GEORGE WORTHINGTON COMPANY

[George Lander]

I recently acquired a Parker Quality 3 Hammergun SN 299xx. The PGCA letter states that it was ordered by the George Worthington Company in Cleveland, Ohio on November 29, 1882. It was ordered and still retains both the 28 & 30 inch barrels that appears in the original order & letter.

Does anyone know anything about this company? From what I googled it appears that they were a large hardware store that sold mainly Crescent & other inexpensive doubles.

The gun is presently at Jim Kelly's Darlington Gun Works being restored. When it's ready I'll post before & after pictures.

Please excuse me if I've posted about this gun before.

Best Regards, George

[Bill Murphy]

Google will tell you more about this company and the man than you will ever want to know. His name is all over the Parker Brothers order books. You can probably search him on la84foundation.com also. George E. Worthington was a pigeon shooter of note in the nineties and around the turn of the century. This sounds like it may be George's gun rather than a customer's gun. The company was apparently still in the hands of George Worthington through several generations. Good luck with further research. Early sporting publications rarely mention the type and brand of gun used by shooters, but you may get lucky. That particular George Worthington was the son of Ralph Worthington. Ralph shot under the name "Red Wing" When searching, remember that there is some record about guns used in early Grand Americans in early sporting publications. Ralph shot Winchester pump guns at some times in his career.

[Austin W Hogan]

Bill knows more about Mr Worthington than I. The Geo Worthington Co was a major hardware distributor through most of the 19th and 20th centuries. I was given the previous year's GWC catalog by the owner of the local hardware as a kid, and I studied and used it like an encyclopaedia. I have advertised and inquired of book sellers for a copy but have yet to find one.
I can remember about four pages of Colt's in my copy, GWC was apparently a major Colt distributor, and probably from Bill's remarks, a Parker distributor as well.

Best, Austin

[Bill Murphy]

When using la84foundation search feature, select "text version" for easy locating of your search words. They are highlighted in color in the text version. The text version is not laid out like the virtual page, but much easier to locate your search words.