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S&W Hand Ejectors: 1896 to 1961 All 5-Screw & Vintage 4-Screw SWING-OUT Cylinder REVOLVERS, and the 35 Autos and 32 Autos


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Old 07-07-2018, 09:08 AM
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It looks like this Pre war RP stayed in Ohio after shipping to Beall & Steele Drug Co in August of 1930. Was it a guards gun, guess we'll never really know. Whatever it was used for, the condition of the revolver stayed excellent after 88 years...




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Old 07-07-2018, 09:36 AM
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I love the days when you could walk into a drug store and buy a revolver. That one is is sweet condition for an RP.
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Old 07-07-2018, 11:10 AM
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Originally Posted by Muddyboot View Post
It looks like this Pre war RP stayed in Ohio after shipping to Beall & Steele Drug Co in August of 1930. Was it a guards gun, guess we'll never really know. Whatever it was used for, the condition of the revolver stayed excellent after 88 years...
....
I’m with Pondoro, I don’t think it was a guard’s gun for the company, but they were simply a retailer that also sold guns next to everything else. Much too nicely preserved to have done any duty
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Old 07-07-2018, 11:21 AM
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I never considered the store using it, I just thought the OP was speculating on the end customer's use of it, as a guard for a bank or in a prison.

I expect rural drug stores in 1930 did not employ guards, but I suspect they may have sold guns.

An intermediate option is that a pharmacist may have ordered it and kept it in the cash drawer or some other hiding place. Even in rural Ohio drug stores probably feared robbers - whether for cash or drugs.
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Old 07-07-2018, 11:30 AM
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Drug stores in Missoula, Montana sold firearms up the the 1960s (at least). I purchased my first handgun at a drug store in 1967.

Bill
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Old 07-07-2018, 11:55 AM
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Drug stores in Missoula, Montana sold firearms up the the 1960s (at least). I purchased my first handgun at a drug store in 1967.

Bill
For some people on this forum Smiths are the drug of choice!
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Old 07-07-2018, 12:00 PM
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There is a drug store in my hometown that STILL sells guns!!
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Old 07-07-2018, 12:08 PM
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I’m with Pondoro, I don’t think it was a guard’s gun for the company, but they were simply a retailer that also sold guns next to everything else. Much too nicely preserved to have done any duty
My thinking was Beall & Steele Drug Co was more of a manufacture or ware house type of business, not a retail store. I should have researched the company..
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Old 07-07-2018, 01:36 PM
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My thinking was Beall & Steele Drug Co was more of a manufacture or ware house type of business, not a retail store. I should have researched the company..
That is a thought, I visualized a drug store. A manufacturer would quite possibly have had armed guards.
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Old 07-07-2018, 01:43 PM
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This took some digging:


W.M. Beale was an officer of the Ohio Valley Drug club, an affiliate of the National Wholesale Druggist's Association, as of 1906. He is also on the membership committee for the national organization.

In 1905 he was a member of "The Committee on Adulterations." (!!)

He was also a director of the Stuebenville Bank and Trust Company.

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Old 07-07-2018, 02:12 PM
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That’s a bit odd. It called itself “Wholesale”, but that picture with storefront, display windows and large advertising on the side wall sure looks like a retail store
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Old 07-07-2018, 03:06 PM
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Steubenville being on the edge of Appalachia he may have sold drugs to the locals but also sold wholesale to all the tiny village doctors and pharmacists in the surrounding area.

Wikipedia says Stuebenville had a steel mil and a coal mine in 1846. So it was a "large" town. Probably had immigrants brought in by the mining and steel industries. I'll bet the locals considered them dangerous. A pharmacist needed a gun.

Does this qualify as thread drift?

Once again that is a beautifully preserved I frame. I have two fairly nice I frames but I would trade them both for that gun and that letter.

Last edited by Pondoro; 07-07-2018 at 03:07 PM.
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Old 07-07-2018, 03:23 PM
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Beall & Steele! I posted back in 2016 about them. My 1905 4th Change shipped there in 1922. Not quite as pretty as your gun, but mine was around during the Roaring 20's ... probably carried by a gangster.

The thread:

Now THIS is what a factory letter is all about ...
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Old 07-07-2018, 03:29 PM
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This took some digging:


W.M. Beale was an officer of the Ohio Valley Drug club, an affiliate of the National Wholesale Druggist's Association, as of 1906. He is also on the membership committee for the national organization.

In 1905 he was a member of "The Committee on Adulterations." (!!)

He was also a director of the Stuebenville Bank and Trust Company.
Thank you for digging up the information on the letter. It's interesting to see the history and background of those now past.
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Old 07-07-2018, 03:38 PM
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Beall & Steele! I posted back in 2016 about them. My 1905 4th Change shipped there in 1922. Not quite as pretty as your gun, but mine was around during the Roaring 20's ... probably carried by a gangster.

The thread:

Now THIS is what a factory letter is all about ...
I went back a read your post, good stuff. One thing I found a bit sad; Steubenville looked more prosperous in the old photo then it did in the latter.
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Old 07-07-2018, 03:49 PM
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I went back a read your post, good stuff. One thing I found a bit sad; Steubenville looked more prosperous in the old photo then it did in the latter.
Probably true of many steel towns.
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Old 07-07-2018, 03:54 PM
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Steubenville is also famous as the birthplace of Dino Paul Crocetti, who many of us know as Dean Martin!! He was born there in 1917.

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Old 07-07-2018, 06:16 PM
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Interesting stuff about Steubenville. Do I remember that there was a school for blackjack and other casino dealers there? My brain is cluttered with trivia, but I think I remember that. In fact, I seem to recall that Dino trained there.

But back to the OP's RP. That is a beautiful revolver, and I'm envious.
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Old 07-07-2018, 08:20 PM
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Steubenville was heavy into steel production at one time. It had a reputation as a rough town and catered heavily to the vices of all those steelworkers (as many Ohio River steel towns did at that time). That's largely a dead industry in the USA today, at least production of steel from ore.

I once had a college roommate from Steubenville. He always pronounced it as "Stumville."

Regarding drugstores selling guns, when I lived in Midland Texas over 30 years ago, there was a Walgreen's drug store which had probably the largest gun selection in town.
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Old 07-07-2018, 10:19 PM
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Super cool Regulation Police, Muddyboot! Love the Smith & Wessons from that era and that is a fine looking example. Always love seeing factory letters.

Regarding drugstores selling guns: It must have been common. Picked up this unfired 6-inch Model 10-5 at an Abilene gun show a couple years back from the original purchaser.





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Old 07-07-2018, 10:34 PM
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So the Smith and Wesson Drug Store Gun Collectors Association 2019 annual meeting will be hosted by the Stuebenville Chapter.
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