When sixteen-year-old Nathaniel Rowe first came to Emmitsburg in 1837, it was a small town with a lot of log homes.
“They were warmed with big open fire-places and wood stoves. We knew nothing about coal. We lived well and comfortably, however. Locks on the doors were unknown—we had no thieves. There were no butchers nor bakers. We eat pork more than any other kind of meat. Once in a while a farmer would kill a calf and divide it up amongst the neighbors, each taking his turn at butchering. We wore homespun clothing. Everybody had his own patch of flax,” Rowe said in a 1908 interview in the Emmitsburg Chronicle.
He didn’t come to Emmitsburg for the quality of life, though. He came to learn at the hands of a master.
John Armstrong was a gunsmith who had started crafting a variation of the Kentucky Long Rifle in town by 1808, which is when he purchased property in town to set up his business. He taught a generation of gunsmiths, so much so that he and his apprentices were known as the “Emmitsburg School of Gunsmiths.” The Rock Island Auction Company website says Armstrong “is generally considered to be one of the very best of the era. His pieces often draw comparisons to Swiss watches and Rolls Royce automobiles—classics that defy time.”
He is believed to have been born in Liberty Township on September 5, 1772, according to Albert Manley Sullivan in Emmitsburg: History and Society. Details are scant on where he learned his trade, but it is believed that he was apprenticed to George Schroyer in Hanover. Sullivan said that the similar features in both Schroyer’s and Armstrong’s rifles lead to this conclusion.
Although most of Armstrong’s rifles are from the 1800s, a few have been dated to the 1700s, which means that he arrived in Emmitsburg probably around 1793.
“The point is that John developed a style early in his career, in the late 18th century, that pleased him and pleased his customers; he did not change that basic design with the passage of time,” Sullivan wrote.
Armstrong was a perfectionist who crafted all of the parts for his rifles, even though it took more time.
“Most gunsmiths of that period bought their locks from lock manufacturers. They were cheaper and increased production. This saved the gunsmith money in two ways,” Sullivan wrote.
The result of making them himself was worth it. Sullivan described the locks as “slender, graceful and beautifully proportioned. They blend perfectly into the architectural balance of the gun.”
Like any artist, Armstrong signed his locks. An Armstrong rifle without a signed lock is not worth nearly as much. Rowe said that he and Armstrong bought the barrels. However, they also made some.
“The first barrels were made by welding two bars of iron around a solid core. Later, old horseshoe nails were made into gun barrels. Some of the barrels we bought in Lancaster, Pa., and some were made around here. We bored out the barrels ourselves testing the accuracy of the work by squinting through the bore at a bright light; any inequality would cast a shadow on the opposite side of the barrel,” he told the Chronicle.
Rowe was Armstrong’s last apprentice. Armstrong is known to have been working up to at least 1841. At that time, he would have been sixty-three years old.
Armstrong and his wife had seven children: William, Robert, Samuel, James, Ann, Elizabeth, and Jane. Robert and Samuel tried to follow in their father’s footsteps but didn’t have the talent that he did. Armstrong’s legacy was passed on through his apprentices like Rowe and George Piper.
Sullivan estimated that based on the time it took Armstrong to make a rifle that he probably made around four hundred in his career. Less than thirty are known to exist.
The rifle is a John Armstrong rifle. Armstrong was a noted Emmitsburg gunmith in the early 1800s, and his rifles are sought-after collector’s items.
