigh County by James A. Honaker, J. B. Honaker, Joseph Carper, and Samuel Carper, as well as the Henderson rifles of Summers County and the Miller rifles of Monroe County."[2]

                                                                     

James Sims, a native of Culpeper County, may have learned the blacksmith and gunsmith trades before 1780 in Falmouth or Fredericksburg, both in Stafford County. Fredericksburg was a center of the iron industry in colonial times.[3]

James moved to Lowmoor, then Bath County, Virginia, about 1787 where he engaged in rifle making.[4]

A family tradition tells of James Sims, learning of the illness of his dear cousin Frances Sims Morris, wife of Joshua Morris, going to Kanawha Valley:

Following her death (Phebe), James Sims married Nancy (sic, Elizabeth) Cotton. Soon after this marriage, he went to Kanawha Valley to visit a cousin and also visited the Henry Morris home on Peter’s Creek. Henry tried to persuade him to buy near him, but James being a great hunter, said, “No, this section is too thickly settled.” So Henry took him on a hunting expedition down Peter’s Creek, out across the Little Elk Mountain and started down Little Elk Creek where they found signs of bear, deer and wild turkey. James Sims then said, “Henry, if I can buy land on this creek, I’ll be your neighbor soon.” The land belonged to John Jones who lived at what is now Pratt. He had married a Morris and had purchased thousands of acres of land. He at once went to see Mr. Jones and they soon agreed on a price for 500 acres on Little Elk Creek: a plug horse and a flint lock rifle. As soon as he could make arrangements, he moved his family there.”[5]

This colorful family history must be taken with a grain of salt. No court record of the above transaction has been found. The Kanawha County Clerk's office has a deed dated 8 April 1800 in Deed Book A page 391 in which John Jones conveyed 123 acres of land on Gauley to James Sims for the sum of five shilling.

                                                                     

In 1926 Peters and Carden were given a similar account of the story. The old plug horse and rifle were still part of the deal but the tract of land was 600 acres.

James Sims, great-grandfather of Miletus Sims (who is now living at Swiss and is 94 years of age), came from Culpepper county, Virginia, in 1795, and bought a 600-acre tract of land from Morris and Jones for which he paid on (sic, one) old plug horse and a muzzle-loading rifle. This tract of land was partly in Nicholas and partly in Fayette county.[6]

Col. Edward Campbell, author of a series of articles which appeared in the Chronicle in 1883, wrote about James Sims:

Going up Gauley River to the mouth of Little Elk, which empties into the river two miles above the ford, we come to the settlement made by J. Windsor. James Sims also made a small improvement at this place. He came from Jackson’s River in Bath County, Virginia. He was a gunsmith and blacksmith, and did but little farming. He had a large family of children, both male and female. Mr. Sims also brought the first darkies that were ever seen in these parts. He had two sons that were also gunsmiths and made the best of rifle guns. As these guns were much in demand with the increasing settlers they did a lucrative business. They both married young, and settled near their father and did some farming in addition to their work on guns. James lived to see his family settled here and elsewhere. His sons, William and Martin, remained here until they were old men and died leaving large families. James Sims was said to be 90 years old when he died.[7]

Col. Edward Campbell, the son of John Campbell and Nancy Hughes, was born in 1800 and acquired the basics of an education from his parents. Shortly after the formation of Nicholas County in 1818, he was appointed a justice of the peace and travelled throughout the county performing legal services for many of the outlying settlers who found it inconvenient if not impossible to make the long trip into Summersville. Campbell possessed an extraordinary memory for names and facts about the earliest inhabitants of Nicholas County, and some sixty years following his days as a travelling justice, he wrote down his reminiscences of the early settlers and the way in which they lived. Campbell’s memoirs have always been held in high esteem by historians, and where validation is possible he has seldom been found in error in any of his remarks.[8]

After Indians were driven away from the Kanawha valley about 1794, gunsmiths and hunters were still in demand in this region because of the abundance of wolves, bears and other wild beasts. Among the gunsmiths and hunters of the period were James Sims of Gauley river and his son, William.[9]

When William H. Maginnis wrote this statement in 1947 several guns made by William Sims were known to still be in existence. William learned his trade from his father James who turned the business over to his son. No known gun made by James has been preserved.

                                                                         

On 8 June 1802 James Sims and his son William were seen on a list of men to whom $2.50 was paid for each wolf-scalp presented. Part of the routine work, as seen in the minute-book, of the Kanawha County court was the payment of bounties for scalps of wolves.

Miletus Sims (1831-1927), who was about 14 years old when his great-grandfather James Sims died, described him as "a physical giant, fair of complexion, a great hunter and woodsman and inclined to thrift. He built the best house on Gauley in those days - two story, hewn oak logs and a massive chimney."[10]

Mrs. Ruberta Malva "Bertie" Simms Wicker, a daughter of Miletus, wrote a three-page missile to Rev. Shirley Donnelly in 1969. "His (Miletus) grandfather, William Sims, was a fine gunsmith and lived at the mouth of Little Elk, now Swiss, W. Va. There the family built a log cabin that was two stories high. It had a little ladder arrangement in one corner, where they could climb up to shoot at the wolves which prowled through there at that time. I remember the house very well as I am now 97 years old."

                                                                       

In 1835 James Sims was 80 years old when he sent this statement or letter of reply to the Pension Bureau following  questions of the authenticity of his claim to be a veteran of the Revolution. James mentions he gave a new rifle and $500 in continental money to one William Noll (?) whom he hired as a substitute, most likely about 1775. Was this new rifle one of the first he manufactured? [11]

                                                                         

James Sims Pensioner Serv 9 mo. Receives $30 pension. I the undersigned James Sims in pursuance of the requisites of the Secretary of the War gives the following narrative ________ services as a Soldier in the War of the Revolution & statement of my age to-wit. I am in my 79th year of age. I am a native of Culpepper County & lived in that county during the War of the Revolution. In my nieneteenth or twentieth year of age (I cant tell in what year) I was drafted for 3 mo. & marched from Cupepper Country under Capt. John Tults (?) (don’t recollect the names of his subaltern officers) Capt Tults company was attached to a Regt commanded by Col Jno Slaughter which went from Culpepper. The Regt. Marched to Norfolk. Can’t recollect the names of any towns through which we marched on going to Norfolk. We were discharged at Norfolk in time to get home before the three months expired. In less than one year after the preceding term, (I cant tell in what year) I was drafted again for 3 mo. And hired a substitute whose name was William Noll (?) gave him $500 in continental money and a new rifle gun. In the year in which Cornwallis was captured at Yorktown I was drafted again for 3 mo. Set out from Culpepper under a Capt. Whose name I have forgotten. We were preparing to set out on the march for nearly one week, when the news of Cornwallis’ defeat was received & we were ordered to return home & done so, having been in service this latter term about one week – I was a Sergeant & they ended my services — Saml Price wrote my Declaration to whom I gave this same narrative of my service. That I now give. I agreed to give him $20 if he brought me my money In ______________of all which I hereto subscribe my name. Jany 10, 1835
His
James      X      Sims
Mark

The original Revolutionary War application papers were sent to W. G. Singleton, U.S. District Attorney, at Winchester, Virginia, on 13 March 1835. Upon an examination of his claim by the U.S. District Attorney, James Sims' name was dropped from the pension rolls, 21 March 1835, as it was shown that he did not render the alleged service.

Although James Sims' service during the Revolutionary War was not accepted as proof for a pension, the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) have accepted his "providing supplies" and approved him as a Revolutionary War patriot. How I would love to find a document showing he provided arms of his own making.

© 2015 Cathy Meder-Dempsey  

See Updated Article Here

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[1] William Griffee Brown, History of Nicholas County, West Virginia, Dietz Press, 1954, p.375

[2] Rev. Shirley Donnelly, "Nicholas County Had Fine Gunsmith, Too," Beckley Post Herald, 24 September 1965 p. 4.

[3] William H. Maginnis, "Guns Made by Pioneer on Gauley River," The Charleston Gazette, Sunday, 10 August 1947 p. 20.

[4] George R. Penick Jr., comp., The Penick Papers (a Sims family compilation) (compiled in 1978-1980).

[5] Lela Wolfe Prewitt, “James Sims of Culpeper, Fayette & Nicholas Cos., (W) Va.,” Ancestors & Descendants of Thomas Sims of Culpeper County, Virgina Edmund Butler of Virginia and Kentucky with Allied Families & Other Culpeper Data, Compiled and published by Lela Wolfe Prewitt, Fairfield, Iowa, 1972, p. 156.

[6] J.T. Peters and H.B. Carden, History of Fayette County, published by the Fayette County Historical Society, Inc., 1926, page 610.

[7] Edward Campbell, “Early Settlers of Nicholas County, Virginia,” Nicholas County, (West) Virginia Records of the Pioneers 1818-1860, p. 63

[8] Ibid., p. 54

[9] "Guns Made by Pioneer on Gauley River"

[10] Ibid.

[11] James Sims, Revolutionary War Pension Application papers, File No. S.19494

Illustrations by Jeff Prechtel

We are grateful and very pleased with this wonderful article  Cathy Meder-Dempsey shared with us.