Faulkner
Member
My dad gave me one of my grandfather's shotguns a few months ago and I took some time to do some internet research this week.
It's a 12 gauge hammer double barrel with Riverside Arms, Chicopee Falls, Mass. marked on the receiver. Riverside and Riverside Arms Co are names the Stevens Arms Company used on their less expensive shotguns made from 1915. The gun is basically a "Trade Brand Name" shotgun although that is not quite true. RIVERSIDE ARMS CO was a name used by the Stevens Arms & Tool Company of Chicopee Falls, MA after 1915 to about 1929. They used the name on their less expensive shotguns. The guns were mechanically identical to the more expensive guns but were less well finished and had hardwood stocks and forearms instead of walnut.
The Riverside Arms Co. name first appears in the J. Stevens Arms & Tool Co., Chicopee Falls, Mass., catalogue No. 54 issued circa 1914 on a hammerless double the No. 315 and a hammer double No. 215. These guns were based on G.S. Lewis Patents No. 1,086,378 granted Feb. 10, 1914, for the hammer gun and Patent No. 1,136,247 granted Apr. 20, 1915, for the hammerless gun. During WWI the Stevens factories were taken over by New England Westinghouse for wartime production. After the Great War the Chicopee Falls factories were bought by Savage Arms Corp. and the gun business there emerged as J. Stevens Arms Co. a wholly owned subsidiary of Savage Arms Corp. They continued to manufacture both Stevens and Riverside guns up to about 1930, when they changed the name of their lower priced line from Riverside Arms Co. to Springfield Arms Co.
My grandfather was a Saturday morning horse trader in his younger days and would go down to the courthouse square in Pontotoc, Mississippi, and swap knives and trade with the other farmers. My grandmother indicated he traded for this shotgun sometime before WWII and was his most used hunting firearm until he died in 1969.
It's pictured with his S&W .32 Safety Hammerless "bicycle gun" that he carried in his front pocket for over 30 years. I have no intention of shooting it but I do plan to hang it for display in my home office.
It's a 12 gauge hammer double barrel with Riverside Arms, Chicopee Falls, Mass. marked on the receiver. Riverside and Riverside Arms Co are names the Stevens Arms Company used on their less expensive shotguns made from 1915. The gun is basically a "Trade Brand Name" shotgun although that is not quite true. RIVERSIDE ARMS CO was a name used by the Stevens Arms & Tool Company of Chicopee Falls, MA after 1915 to about 1929. They used the name on their less expensive shotguns. The guns were mechanically identical to the more expensive guns but were less well finished and had hardwood stocks and forearms instead of walnut.
The Riverside Arms Co. name first appears in the J. Stevens Arms & Tool Co., Chicopee Falls, Mass., catalogue No. 54 issued circa 1914 on a hammerless double the No. 315 and a hammer double No. 215. These guns were based on G.S. Lewis Patents No. 1,086,378 granted Feb. 10, 1914, for the hammer gun and Patent No. 1,136,247 granted Apr. 20, 1915, for the hammerless gun. During WWI the Stevens factories were taken over by New England Westinghouse for wartime production. After the Great War the Chicopee Falls factories were bought by Savage Arms Corp. and the gun business there emerged as J. Stevens Arms Co. a wholly owned subsidiary of Savage Arms Corp. They continued to manufacture both Stevens and Riverside guns up to about 1930, when they changed the name of their lower priced line from Riverside Arms Co. to Springfield Arms Co.
My grandfather was a Saturday morning horse trader in his younger days and would go down to the courthouse square in Pontotoc, Mississippi, and swap knives and trade with the other farmers. My grandmother indicated he traded for this shotgun sometime before WWII and was his most used hunting firearm until he died in 1969.
It's pictured with his S&W .32 Safety Hammerless "bicycle gun" that he carried in his front pocket for over 30 years. I have no intention of shooting it but I do plan to hang it for display in my home office.
