DH Parker Letter

[Thomas L. Benson Sr.]

First off thanks to Mr Bishop for your Quick responce to my letter request. I was surprised to see that it came from the factory with a case. I don't imagine that the case was marked for the gun or was it? I wonder where it is now. Thanks Thomas

[edgarspencer]

That is a pretty gun Tom. The Raymond family was well known in the area. I believe they owned several car dealerships. Imagine getting a 25% discount for cash today!

[Dave Suponski]

Wonderful gun Mr. Geezer! Thank you for being the first to post a copy of our new researcher Mr. Bishop's PGCA letter.

[Craig Larter]

Boy that is one beautiful looking DH, I am searching for a similar example. Thanks for posting the letter and pictures. Craig

[Dean Romig]

That's a great looking DH Thomas

And Chuck, a very nice job on the letter.

[Thomas L. Benson Sr.]

Edgar: I don't suppose we could get a 25% discount at the car dealership today. Edgar do know if a person could trace a gun case to a certain ser. no. Parker or were they just made and no way of associating the two. Thanks Thomas

[Bruce Day]

Thomas, lovely, just lovely. After all the beat up, chopped, abused, used and misused, unloved and folk arted, now we see a fine Parker to be proud of. And damascus to boot.

I like them the standard way Parker made them and Parker did it right. This gun is right.

Congratulations.

PS, I have a little D 20 with a stock that looks like it could have been taken from the same tree.

[Thomas L. Benson Sr.]

Bruce: very nice,I wish mine was a 20 Ga. Thomas

[Chuck Bishop]

Thomas,

I made a mistake on your letter. Larry Frey sent me a PM asking if the town was Plainville Ct not Plainsville Ct as I had it in your letter. I went and checked the order book and I guess it's Plainville since Larry never heard of Plainsville. Anyway, I got to looking at the name of the guy ordering the gun and I got to thinking it may not be Raymond.

Each order book has an index at the front where each entity ordering a gun is listed alphabetically. I didn't find the name under the R's. You have to understand the stylistic handwriting used in those days and the fact that they used a broad tipped fountain pen. I looked under the S's and there it was. Also, I found three different style of capitol S's so there were 3 different people entering data. I'm pretty sure the correct name is E.L. Seymour of Plainville, Ct.

I'm sending you a corrected letter. Everything else is accurate,


I'm apologizing right now for my current and future screw up's, I'm sure there will be more in the future.

Chuck

[David Holes]

It's nice to know that you are following up on this. We all appreciate it. Dave

[Dean Romig]

Chuck, for the huge task you're singlehandedly undertaking you certainly will be forgiven a few errors in translation. I've seen a number of copies of those pages and it takes considerable time and effort to decipher the handwriting.

Dean

[Dave Suponski]

Chuck, I echo Dean's comments as well. Just don't let it become a habit.....:rotf:

[edgarspencer]

I was pretty sure you meant Plainville, but after doing some quick detectoring, Edwin Raymond lived in Farmington, next town north of Plainville. I'll do some looking into Seymour families in the area.
Thomas, I am not aware of any cases that were specifically numbered to a gun, except for high end English guns. Coming up with a fitted case shouldn't be too difficult, and I'll paw through a pile of them next time I'm visiting my friend, the hoarder.

[jimcaron]

That's a real beauty and I would also like to echo that doing these research for these guns is a huge and fantastic task you are doing.

[Thomas L. Benson Sr.]

Chuck: I made a mistake on one of my Parkers by giving Mark the wrong ser. no. by one digit and he was very happy to correct my mistake and didn't charge me. I will wait for the new letter. Thanks

Edgar: If you do find something on Mr. Seymour that would be great. Thanks Thomas

[Chuck Bishop]

I'll give you guys a glimpse of what the style of writing looks like. The first is the order book showing who ordered Geezer's gun. Note the capitol letter of the last name.

The second picture is of the index listing the customers who's name starts with S. Note the different ways the S was written. I see three different styles indicating three people entered the data. E.L. Seymour is third from the bottom.

[Rick Losey]

Anyone who has spent any serious time researching family history will feel your pain. Drilling down through census records and other documents from a day when everything was hand written and many people seemed to wish to emmulate John Hancocks flourish will test your detective skills and patience

keep at it Chuck - ( I'm not saying it gets easier - I'm just trying to encourage you :bigbye: )