Going back to the Parker example and “what I think “vs what I know. 

Doubt if Parker exhibition shooters transferred shotguns to buyers at events. They only built to order & inventory on hand not likely.

There are surviving records from known top Parker shooters like Dubray that show many guns ordered, more than individual would likely buy. Same situation with well known gun dealers multiple orders without individuals names. Other records have the individuals name and not repeated. They all detail guns specifics,  gage, stock dimensions # of pellets delivered at distance etc.

If we use that example on rifles not likely a small maker  would have inventory at events.  I think Waterman has it right. 

Boats

waterman wrote on Apr 25^th, 2024 at 4:36am:


Yes, he was using a repeater and my speculation is he was using one chambered in .45-70.  I remain interested in the fact that he was traveling the country in 1884, demonstrating the rifles and winning matches.  The Bullard is a very fine rifle.  I don't know if I can post a link here, but here is Mark Douglas from The Cinnabar Ranch, describing and demonstrating a Bullard repeater.  He does a great job of it (and he has a ton of vintage rifle/vintage gunsmithing videos that are highly enjoyable to watch):   

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Continuing my Farrow tale:

Abbie’s parents may not have been thrilled by a quickie private wedding, but WMF and Abbie made their marriage a success.  They had 3 children; their first child was a girl they named Emily. Their 2nd child was another girl, Louisa, born 9 months to the day after her parents’ second stay at the Creedmoor Range hotel, and then a boy.  Music was a central part of their lives together and was a major factor in deciding where each of Farrow’s future workshops would be located.

All his adult life, WMF was deathly afraid of tuberculosis, not an unreasonable fear in the 19th Century.  The cause and cure were then unknown, but most of those contracting “consumption” died.  TB was thought to be associated with big cities and “bad air”.  Newport had clean air and its main industry was catering to the wealthy.  All in all, a good place to avoid TB and raise kids.  Abbie was content, as were her parents and Jerusha.  There were 2 little girls to raise.
  
But Farrow was on the go.  The WMF I’ve studied probably worked out a profitable deal with the sole wholesalers of Ballards, the firm of Shoverling & Daly of New York City.  Farrow began to sell J.M. Marlin-Ballard Long-Range rifles in mid-1877, both on his own and also, via his brother Tom, at their sporting goods store in Newport.  Probably he began shooting them soon afterward.  The Long-Range No. 7 Ballards were better target rifles than either the Sharps or the Remington products, even if the early Ballards had Sharps barrels. 
 
One report I read (can’t remember where) told me he traveled to California in December 1877.  That would be out of character for WMF.  His actions, time after time, demonstrated that his family was his #1 priority.  My opinion is that he was home in Newport for the holidays, but in early 1878, less than 2 years after Custer went down at the Little Big Horn, Farrow took a winter business trip to San Francisco, riding in a coal-burning passenger train across the plains and through the snowy Sierras.  

Because it was winter, it seems unlikely that Farrow made many stops to demonstrate and sell Ballards.  A business trip?  What business?  Perhaps WMF personal business; prize money and side bets from the West Coast winter and spring matches.

Just thinking about that trip boggles my mind.  WMF was a planner, a guy who was always thinking several steps ahead, and a guy who concentrated on the details.  I think he was a man who had to be in control of every situation, a micromanager, yet he gets on a train in the middle of winter and sets out for Frisco. 

Everything on that trip was totally beyond his control, full of risk. WMF was touring for the money, but only if the odds were in his favor.  This winter trip is very much out of character.  The Indians were not all pacified, living on reservations with good paying jobs at the casino.  The buffalo may have been hunkered down for the winter, but they had not all been turned into robes and leather belting to drive machines in America’s factories.  Did the precursors to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid work in the winter?   

I grew up in a RR town on the prairie.  As a kid, I saw old steam engines that had been converted to snow blowers.  Dad’s home movies show rail traffic stopped by drifting snow until the snow blowers showed up.  Did they have snow blowers in 1878?   

I imagine Farrow dressed warmly, wrapped in a buffalo robes, and dreading the next trip to the unheated rolling restroom.  Did the trains run 24/7 or did they stop at night, the passengers staying in RR-operated hotels?  How long was the trip?  My guess is 8 to 10 days, changing trains several times. 
 
In April, 1878, in Alameda, California, WMF won first place in a San Francisco Turnverein Schuetzen Match; 60 shots offhand at 200 yards, German ring target. Score was 1268 out of 1500 points.  He reportedly won enough in side bets in the San Francisco Bay area winter and spring matches to support his family in reasonable style for two years.  How much was that?

After the Alameda match, he went east, probably giving demonstrations, selling Ballards, and entering matches.  In June, 1878, he won a 600-shot offhand match at the Union Hill range in Morris, New Jersey.  600 shots offhand?  The matches lasted all day, but how many of us could do that?  WMF wasn’t a big strong guy.  He is described as standing 5 foot. 9 inches and weighing about 140 lbs.   

I’ve seen some articles saying the family lived in New York City in 1879 because WMF worked for Shoverling & Daly.  I’ve not yet found any first hand evidence.  Early in 1880, WMF and Abbie decided they had been apart far too much.  They bought a house at 3 Howard Place in Jersey City, NJ, so that WMF could commute to S & D.

Waterman, very nicely done, please keep it coming

On the topic of Bullard single-shots, here is, I believe, the rarest one ever made.  I talked to Perry about this rifle a couple decades ago:

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Edit:  note the patent date of 1881 on this single-shot rifle.

waterman wrote on Apr 26^th, 2024 at 2:13pm:


All very interesting.  Can't wait to read more!

With his contacts among America’s wealthiest people in Newport, and with Shoverling & Daly’s contacts in NYC, Farrow knew enough to away from the NRA’s 1877 Creedmoor Matches because the whole show was headed for bankruptcy.  Instead, he toured Pennsylvania and the upper Midwest that summer & fall.  What sort of arrangements would WMF and S&D have made?  Take a bunch of Ballards, insist on hard currency in payment, and then have carry around hundreds of pounds of gold and silver coins?  Or demonstrate a few Ballards, take small deposits against future delivery, and do all the business by mail or telegram?
But what about WMF’s personal winnings?  Were the socks in his suitcase full of double eagles?  Did he sleep with a Colt .44 under his pillow?