A Kentucky Treasure Comes Home From Canada ©
Foreword: New discoveries fuel the interests of American longrifle collectors. Many of today’s fine rifles have been exhibited at shows, become well-known to collectors, and don’t always cause the excitement they once did. It takes new discoveries to keep collectors motivated in their collecting activities. When a significant new rifle is found, it immediately garners the attention of collectors. If the rifle carries a provenance going back to its original owner, the interest is even greater, and when the provenance includes stories about events in the rifle’s life, well… it doesn’t get much better. Such is the story of the “L. Harmon” rifle, an important American longrifle “lost” up in Canada for many years. For collectors of early Kentucky firearms, the discovery of the Harmon rifle in 2019 was a significant event.
The Harmon Rifle: The history of Kentucky’s early gunmaking is well-documented in Kentucky Gunmakers 1775-1900 published back in 2012. The work identified seven schools of gunmaking in Kentucky, illustrated about 100 different rifles, and provided biographies on 1,100 muzzle loading gunsmiths who worked in the state. The book pulled out many “fresh” Kentucky guns that have expanded our current knowledge of Kentucky’s early gunmaking. The “L. Harmon” rifle was one of the most important discoveries; in addition to being an exceptional rifle, it helped define the new Clark County School of gunmaking in Kentucky. The Harmon rifle looked like a Lexington School rifle in stock architecture, molding lines, and most mountings, but its patchbox was very different from the iconic Lexington cast brass, two-piece patchbox. Instead, the Harmon rifle’s box was made in the more traditional four-piece sheet brass style [lid, finial, and two side leaves] with exposed hinge. In addition, the engraved pattern on its toe plate was foreign to Kentucky gunmaking but similar to work by the Sheets gunmakers of Virginia. The Harmon rifle had been “lost” in Canada for the better part of a century, but an inquiry by its owner led to the rifle’s discovery and eventual return to the United States. The rifle was accompanied by its original ball mold and a written provenance going back to the gun’s original owner in Montgomery County, Kentucky.
Figure 1: The slender “L. Harmon” rifle returned to the USA from Canada in 2019. It was stocked like a Lexington School rifle, but the patchbox was markedly different. The Harmon rifle helped define the new Clark County School, a sub-set of the Lexington School made in small areas of Clark, Montgomery, and Bourbon counties.
Provenance: The “L. Harmon” rifle’s first owner was Richard D. Greene (1791-1857), a pioneer physician of western Montgomery County, Kentucky. Richard served in the War of 1812 from September 1, 1812, to October 1, 1812, as a private in Capt. William Farrow’s Company, 3rd Regiment Mounted Riflemen, under the command of Col. Richard M. Johnson. He just turned twenty-one in 1812, had studied medicine for several years, and undoubtedly needed a new rifle when he entered military service with the 3rd Regiment’s “Mounted Riflemen.” Greene later received bounty land for his service and after the war began accumulating land in Montgomery County, eventually owning 1,200 acres abutting the Clark County line when he died on November 13, 1857. He was an early frontier doctor in Montgomery County and a successful farmer of considerable wealth.
Two of Richard Greene’s sons, Richard Jr. born in 1830 and Francis born in 1832, became physicians. During the Civil War, one son was attending wounded Confederate soldiers in Kentucky when a critical shortage of morphine occurred. He took action in a manner described in the Harmon rifle’s provenance:
“A family kinsman carried it [the Harmon rifle] in the War of 1812 and still another in the Civil War through the Yankee lines. This man who was a surgeon and needed medical supplies which were contraband disguised himself as a county hick out squirrel hunting. Under a few caps in the secret chamber [patchbox?] he had hidden gold dollars to buy morphine in Cincinnati for the Southern wounded soldiers. Engraved name on silver plate inlaid in the barrell [sic] was name of original gun maker. Star on butt was hallmark of Kentucky birthright. “
Figure 2: The patchbox on the “L. Harmon” rifle looks like a patchbox by the Sheets gunsmiths of Virginia, yet it retains the simple Lexington School’s engraved lid borders with the Lexington “arch” above the hinge end. Construction is the “standard” four-piece sheet brass style rather than the heavier cast brass patchbox of the Lexington rifle.
Figure 3: The Harmon rifle’s butt plate has a typical Lexington raised ridge on top return, “horned” side plate, and cheek inlay with center screw attachment. The inlay is round rather than the usual Lexington oval, yet it retains the Lexington border composed of a serpentine line filled in with tiny dashes.
Significance: The “L. Harmon” rifle is attributed to Leonard Harmon of Clark County, Kentucky. The rifle is attributed because no reference to Harmon working as a gunsmith has been found, despite other Harmon family members working as gunsmiths in both Kentucky and Tennessee. Harmon’s name and first initial match the signed barrel, and he was in Clark County at the right time, was the right age, with no other viable candidates. The significance of the Harmon rifle is due to its impact on the new Clark County School of gunmaking. The school is identified by its patchboxes and toe plates that deviate strongly from the Lexington School patterns and relate more closely to work by the Sheets gunsmiths of Virginia. To-date about a dozen Clark County rifles have been identified with only one prior rifle, the John Renick rifle, being signed. The appearance of the Harmon rifle has allowed the new school to be better defined and located. The Clark County School stretched over limited parts of Clark, Bourbon, and Montgomery Counties of Kentucky, all within the larger Lexington School’s area, yet it made a distinctive rifle that borrowed many details from the Lexington School but had major differences in its patchbox and toe plate.
Additional Information: The new book, Kentucky Gunmakers 1775-1900 - Epilogue, describes the new Clark County School in greater detail and illustrates the key rifles that helped define the new school and its gunmakers. A second new school, the Cumberland School, is also described and illustrated in the Epilogue volume with the intriguing “William Kelsay” rifle used to illustrate the school’s major details. In addition, Epilogue illustrates major rifles from every known school of Kentucky gunmaking in multiple large color images, including additional detailed images of the Harmon rifle. Epilogue can be purchased at www.kentuckygunmakers.com or by e-mailing the author at sgallien@comcast.net.
Contact Information: If you know of another “L. Harmon” rifle [or similar Clark County School rifle], or have information on the gunsmith himself, the author would appreciate hearing from you. If you have questions about the Harmon rifle discussed here, the author would enjoy discussing it with you. He is available at sgallien@comcast.net.