By Jeff Sperry
Samuel Todd Sherwood
Doddridge County West Virginia Gunsmith
Samuel Todd Sherwood, known as Todd Sherwood in the local community, was born on July 7, 1828 in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Samuel is the son of Joseph and Mary Sherwood. The Sherwood family moved to West Union in Doddridge County, West Virginia in 1838 when Samuel was 10 years old. Samuel Todd Sherwood married Drusilla Bland on Nov. 17, 1853 and had they four children named Mary, Sarah, Joseph Wayne and Lucy Ellen. Samuel and Drusilla purchased land on the banks of Meathouse Fork of Middle Island Creek near the community of Blandville in New Milton District of Doddridge County. Samuel T. Sherwood first shows up as a Gunsmith in the 1860 US Census.
A Todd Sherwood was enumerated in the 1850 US Census living with the family of John and Mahala Engle in West Union, WV. John is the oldest son of Ezra Engle and older brother of James E. Engle, both gunsmiths from neighboring Tyler County. We are still trying to determine where Samuel Todd Sherwood worked as an apprentice. His rifles appear to be closely related to the Patterson Rifles from Fairmont, WV but we have not been able to make a positive connection.
Click Pictures for Larger Image.
Postcard picture of Samuel Todd Sherwood’s Gun Shop and Mrs. Drusilla Sherwood near Blandville, Doddridge County, West Virginia about 1909.
Sherwood marked his rifles S.T.S in block letters but there are a few rifles which are known to have been marked in script letters S.T.S
Most Sherwood guns are quite plain, however, he also built some very fancy rifles later in his life with carved brass cap boxes and silver inlays.
The rifle shown below is a beautiful example of Sherwood’s work with a carved brass cap box, butt plate and trigger guard along with the coin silver inlays including a nice acorn inlay and the flowers on the cheek piece. The rifle has a 39 ½ inch barrel, 32 caliber and is 7/8 inch across the flats.
Both Sides Full Length
Three Quarter Left side with silver acorn and flower inlays
Detail of cheek piece with coin silver flower inlay
Three Quarter right Side showing engraved cap box and silver acorn inlay
Detail of engraved cap box
The next Sherwood rifle is a fine target rifle with a more elaborate carved brass patch box and the stock is made of walnut. The barrel is 38 inches long and 1 1/16 across the flats and is .52 caliber.
Full length both sides
Three Quarter right Side
Detail of Engraved Patch Box
Detail of Lock
Detail on end of target barrel
The next Sherwood is a beautiful curly figured Walnut full stock rifle. in 38 caliber featuring a 44-inch tapered barrel starting at 1 inch at the breech and being ¾ inch across the flats at the muzzle. This rifle is unique having the carved cap box, trigger guard, butt plate, carved wear plate along with the ribs, tubes, and end cap all being made of German silver. We have found two order forms from Greer and Laing where Sherwood ordered German Silver gun mounts and this is one of the rifles Sherwood built with the German Silver. This unique rifle also includes 8 coin silver inlays
Both Sides Full Length
Three Quarter Right Side
Detail of Engraved German Silver Cap Box
Three Quarter Left Side
Detail of left Side Coin Silver Hunter’s Star inlay
Detail of German Silver Wear Plate
The next Sherwood rifle is a beautiful .38 Caliber full stock with a 40 inch barrel 7/8 across the flats. It has an engraved brass cap box along with a brass butt plate and trigger guard. This rifle has 8 coin silver inlays including a poplar leaf inlay on the cheek piece.
Full Length Both Sides
Three Quarter Right Side
Detail of Engraved Brass Cap Box
Three Quarter Left Side
Detail of Cheek Piece with Coin Silver Poplar Leaf Inlay
The last Sherwood rifle I have included to show you is the most common rifle Todd Sherwood built. It has a fine curly maple stock with a 40 inch .36 caliber barrel 7/8 across the flats. It has a nice brass butt plate and trigger guard. These rifles were mostly plain but very functional for the settlers of Western West Virginia.
Full Length Both Sides
Three Quarter Right Side
We have found that Todd Sherwood was most active making rifles from the late 1860’s until his death in 1900 with most of the activity in the 1870’s and 1880’s. From the records we have recently obtained, we have original invoices from “GREER & LAING” in Wheeling, West Virginia dating from May 29, 1866 until February 6, 1900 where Todd Sherwood ordered 249 gun barrels, along with steady orders for double triggers, ribs, ramrod pipes, bullet molds, gun locks, gun nipples, musket nipples, sheet brass, solder, bar lead, bastard files, flat files, sand paper, caps, powder, etc.
Shown below are a few examples of S. T. Sherwood’s orders for gun parts.
Order placed on December 22, 1869.
Order dated February 10, 1881
Order placed Nov. 17, 1891
Below is part of a letter from Samuel Sherwood’s nephew, W. C. Sherwood in California ordering a rifle and describing how he would like it to be built.
Dear Uncle, I seat myself to drop you a few lines in answer to your letter which I received on the 4th As you asked several questions I will begin to answer. You have your choice mountains or prairie the mountains are timbered with pine and oak. Lots of deer I have been feasting on them. I have killed 24 since I have been here and haven’t hunted any neither. With a good many Bear the Grizzly and Brown Bear, the Squirrel, the Grouse, of fish there is any amount. The Salmon and Trout is the principal kind. There is dead loads of them. The climate there is no better. I like the country far and a head of West Va. If you start to any of the Western country it won’t cost you but a little more to come to California and see for yourself. You know we come here in the dead of winter and I thought I would freeze us in the train cars and when we got here the apple trees were in blossom and everything else. It scarcely ever snows in the valley but it snows a heap on the big mountains. There is snow on the peaks now. As a location for your trade I don’t think there is any better if there was timber for stalks. There is maple but I don’t think it is curly and no walnut or sugar tree. My latitude is 200 miles North of San Francisco and as a farming country I don’t think it can be beat - especially for wheat it is celebrated. Land sells for about $20 per acre in this valley at the present time. I am at work in the carpenter trade such as building barns and am getting $30per month. I will be at home in 2 years if nothing happens. So I will close for the present. Anything you want to know about this country. Let me know and you will get the truth about it. Write soon and give me the news.
I want you to make me a gun. About a $20 gun with a barrel about 3 feet and 2 or 4 or 6 inches. The kind of stalk you can suit yourself to run about 90 balls to the pound. Let me know in your letters when it will be ready. Guns sell here for $40 and $50 dollars.
This is the letter is from W.C Sherwood instructing Samuel. T. Sherwood where to send the new rifle.
Dear Uncle, I received your letter of Aug. 30th and am sorry to say that I did not receive your other letter. I had wrote another letter to you but had not mailed it. Send the gun C.O.D. on this account. I am about 30 miles from the express office in the mountains and don’t want to come in til I am dome which will take about two weeks then I will be in to stay. I will send you a $20 piece in gold which is very scarce with you I guess.
Address the gun to: Canelo
Mendocino Co., California
Here is the letter from W. C. Sherwood in the spring of 1879 telling Samuel T. Sherwood what he had recently shot and how pleased he was with the new rifle.
I received your letter written March 23rd also one a few days after Christmas of which I answered and told you large hunting tales. I have killed about 40 deer with my new gun. It can’t be beat in America if I have anything of a fair chance I can drop them every time. I am going in the morning out in the mountains about 20 miles from the Valley to build a home for a man. It will take most all summer. I expect to tumble a few more old bucks while up their. My intention is to come home this fall. I aint sure that I will. It will only be 8 years this fall. I aint very home sick yet. For I am well contented here as I could be any place. I like the climate besides. I can have more fun huntin than any place else this side of the Atlantic and make just as much at work. It has been very wet here this winter but the rain is over til November. We don’t fear rain in harvest. Harvest begins next week wheat crop is as nice as could be barley oats. There is a great stir about Texas and California. A great many has gone from here their. If I come home this fall I shall go through Texas and look at the country a little. There was a man went their last spring. He came back on a visit this winter. He says it is so far ahead of California that he would not live here a lot. He went back to Texas. I will write again and maybe the next time I will have a little more time. This letter has been delayed. Some where I never sent it til today. It has been wrote nearly two months. No more at present.
It appears likely that Samuel T. Sherwood was an active gunsmith until his death in 1900. His estate was inventoried on December 26, 1900 and recorded in the Doddridge County WV Courthouse in Fiduciary Book 6 at Page 47. Below is a partial list of Sherwood’s gun shop tools and inventory at his death.
Old rifle gun marked No. 1 $3.00
Old rifle gun marked No. 2 $.25
Old rifle gun marked No. 3 $3.50
New smooth bore gun marked No. 4 $4.00
Rifle gun marked No. 5 $3.00
Flintlock Daniel Boone gun marked No. 6 $5.00
Shot pouch, knife and flask $.50
The whole set gunsmith tools $50.00
100 or more sheets sand paper $.30
1 keg rifle powder about 8 lbs $1.50
5 gun barrels $0.50
1 shot gun and case $1.00
1 long barreled shot gun $1.00
1 sack powder $0.25
1 house pistol gun $0.75
21 boxes musket caps $0.75
20 boxes rifle gun caps $0.60
Lot of powder horns and ammunition $1.00
1 pair buck deer horns $0.25
1 house dressed deer skin $0.50
4 ground hog skins – leather $0.40
Total appraised value : $493.30
A public sale of Samuel Sherwood’s estate took place on January 10, 1901 and is recorded in the Doddridge County WV Courthouse in Fiduciary Book 6 at Page 66. Listed below are a few items of interest along with the sale price.
Purchaser Item Price
Ralph Givins one gun $1.00
W. C. Parks gun fixtures $0.20
M. Clark gun powder $0.25
A. Sutton 896 ft lumber $1.46
G. W. McNeamer one gun barrel $1.00
B. Langfrit one sack powder $0.85
Lace Hurst gun fixtures $0.50
E. Bee one gun $3.50
B. Langfrit one gun barrel $1.85
G. W. McNeamer one gun barrel $2.80
A.T. Randolph one gun $1.50
A. Sutton 200 ft lumber $3.70
Frank Douglass one bunch files $2.30
Lute Maxwell gun powder $0.50
A Sutton ground hog skins $0.40
Lute Maxwell one buck skin $1.40
Hugh Cahill one gun $15.00
Frank Pearl one revolver $0.95
James Bacus one shot gun $1.05
T. F. Jones Blacksmith tools $3.75
R. A. Ball one gun $14.30
Stuff sold in shop, gun stocks, etc. $5.00
Total of the Estate Sale: $310.87
Samuel Todd Sherwood died on December 14, 1900 and is buried at the Cowan Cemetery near the banks of Meathouse Fork of Middle Island Creek about 6 miles South of the Town of West Union, WV
“S. T. Sherwood was for more than a quarter of a century one of the best pioneers in this section of West Virginia. Having established a reputation as a gunsmith second to none in the entire state, the marvelous skill and accuracy of his workmanship were known to our fathers over a wide area of the Western foothills” As written in the Obitutary of Drusilla Sherwood
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We appreciate Jeff Sperry & Ed Rayl for sharing this research and excellent pictures with us. Hope you enjoyed, Mark
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