I was not really looking for my latest S&W; it was kind of like a stray that found its way to me. A month or so ago I was on GB, right after finding my last S&W, a 4” Transitional Heavy Duty. I was just price checking 2nd Model .44 Hand Ejectors, as usual not many and the few that were there were high condition, top end guns, or .455 British. There was one, a rather ratty ,flaking nickel, 6 ½”  with what looked like real ivory grips and lanyard ring that looked interesting. Serial # 24880, placing it in 1926. The seller, a LGS with a low number(approx. 150) positive rating from the upper middle of Michigan, had posted good pictures and had what I felt was an accurate description. It even included a period looking holster. On the inside of each grip was a name and city, Capt. J E Boyd Johnson City Texas. The seller stated that the gun had a tight lock up and from the pictures looked all there and correct, just very finish challenged. The auction was no reserve, starting bid was $500 and ended on a Friday morning, three days from when I first saw the auction. There were no bidders.

I did a quick search of the name and came up with Captain James Erroll Boyd, a Canadian aviation pioneer – the Canadian Lindbergh. He was the first Canadian to fly across the Atlantic, the first pilot to fly across the Atlantic in the winter, WWI Royal Navy pilot, early night fighter pilot and Zeppelin hunter. In 1927 -28 he was a pilot for Mexicana Airlines. He would fly payroll to remote mining and oil camps. They would drop leather bags full of silver pesos out of the aircraft to the camps and oil field offices below, could he have had this .44 to protect the payrolls from the banditos of the day?

I said to myself that if no one had bid on this by the morning of the auction close, I would place a bid. Friday came around and there were no bidders and hour out of end of the auction, I placed the bid and waited, there were no other bidders and I won for $500. With CC fees, shipping and transfer I am into it for about $580, at worst I figured that I would have another 2nd Model shooter, with a little Texas provenance, brought back to Texas.

I picked up the .44 the following Tuesday and found that it also came with a period gun belt as well as the holster, although I would describe the belts condition as “relic”  













I now have a brace of Smith & Wesson 2nd Model Hand Ejectors in .44 Special, one blue and one funky nickel, that is pretty cool. I suppose that I could get El Paso Saddlery to make me another 6 ½” 1917 holster and I could become two gun Glashaus, or not.




There is a star after the serial number on the butt and a barrel mark that looks like an R in a circle. There are no numbers under the grips that would signify a return date to the factory. There is no N on the frame for nickel finish. I sent off for a factory letter with the information that I had before actually receiving the pistol. I got the letter back this past weekend and as usual, the most important piece of information that it contained was which hardware store it was shipped to and the date. It was shipped on December 13, 1926 with a 6 ½” barrel, checkered non medallion walnut grips, nickel finish to Frank Budge Co, Miami Florida. No mention of a return to the factory. Now what?








Captain Boyd had lived in New York but had travelled extensively to further his aviation career.
The man that he went to work for at Mexicana Airlines in 1927, was George Rihl, (later senior vice president of Pan American). Mexicana had the mail contract between Mexico City and Tampico and also Matamoros. In 1927 Rihl also had flown mail from Miami to Havana, Cuba.
Could this be the possible Miami connection? Maybe Rihl bought it and then gave it to Boyd?
Boyd did this Mexican gig for about two years before his most famous flight across the Atlantic.

In the mid 30’s he was in Miami and the aviation editor of a paper in Florida and also ran a few hotels.

He was an early snow bird and spent the winters in Florida after WWII.

Captain Boyd passed away in 1960, aged 69. His signature on the grips looks a lot like this signed card.





Could this 2nd Model have been in the possession of one of Boyd’s four daughters’ or even his grandchildren as a family heirloom until their passing and then no one in the family wanted it? Could it even be this Capt. J.E. Boyd’s pistol? Collecting older firearms can be a most educating experience. I have had an interesting month of hunting down information and learning about one of Canada’s aviation hero’s. I found a book on Captain Boyd’s life and times and have been reading about his exploits, but no mention of this nickel S&W anywhere.



The ivory grips are in great shape with a wonderful aged patina. I suppose that it would be best to not shoot this .44 with the ivories on, I do have a set of wood copies that I can use for shooting. Any suggestions on the best way to deal with the surface rust? I have not cleaned this at all since receiving it.

I know that a lot of you guys like factory fresh S&W’s with boxes and docs and no turn lines but to me it is the firearms like this that show they have been used that are truly interesting versus ones that sat  in a safe or a shelf for 90 years. Having a S&W like this is like holding history in your hands.

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Life NRA, Life TSRA, C&R FFL

Great save! The experts will be along shortly, but a gentle cleaning with bronze wool and some (non-penetrating) oil will take care of the worst surface rust. Have fun with that one!

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50 Years of DSOTM

Glashaus, such a nice find and a very interesting story to go with it. Please keep us posted on any further information that you are able to dig up.

That was well worth reading. Nice score!

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Mike, AmVets Member, Navy Vet

Great find! Way better than one of those "in the box without a turn line" guns.

Thank You Sir. Great Reading.

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Living a dream - S&WCA #2364

Nice score! We'll be expecting a range report in due time.

What a fascinating story and what a cool gun. This is what I picture when I think about a "collectible" handgun. The provenance that comes with this old Smith is better than the story of a safe queen bought at some old gun store and then tucked away in a safe to uneventfully spend years in its pristine state.

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Join the NRA today

It's a little unusual to see grips with that much information written on them. The only similar gun I have personally owned was a Colt Official Police from the 1930s I bought about five years ago. It had a name and an address penciled on the back side of one of the grips. It was enough that I found a little information about that former owner from the internet, including that he had died at an advanced age only a little more than a year before I bought the gun. He wasn't anyone famous but it appeared that he was a rather prominent local businessman in a smaller Louisiana city which I had never heard of. Whoever he was, he sure took good care of that OP - it looked like new.

Thanks all,

Here is a link to the auction

http://www.gunbroker.com/item/596625846

I agree that that much info is something rare to find written on grips, but I have seen it, also on the inside of butt plates. What I find interesting is that the .44, holster and belt were together, that would lead me to believe that they all were kept together by a family member as a memento of Captain Boyd. In reading about him, he did have strong connections to Detroit and Michigan. I was able to follow one of his daughters family to Boston and learned about that set of his grandchildren. He had four children, all daughters. Well further research will give me something to do when I need it. Opening windows to the past and learning of those that walked here before us honors thier memory and gives us hope that one day when we are gone that someone will remember us.

I need to pick up some bronze wool and get to cleaning this .44 up and take it to the range, the cobwebs need to be shot out and new memories made.

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Life NRA, Life TSRA, C&R FFL

I picked up the .44 the following Tuesday and found that it also came with a period gun belt as well as the holster, although I would describe the belts condition as “relic”

I'd ask some of our leather guys about those items.
I've seen some before and after of what a friend has done with some holsters and it is amazing how well some can look.....after.

Thanks for posting I enjoyed the story

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Paul
S&WCA #2726

Fascinating, just simply fascinating. Something good comes from a GB auction, too! What a great background story on the gun and its former owner. And you got it in a no reserve auction and were the sole bidder! Incredible.

In all seriousness, if I had seen that, you and I would've been bidding against each other. You'd have won the gun in the end (I don't have a lot of money), but still...

I'd love to know who made that belt and holster, too.

Congratulations on a great find!

Congratulations on an excellent historical find. You've got a great start on a one-gun display!

Continue to fill out this man's career. Contact the Chief of the Johnson City Police Department with a courteous FOIA letter and see what you can turn up. The letter will more than likely be forwarded to the officer in charge of their history/museum. Just remember that they have plenty of things to do other than respond to collectors and it may take some time for a response. Sometimes there is no info due to fires, floods, record destruction, etc. but I have had some significant responses...one even from a chief who made a personal phone call to me to relate his knowledge of the officer and his gun.

Bob

Johnson City is a small place, may not even have a PD, possibly just a constable if anything. Might be more productive to contact the Blanco County Sheriff. Many small towns/counties in Texas will have some local historical group, might check on that through the city or Blanco County office in Blanco. Not much in Blanco either.

I'd have bought that gun in a Detroit second...good score.


BTW Pre-war nickel guns did NOT have an "N" for nickel, rather blue guns had a "B". This changed post-war to an "N" for factory nickel and no "B" for blue guns.

Well there you go...the 2nd model HE, the veritable stepchild of Smith&Wesson turns out to have been some places and done some things.
I'm pretty fond of my 2nd model target, it's been around too(mostly on horseback and long ago)
Quite a find all in all. Well done!

Btw:# 17978 was shipped in April 1922

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Halfway and one more step

What is the lever or control mounted on the side of cockpit?

Just curious.

TRIED to COPY the image ...

http://smith-wessonforum.com/redirec...ndbza.jpg.html

Bekeart

Glashaus,

Great find and excellent research work. I have read your original post three times and on each pass got more intrigued. I may have missed it but what connection did Capt. Boyd have with Johnson City? I would think it's a little far north (and small) to have been the base of operations for Mexicana. San Antonio or something further south would have been more likely. As stated in an earlier post Johnson City is a small town. It's heyday was the era of LBJ's administration. Regarding the area law enforcement in the late 20's that could have either been a town marshal/constable, a resident deputy from Blanco County SO (not likely). Today they do have a small municipal police department. In the late 20's that was still a pretty rural area as was most of Texas. I was surprised that Capt. Boyd was an aviator and not a Texas Ranger. Guess that makes it obvious where my mind goes. Again congratulations!! hardcase60

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You want me to do what?

Hardcase, I am still researching to try to figure out the Johnson City connection. The city is in the middle of Texas, west of Austin, he may have visited there, maybe he bought the ivories there. There were small airfields around Austin back then, aircraft could not fly that far and needed to be refueled. More research is needed. There was a airfield at Johnson Ranch that was maintained by the US Army, but that is all the way over by Big Bend, it was used to patrol the US Mexican border. I first thought the Texas Rangers as well, but the more that I learned of Captain Boyd the aviator and saw his signature, I really believe that this 2nd Model .44 may have been his. I will continue to dig into the past, it is all very interesting!

George Rihl had a base of operations in Brownsville for his US operations, later this would become Pan Am's Gulf operations center. From reading about Boyd and his family, they enjoyed travel and seeing things. He flew and drove a lot for those days. In the two years that he and his family were in the area, they could have visited Johnson City, which back then probably seemed like a city from the old Texas West to an East Coast New York Canadian, his wife was an ex show girl that had preformed in New York, like I said, it is all very interesting!

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Life NRA, Life TSRA, C&R FFL

Johnson City is adjacent to the LBJ ranch, which is now a national historical park. I imagine it was a fairly busy place during the LBJ administration as LBJ was frequently there at the "Texas White House." I worked at Randolph AFB in the Northeast part of San Antonio for 15 years, and I heard stories about LBJ's plane (I guess it was AF One) landing at Randolph when he returned to the ranch. But the ranch is a fairly long drive from Randolph, 50 miles or so. Maybe they used a helicopter for that leg of the trip.

Interesting side note, Dennis. When Ladybird got her hands on the Interstate Hiway Trust Fund about 1965, the original Interstate 37 was commissioned from the LBJ Ranch in Johnson City to Joske's Department Store in Downtown San Antonio. That portion of IH37 was never finished and the part north of downtown S.A. which had been completed was decommissioned and became US 281 in the late 1970's. How LBJ got from Joske's to Randolph AFB... I don't have a clue. I was a network reporter assigned to the SA/LBJ news bureau... but that story never made it out of the newsroom.

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Randy
Provenance nerd

Interesting. Back at that time, there was very little northern development of San Antonio outside Loop 410, which itself had been open for only a short time. I have no idea what kind of a road SH 281 north of 410 was then, but it was certainly nothing like a freeway, and I imagine that 281 between San Antonio and Blanco/Johnson City wasn't much more than a curvy two lane farm-to-market road. Probably it was not a lot of fun for Lady Bird to drive to Joske's in downtown SA.

An interesting story about LBJ's "Air Force One-Half" plane: Piece of flying history lands on LBJ ranch

Just a quick note regarding a reference in the original post...

"I sent off for a factory letter with the information that I had before actually receiving the pistol. I got the letter back this past weekend and as usual, the most important piece of information that it contained was which hardware store it was shipped to and the date. It was shipped on December 13, 1926 with a 6 ½” barrel, checkered non medallion walnut grips, nickel finish to Frank Budge Co, Miami Florida."

The Frank Budge Co. was the first "Hardware" store in Miami. They sold hardware, furniture, sporting goods, home furnishings, paints and oils. The store was located at the intersection of the two major streets in the small town at the time, on Flagler Street and Miami Avenue.

The information above is from the Miami City Directory, page 113, in 1926.

Best wishes, and congrats on a great gun and story.

Roger aka Mr. Wonderful

I'd rub a little Pecard brand leather dressing on that leather. Its often suprising how good quality leather will come around.

The story is indeed a great story - thanks for taking the time to put it together for this forum.

I find the condition of the gun rather puzzling. To me, it doesn't seem likely that a pilot
of this mans caliber would let a personal firearm, while in his possession, fall into such
a degraded surface condition. I would have expected him to take much better care of it.

The story is good enough, even better than good enough, such that, in my opinion, it ought to be restored. Given the modest investment you have already made, and also
that it has no connection to you or your family, and further that maybe it has been refinished (because of the marking on the butt), the usual objections to restoration would seem to be less important. If it were mine, that is what I would do.

Mike Priwer

I am inclined to agree with Mike on this. I would have someone restore that gun.

What a great progression of information the original post has generated. Geography, history, and nostalgia. Terrific forum, this, for ferreting out the details beyond the gun itself. Thanks all for a great read.

Cheers,

Bob

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Wrangler of stray Chiefs
Bob