Graham Family Powder Horn from Franklin County, Kentucky ©
Foreword: Some old powder horns are found that do not fit the pattern of area horns, raising the question, “Where did it really come from?” Often that question provides fresh educational opportunities for powder horn collectors. An unexpected horn showed up in central Kentucky recently. It has a well-turned, chip-carved butt plug that resembles the carved plugs on York County, Pennsylvania, screw-tip horns, but other details vary significantly. A family provenance with the horn places its origin in Franklin County, Kentucky. The horn is illustrated in Figure No.1.
Figure No.1: This horn was discovered in Franklin County, Kentucky, with a local family history. Its chip-carved plug resembles the fine plugs on York County, Pennsylvania, powder horns. The plug’s integral button is reduced in size from being chipped, and the carved spout has a significant crack, but the horn remains an intriguing relic from Kentucky. Outside curve 13-1/4,” inside curve 11-1/4,” basal diameter 2-1/2.” Author’s collection.
Provenance: The prior owner of the powder horn was a Kentuckian who stated the horn was first collected many years earlier at an old Graham family estate sale in Franklin County, Kentucky. The name "Graham" may not resonate with most collectors, but students of early Kentucky firearms recognize it as the name of an important early gunsmithing family that worked in Franklin County with descendants still there today. The senior William Graham, a Virginian, visited Kentucky in 1786 and in 1796 moved his family to Franklin County where he was one of the county’s earliest recorded gunsmiths. Three of his sons also became gunsmiths with son James M. Graham working in Franklin County for many years. Several rifles signed by William Graham are known with one having a Lexington School patchbox. The powder horn’s provenance did not record which early Graham first owned the horn, but it was apparently made in Franklin County by a competent craftsman.
Figure No.2: The Graham family horn has a chip-carved butt plug that resembles a York County [PA] plug. However, York horns used an iron staple in the plug nose instead of an integral button.
Figure No.3: Both the spout and strap retaining ring are nicely shaped and detailed, but they do not resemble York horn spouts and are more closely related to better Kentucky spouts.
The Horn: The maker must have seen a York County, Pennsylvania, horn with its fine, chip-carved butt plug. He made a frontier version of a chip-carved plug but retained Kentucky’s more bulbous plug shape with an integral nose button as shown in Figure No.2. The horn’s integral spout has a Kentucky-style raised ring for strap attachment as seen in Figure No.3. The spout is nicely detailed but differs from a York horn’s longer turned screw-tip spout. Remnants of brown dots appear in a narrow band around the base of the horn, perhaps added to obscure the five iron plug nails, as seen in Figure No.4. Like most early Kentucky horns, it is a true right-hand carry horn, not a “flipped” left-handed horn. Apparently, the maker wanted to create a fancy York-looking powder horn but was not overly concerned with smaller York details such as iron staples at plug & throat, a screw tip, and parallel incised lines near the butt plug.
Figure No.4: The Graham family’s horn has a small band of brown polychrome dots around its large end. The dots are faint but several are visible in this image. They may have been added to make the plug nails less conspicuous. Such a limited use of dots without additional polychroming is unexpected. More polychroming may have once existed, but the horn appears to have been cleaned years ago, perhaps removing traces of other decoration.
Brass Tacks: The horn was once decorated with five brass tacks across its face, aligned in a much flattened “M” pattern. Only small scars remain where the tacks had been, along with faint circular traces of the tack heads around the filled shank holes. Figure No.5 shows the horn’s front side with the five tiny tack scars zig-zagged across its face. A number of early Kentucky horns, including Tansel horns, were tacked for added decoration, but always in a circular pattern around the horn’s basal edge so the tacks could anchor into the butt plug that extended about a half inch inside the horn body.
Figure No.5: The Graham family horn has small scars [brown dots] running horizontally across its face in a shallow “M” pattern from five old brass tacks that decorated the horn at one time. Today the scars are filled and show slight traces of the tack heads around the scars; the faint circles are most prominent on the upper two scars. A small, irregular dark spot a couple inches behind the plug is a “bug bite,” not a tack scar.
Final Thought: The newly discovered horn was made by a skilled craftsman, and early Graham family members were highly skilled in working iron, wood, and brass. They were undoubtedly capable of making powder horns to accompany their new rifles when needed… or perhaps in this case a horn to accompany their personal rifle. The source of this York-influenced horn remains unknown, but the evidence points to a central Kentucky origin with early ownership for several generations in the Graham family of Franklin County… many of whom were gunsmiths and capable of making fine horns.
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Post Script: A related horn of unknown origin with a similar butt plug is shown in Figures No.4a and 4b. Several collectors have attributed the horn to Virginia or North Carolina. Those two states provided the largest share of early gunsmiths to Kentucky’s Bluegrass area where the study horn came from. Perhaps now there are two Franklin County, Kentucky, powder horns that were made to resemble the distinctive York County, Pennsylvania, horns for demanding Kentucky customers who wanted something special out in the Midwest.
Figure No.6a: This walnut butt plug strongly resembles the plug on the Graham family horn with its integral nose button, slightly raised platform around the button’s base, similar chip-carved pattern around the nose, and decorative incised lines, The plug lacks a lower ring of chip carving around the plug’s base, but the overall resemblance is strong. Courtesy LaMaster Arms.
Figure No.6b: A full-length view of the second horn with York-related butt plug shows its strap retaining ring, here an applied ring pinned to the spout. The spout probably had insufficient thickness for carving a raised ring on this horn. Note: The applied strap ring is a modern replacement and may not accurately depict the original ring. This horn is similar in size to the first horn, suggesting they were made in the late flint to early percussion era. Courtesy LaMaster Arms.