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Very Hot Topic (More than 25 Replies) Harry Pope (Read 22687 times)
bohemianway
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Re: Harry Pope
Reply #15 - Feb 11th, 2016 at 9:52am
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"To my Friends and Patrons:
   On May 1st, 1901, I sold all my tools and all special machinery to the J. STEVENS ARMS & TOOL CO., of CHICOPEEE FALLS, MASS.  The business will be conducted by them, but I am to remain in full charge of all work. The new barrel will now be called the Stevens-Pope.  All inquiries in regard to same should be addressed to the above named Company.                Yours truly,  H. M. Pope."


Charles,
(for HizNibz)
  
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40_Rod
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Re: Harry Pope
Reply #16 - Feb 11th, 2016 at 11:28am
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Pope left Stevens in 1906. Ray Smith States that Pope rifled all the barrels at Stevens up to about 1200. Pope stated that he often had to rework barrels that were provided him. This to me indicates that they were bored and reamed by the shop and rifled by Pope. Pope famously lost everything in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. There is an open question of production at San Francisco there may have been a barrel or two made there. 
  Pope did not make barrels again until 1908 when a group of “angles” set him up in Jersey City. In Jersey City Pope made all the barrels. Arthur Elliott may have worked on some but he said that he did all the other work around the shop and the master worked on the barrels.
Stevens continued to make Pope-Stevens barrels under Fred Ross. When Pope heard that they were still making barrels under his name He took ads stating that only he was making Pope barrels and he was located at 18 Morris Street, Jersey City. After that Stevens would provide Ross rifling this had the Pope profile but in constant twist and, I believe, right hand
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Re: Harry Pope
Reply #17 - Feb 11th, 2016 at 11:44am
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There is an open question of production at San Francisco there may have been a barrel or two made there. 

“In 1901 the Stevens Arms Company bought me out and from the first of May of that year I made the rifles that bear the name ‘Stevens-Pope.’ I made all of those that are numbered under about 1250.” On the last day of December, 1905 Pope left Stevens. Barrel-making held his interest and hope of a future, and at 45, after a seventeen-year stay, he left Hartford and went to San Francisco. For years the West had been active in shooting. Schoyen, Schalk and Zischang barrels found a ready market there. To Harry the move offered a chance of developing his own business unhampered by the necessity of working for someone else.

His new plant was the second story of a frame building on the corner of Fourth and Jesse Streets. Harry had invested every cent he had in equipment, and the future held bright hopes. For the time being he boarded at the Linda Vista, a hotel about half a mile from the business. The proprietor furnished him with an alcove bedroom, sitting room and bath for the large sum of thirty dollars a month.

On April 17, 1906, at three o’clock in the afternoon, Harry officially started work in the new place. After a few hours he went back to his rooms feeling confident of success at his new location. In anticipation of a full day’s work ahead he went to bed early. Harry was a light sleeper. Perhaps the excitement of getting his own business under way added nervousness to sleeplessness—he happened to be lying awake at 5:15 that morning. Suddenly with an unearthly roar from outside, the bed began to jump up and down. Dazed, he spread-eagled across it. Hung on with all fours. The room shook, chairs toppled, pieces on the mantle and table spilled. Outside, a whole city was in upheaval. Screams and crashes punctuated a steady roar. An earthquake had struck San Francisco!

The early morning catastrophe found the city defenseless. When the first shocks had subsided, Pope rushed to the window. Directly opposite the hotel a brick wall had fallen on four frame buildings. Injured were shrieking and silent dead were grim evidence of the horror that had struck the city. In a few terror-crowded hours all of San Francisco became a picture of utter destruction. A fire three miles across with flames a quarter mile high raged with the fury of an inferno, highlighting the fear-stricken faces of those fortunate enough to escap
  
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40_Rod
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Re: Harry Pope
Reply #18 - Feb 11th, 2016 at 3:51pm
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I also have read that account. However there are others that belive that Pope worked in the shop for a few weeks before the earthquake. 

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Ballard6
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Re: Harry Pope
Reply #19 - Feb 20th, 2016 at 7:58pm
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It's just too bad that we do not have more documentation from Pope himself since many of his records and the Stevens records were destroyed. The Greatbatch/Rowe /Quinlan Pope volumes have a wealth of info.  Many years of research by them.  Hope the Stevens/Pope books will be published soon.
  
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Re: Harry Pope
Reply #20 - Feb 20th, 2016 at 8:47pm
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Ballard6 wrote on Feb 20th, 2016 at 7:58pm:
  Hope the Stevens/Pope books will be published soon.


Hope that I can afford one if/when they come out.
  

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terry buffum
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Re: Harry Pope
Reply #21 - Feb 20th, 2016 at 11:46pm
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I've been told that at least two artifacts from SF exist:  a mold marked Pope, S.F. and a barrel with a tag on it saying "recovered from the H M Pope workshop the day after the earthquake".

I've never seen either one.
  

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Re: Harry Pope
Reply #22 - Feb 21st, 2016 at 8:41am
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Pope stated in many different letters that he personally made every barrel. He also complained about the workmanship of what he was delivered and how he had to spend many hours making the barrels right. I believe that the factory bored and reamed the barrels then the barrels were taken to Pope. Pope inspected the blanks and accepted what he could use and re reaming what he found to be rough work. Then Pope rifled each barrel himself.
As far as Pope taking unfinished barrels to Stevens, I don’t think so. Pope would have finished the barrels he had orders for at Hartford on the machines he had set up to his satisfaction. There is a lot more involved to getting a precision machine to run right that just setting it down and plugging it in. I don’t believe that Pope would split the set ups between two shops.

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Re: Harry Pope
Reply #23 - Feb 21st, 2016 at 1:52pm
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   After the earthquake, Harry Pope left Frisco to open a shop in Los Angeles for about nine months, which failed. He then moved back east and was employed by John W. Sidle, the famous telescope maker, for about a year until Sidle closed his shop. He the accumulated some capital & moved into his Jersey City shop in the old Colgate building, staying there for almost four decades. It is said  Mr. Colgate took a liking to him, allowing him the use of his room in the building rent free for as long as he lived.
  
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Ballard6
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Re: Harry Pope
Reply #24 - Feb 22nd, 2016 at 7:53am
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FYI    I understand they are working on final draft for the next Pope books which will be contain 429 entries , more than first books. I'm eagerly awaiting publication.
  
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marlinguy
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Re: Harry Pope
Reply #25 - Feb 23rd, 2016 at 10:43pm
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Ballard6 wrote on Feb 22nd, 2016 at 7:53am:
FYI    I understand they are working on final draft for the next Pope books which will be contain 429 entries , more than first books. I'm eagerly awaiting publication.


By "entries" are you referring to numbers and info on particular Pope barreled guns, or Pope barrels?
  

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Ballard6
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Re: Harry Pope
Reply #26 - Feb 24th, 2016 at 8:25pm
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Marlinguy   That's the number of Pope barrels.
  
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slumlord44
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Re: Harry Pope
Reply #27 - Feb 24th, 2016 at 11:09pm
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Would the info on my Pope-Stevens barreled .22 Trainer be of interest to those writing this book?
  
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terry buffum
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Re: Harry Pope
Reply #28 - Feb 26th, 2016 at 12:27am
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"Slumlord", Tom Rowe wants Stevens Pope numbers as well as Jersey City.  Even though the Hartford book is out, I'd bet he still collects those numbers, too.
  

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Re: Harry Pope
Reply #29 - Feb 26th, 2016 at 1:11am
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terry buffum wrote on Feb 26th, 2016 at 12:27am:
"Slumlord", Tom Rowe wants Stevens Pope numbers as well as Jersey City.  Even though the Hartford book is out, I'd bet he still collects those numbers, too.

Have current contact info?  I have given it to someone or maybe a couple but I don't remember who and that was years ago.
  

"some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence
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