This .36 caliber black powder percussion rifle was manufactured somewhere around 1850. It has a 36-inch, octagonal barrel, dual triggers, brass patch box, and is 51.5 inches overall. On the top of the barrel is stamped “J. M. Myers” while the lock is marked “H. Elwell”.
Jacob Myers, the man to whom this rifle is attributed, was a gunsmith living in Sugar Creek Township, Wayne County, Ohio where he shows up in the 1850 Census. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1807 and moved into Ohio after 1842.
Many gunsmiths bought premade components like the lock – the rifle’s firing mechanism – from other artisans, which they would then assemble with wooden stocks carved in their own shops to produce finished firearms. Henry Elwell, a commercial maker of gun locks who lived in Seneca County, Ohio, around 1840 is likely the source for this rifle’s lock.
We cannot be 100 percent certain that this rifle was made by Wayne County’s Jacob Myers, although the collector from whom we obtained it said it was, and the style and workmanship look the same as two other rifles attributed to him. However, there was also a Jacob Myers listed as a gunsmith in Stark County, Ohio.
