The John Smith Workshop Collection
John Smith Workshop Collection remnants: samples of parts, tools, and weapons in the Collection
(Photo by John Fitzgerald).
A Time Capsule of an American Gunsmith's Craft in the 19th
Century
The Frazier International History Museum acquired the John Smith Workshop Collection -- a virtually complete gunsmith's workshop from the nineteenth century era of black powder weapons. The Frazier Museum was fortunate to acquire this remarkable collection because it is one of the few of its kind remaining in America.
Over the centuries, thousands of individuals earned their living by designing, building, maintaining, and customizing arms, but most of their workshops were eventually sold and disbursed. These tools, parts, and weapons traveled intact with their owner, John Smith of Hessville, Ohio, from the beginning of his career in 1832 until his death in 1884 near Sheridan, California. They remained in the Smith family until 1960 when the family ranch in California was sold.
Thanks to John Smith's Collection, visitors to the Frazier Museum can study and appreciate the full range of the early American gunsmith's craft.
Imagine a Complete 19th Century Gunsmith's Workshop!
Smith's tools, both American and European in design, represent the full range of equipment used by a 19th century gunsmith. The Collection displays some of the following items:
- Everyday tools - like hammers and wood mallets, files, small hand vices, larger bench vices, and anvils
- Highly specialized equipment - such as bullet mold tool bits (used to cut spherical recesses in the jaws of molds)
- Wooden templates for gun stocks
- Smith's personally designed gun mounting, crafted in a variety of metals
- John's handmade leather work apron that luckily has survived the years
Many of John Smith's tools may have been handed down from his father and grandfather. Born in Pennsylvania, he was probably a third generation gunsmith. His grandfather, Peter Smith, served in a Pennsylvania unit during the American Revolution and later moved to Ohio. Peter's son, David Smith, was a gunsmith by trade, and two of David's thirteen children, John included, followed in his footsteps. In 1832, John chose a location for his shop in Hessville, Ohio because it was on a heavily traveled westward-bound route. Settlers were consistent customers as they depended on good firearms and repair work was always in demand. John ands his wife raised seven children on the profits of his workshop. In 1870, his wife long deceased, his children grown and settled elsewhere, he moved to be near his daughter's ranch in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In his later years, John continued to make and repair rifles part-time, and he loved to play the fiddle when he wasn't working. On April 7, 1884, his body was discovered on the path between the shop and his home, bringing to a close more than half a century in his profession as an early American gunsmith.
