**LETTER ARRIVED**A S&W with a mystery attached. Need help deciphering....

DCWilson said:
George Hopkins Cater.

..... To my eyes, the signature on this registration card resembles the writing on the inside surface of the stock panel.

I'm not certain this is a correct identification for the gun's owner, but the odds look good to me.
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Good one. The odds look good to me, too.

I'm no forensic handwriting expert by a long shot, but comparing the two names, there is only one discrepancy that would make me pause, the additional hook after the first letter of the last name on the wood (red arrow). Elsewise, very similar, especially considering the awkwardness of writing on wobbly wood.
 

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Absalom said:
Good one. The odds look good to me, too.

I'm no forensic handwriting expert by a long shot, but comparing the two names, there is only one discrepancy that would make me pause, the additional hook after the first letter of the last name on the wood (red arrow). Elsewise, very similar, especially considering the awkwardness of writing on wobbly wood.
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The hook is like Cater's, but notice that the writing on the stock ties the first letter to the second at the midpoint, while Cater ties C to A at the baseline. I'm not an examiner, either, but was partnered with one for a few years and picked up what he looked for. The medium could made a difference, too. Wood vs. paper, rounded bottom vs. flat. Cater looks promising.
 
It looks to me like the George and Cater in the signature at the bottom don't match the George and Cater written at the top. The Hopkins looks the same both places but the one at the top looks like it was written at a different time as that George Cater, like whoever wrote at the top didn't know his middle name and he wrote it in when he signed it.
The other G's on the registration do seem to match the G's on the grips though but why would the person filling out the registration in 1918 write 1906 on George's grips?
 
One more data point:

Even though the name George H. Cater can be found in different censuses, it's not clear that they are all the same person. In 1930, however, there is a George H. Cater living in the greater Los Angeles area with his wife and two adult sons. His occupation is reported as "Mining." and his industry is "Gold Mine." Gotta ask yourself, what are the odds?
 
One more comment on handwriting. There was a time when "penmanship" was a class in Elementary School. I'm not sure how a crack on the knuckles was supposed to improve your handwriting, but it did.

My handwriting and my father's were almost identical, because we had been taught from the same book by the same sadist.

In other words, you could expect people of a similar education level to have similar hands, in that the capital C would or would not have a tail based more on the text book (Palmer, in this case) than individual self-expression. The angle of the script and the connections between letters tell more than the shape of the letters, as these were more idiosyncratic.


Look familiar?

The Ancestry Insider: Search results for Palmer

That said, after reading bdmoss88's post, I realized I had looked at where Cater's name appears as data on the draft card, not at the signature. I don't see a man who had written so neatly on wood with a pencil at 24 making that signature on paper with ink at 36. My guess is that Cater signed the draft card after it had been filled in by Peterson.

Like DCWilson, I still like the name Cater as a possibility, just not this Cater.
 
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Buford57 said:
....
That said, after reading bdmoss88's post, I realized I had looked at where Cater's name appears as data on the draft card, not at the signature. I don't see a man who had written so neatly on wood with a pencil at 24 making that signature on paper with ink at 36. My guess is that Cater signed the draft card after it had been filled in by Peterson.

Like DCWilson, I still like the name Cater as a possibility, just not this Cater.
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The differences between the name at the top and the bottom may or may not be explainable by the need to squeeze the signature into a rather narrow line, which tends to throw off patterns.

However, I am reasonably certain that John Peterson did not fill in anything on the front of the card. His handwriting as reflected in his signature looks nothing like Cater's: Peterson's is the hand of someone who writes with discipline, order, and routine (like a registrar :)), none of which is evident with Cater's information.

As for the difference in neatness between the wood and the form, one could expect someone to be more fussy, carefully holding the grip panel steady while fitting the information he wants to get onto the wood in the space he has, compared to filling in a form, maybe standing at a counter in an office, an annoying duty you just want to get done.

Proves nothing, just idle speculation, but would fit the evidence.
 
I have come to agree with the position that Absalom laid out just above. When I first looked at the Draft Reg. card, the only signature I trusted to be Cater's was the one at the bottom. The more I look at it, the more it seems he might have filled out all the front side of the card. That doesn't mean I am blind to some odd variety in letter forms on Side 1, but I think they may not be significant enough to let us conclude two different people worked on that side.

I still haven't figured out whether the closest relative -- Mrs. W.B. Petrick of Dover, OK -- is a sister, remarried mother, or sister-in-law. Given the age of his older son, Cater would have been married and a father by the time he bought the gun in Goldfield.
 
Maybe now a relative doing genealogy research will turn up this thread (as happened with a LE gun a few years ago) and confirm one of these stories.
 
The M&P arrived on Friday. I have attached some additional pics of the inscription.

I will say this though. It has the smoothest trigger pull in single and double action of any K FRAME that have ever owned or even held for that matter. It is a slick as glass with the perfect "break " in either mode.
 

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Some more pics of the revolver. There is some holster wear and an interesting wear pattern on the top strap.

The bore shines like a mirror.
 

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Small world. I have a .32 Safety Hammerless that shipped to San Francisco just two days before your gun, on Oct. 20, 1906. Different store, though.

PS: Interesting. At least Google doesn't seem to know a "Pacific Hardware & Metal Company" in San Francisco.

There was, however, the "Pacific Hardware & Steel Company". I have a Colt lettered to them a few years later. Their building, from 1904/05, still stands.
 

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Interesting... I have #75738 and it lettered as being shipped 07/30/1906 to Pacific Hardware & Steel Co., San Francisco, CA.

I've often wondered about it's history after arriving in S.F., you're lucky to have the clue left for you under the grips!
 

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moosedog said:
I'm late to this interesting post but I'll guess "Geo H Ward" for the name on the grip. If only that gun could talk.
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Buford57 said:
My first guess at the surname was "Ward", but the more I look at it the less I think so . . . Then again, this picture was taken by C.A. Rinker in Goldfield some time between 1900 and 1920.

http://d.library.unlv.edu/digital/a...hlightTerms=men C. A. Earle Rinker Collection . . .
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A very interesting thread with many outstanding contributions! I'm placing my bet with moosedog and Buford57 above!

Russ
 
.44Special said:
It looks like Mr. Cater geared up in San Francisco several months after the 'quake and trekked to Nevada to seek his fortune.
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This is not necessarily the case, by the way.

Large supply companies in San Francisco, many of which trace their history back to the gold rush, didn't just (and many not even primarily) retail to folks in the city, but also served as wholesalers for the retail business in central California and presumably Western Nevada. They also did mail order. In case of Pacific Hardware & Steel, I've found library references to catalogs.
 
I have a subscription to Newspapers.com and could not find a George H. Cater in Nevada. As a side note I have several land deeds from 1895-1905 that are in long hand and are very hard to read. the more words you have to compare letter writing styles the better- as others have done in this instance. I'll keep digging!
 
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The shipping clerk could have substituted METAL for STEEL in shipping records.
I went through Goldfield going to Reno for S&WCA meeting. The old hotel still stands and there was story of someone rehabbing it.
 
bullmack said:
I have a subscription to Newspapers.com and could not find a George H. Cater in Nevada. As a side note I have several land deeds from 1895-1905 that are in long hand and are very hard to read. the more words you have to compare letter writing styles the better- as others have done in this instance. I'll keep digging!
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Thanks!

Mr. Cater's draft registration card placed him in Nevada. Census records placed him in Nevada & California and listed him in the gold mining industry.
 
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