Guns With Stories

[Boulder350]

Does anyone have a gun that shipped to a famous person, or not so famous person, they want to share that has some interesting history? Here is one of mine.

This 38 Perfected with a 2 1/2" barrel was shipped on May 23rd, 1913 to Mr T. L. Felts. No address was listed for shipment on the letter from Roy but it may have been owned by the T.L. Felts below.

Mr T. L. Felts was an owner in the Baldwin-Felts detective agency. That agency was a close second to the Pinkerton Detective agency in the early 1900's. In 1912 Felts personally captured Floyd Allen after the court room shootout. His detective agency was heavily involved in the coal mine feuds in the early 1900's in West Virginia and Colorado. His agency also operated security for the railroads for a time.

His great granddaughter said "My great grandfather was T.L. Felts of The Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency He was a highly regarded
citizen in Carroll County and the largest land owner in the county. He was also president of the local
bank in Galax, VA and served as a state senator of Virginia.In his lifetime, he was shot five times, and
left for dead twice. From what I understand in talking with a few citizens in Galax in the past, he was
both tough and well-refined and was known in his community for his integrity."

Thanks to "opoefc" for encouraging me to do a little research on this revolver after getting my historical letter.

 

[Muley Gil]

Here's a link to the Hillsville Courthouse shootout:

The Hillsville Massacre - TheRoanoker.com

Lots of family members from both sides of the massacre still live in or near Carroll County, Virginia.

Depending on who you talk to, the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency was either an upstanding organization (coal mine owners) or a terrorist group (coalminers wanting to unionize).

I drive by Thomas Felts's former home a couple of times a week.

 

[Boulder350]

Thanks for the link to the article Muley Gil. Interesting read

 

[THE PILGRIM]

My wood burning days came to end and I ran an ad.
Back then I always put Will Trade for Guns in Ads.
Guy calls and asks if I'm interested in a Colt SA.
Come on down!
Turns out he's a Retired Deputy Sheriff.
The - Colt? Rough. Black Powder Frame, been rebarreled, reblued, re everything. But a 44-40 Cowboy Gun!
It's in a Probably Mexican Buscadera Rig.
And it was in a movie!
Lonely Are The Brave. Kirk Douglas, Carl Malden and others.
Filmed here.
Kirk is getting out of Dodge, going up the La Luz Trail.
Sees two Deputies standing on a big rock.
Gets off his horse and leads him around the big rock.
The Colt is worn in that scene.
Take it to a Gun Show. My Buddy Jerry goes Gaga.
I trade it to him for a Breitling Watch.
He planning to sell the Colt to Singer John Conlee.
Find out later that didn't happen.
Then a dude festers me for the watch.
Trade it for a Walther PP and money.
Later sell the Walther.
So the Stove, Colt, Brietling, Walther and probably the money are all gone.
I'm not perpetual but I'm still here.
The other stuff?
They were all Transitory!

 

[sigp220.45]

This is weak, but its all I've got.

A guy brought two guns into my local joint to trade towards a .38 revolver for his wife. He said they belonged to his grandfather, who was a bodyguard for United Mine Worker's Union boss John L. Lewis, and they were his working guns. When the old guy died, the guns disappeared. When granny died, they found them in a tin of corn meal. He made the trade, and I bought both guns.

The guns are an FN .25 auto and an H&R .38 S&W.

I don't know if the Union story is true, but both guns still had corn meal in them.

 

[iby]

W/story

I got this one a few months ago and the research was pretty easy.
When I "Googled" Frank"
the story stayed the same.