Meriden and Beyond...
 

Left Andover very early this morning with plans to meet Mr. Suponski in Connecticut and visit the sad but proud remains of the Parker Bros Manufactory in Meriden. Our first stop of course, was the East Cemetery where Charles Parker and family are interned. Next we traveled a few miles into the next town to pay homage to Mr. Charles Alonzo King, inventor and author of a great many Parker Bros. patents as well as being the Superintendant of the Parker Bros. Gun Works for something like thirty years.

From these places Dave and I made our way to the home of Mr. John Hanson where we were treated to some wonderful hospitality as well as being given the the run of his gun room to faun over some great examples of Parker Bros. shotguns. I have added an album of John's fabulous Grade 2 Lifter 11 gauge with 28" barrels. Believe me when I say that these pictures do not bring out the true beauty of this outstanding gun. It was a very fulfilling and rewarding day and if John Hanson is reading this I say, once again "Thank you so much for your trust and your warm hospitality. I hope we can do it again soon."

Dave, after looking at the pictures, feel free to tell us what we're looking at.

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First picture - is the brownstone entrance the Meriden East Cemetery.I need to get that one head stone reerected.As there are no decendants left in Meriden the city has allowed the PGCA to take care of the family plot.
Second picture - are headstones of Charles Parker and family.
Third - picture of the family oblisk.
Fourth picture - Monument erected by the City of Meriden to its first mayor and his family Charles Parker.

Second set of pictures

Three photos of Charles Alonzo Kings monument and two photos of the Parker Brothers office building where in the attic were found the PGCA hang tags.

Third set of pictures are of the Parker Bros.office building and Mr.Hansons gun room.The wooden clamp hanging up was taken from the rubble of the Parker factory building after the 1980's fire that all but destroyed it. The last picture in this set is three barrel sets from Johns 16 gauge DH four barrel set.This gun was featured in an article in the last issue of the Parker Pages.

Dave neglected to say that he is standing in the exact spot where the final fitting room was in the building before the fire that destroyed the place.

Last set of pictures are more of the DH 16 and an original order for 25 #2 vises to Colts Patent Firearms. A nice photo of John Hanson and last but not least a very nice 11 gauge grade two Parker in the oak case with all the accountraments. This gun has been featured in the Parker Pages,Double Gun Journal and the Parker Story. Enjoy!

Thanks for sharing, I would have enjoyed that outing very much. I was passing through Meriden once about 20 years ago and I asked a couple residents (gas station attendants and such) if they knew where the Parker Gun Works were located and I got some really blank stares. Someday I would like to go back and visit the places you showed us.

Great Pictures guys ,Thanks for letting the rest of us in on your trip !! Looks like a great day !!

Dean,

Thanks for the great pictures. It was as if I were there with you and Dave. I am querious about the three barrels hanging on the wall. I am guessing the dolls head is in a slot and would love to know how else they are supported. Until I found they are part of a four barreled set I thought that is how Parker intended to keep stocks from becoming oil soaked.

Thanks again, Harry

Harry,The doll head's are in the wood recess and the tops of the barrels are supported in a wood bracket.They are very secure.

thanks for letting us go along on that historical journey. those were very good pictures i felt like i was truly there were those old grand parker guns were born. im glad the parker association is taking care of the cymentry. my thanks to you fellas. charlie cleveland

Good stuff guys, a trip I need to make one day myself.

DLH

Shades of the 2003 trip.

So, Dave and Dean, is the old office still on the market? Did you sign the contract? I love the rack and am going to put one together myself. Those four barrel sets are hard to find cases for. Great work guys.

Bill, Dave and I were discussing the fact that a Marvin Huey case for that gun would be pretty dear but it needs its own case at any rate... if for no other reason than to prevent any of the sets of barrels from becoming separated from the gun.

Don't know if the building is for sale any longer - there are no signs on it or near it that would indicate so.

BTW, you may be interested to know that a friend of my daughter and her husband have bought the old Davies' property here in Andover. I've offered my services in informing them of the history of that place. They should get it listed on the National Register of Historic Places - maybe there are funds available to repair and rejuvenate the Glen Rock Kennels houses.

Has there been a PGCA Meeting held in Meriden? Seems like a natural

Linn,There hasn't been a formal PGCA Annual Meeting there but in 2003 we a PGCA Meriden Homecoming it was a great day. Dave Noreen posted some pictures of it a couple threads up from here.

It was written up in the next issue, July/Aug 2003 of Parker Pages but had been announced in previous issues such as May/June 2003. That was before the current glossy magazine we have today when the "newsletter" was a compilation of as many as twenty-eight pages stapled together at the upper left corner.

In an attempt to find this information I thumbed through these copies and found some great reading! "Charles A. King" by Dave Suponski, "Parker Family Grave Site Restoration Project" also by Dave, That's the one with the pictures I remembered - the Sept/Oct 2002 issue. Also "Who Was George Rockwell?" by Ron Kirby - I saw on the other side of King's obelisk Rockwell's own obituary data carved into the stone equally as nicely as was King's and Ron wrote about that too. An extremely in-depth article "The Parker Half Frame" was researched and written by Ron Kirby and Harry Sanders - a very well-researched article.

This is wonderful stuff and some of it has been revisited recently but I would encourage everyone who doesn't have all of the old Parker Pages to order the DVDs and read all of this invaluable old information. This stuff isn't lost to those who only recently joined the PGCA - you can get it all on DVD. I've received my DVD and can't get over the fantastic job Robin Lewis did in putting it all together in a very professionally done archive.

The BH, third from the top in that rack is yours isn't it Dave? Was it yours at the time of the photo?

Ya Dean,Thats the old girl...She was mine then too.That gun spent it entire life on the left coast until about ten years ago...:) The straight grip backaction above it was mine also but someone had to have it and now its gone...

The gravesite restoration article was in two or three parts if memory serves..I have my original drafts around here someplace.

Who displayed that pretty little .410 on the bottom?

always wanted me a parker 410. guess what went out and bought me a 410 stevens .... boy i saved a bundle. ha. charlie

Dean,It was the Connecticut collector of Parker.410's that we spoke of on Saturday.That was one of four or five he displayed.

Ahhhh, so! I should have known.

Dave,
Unfortunately the blank stares were most likely because they spoke little or no English.

For your viewing pleasure. These pictures Dean and I found in John's gun room.They were taken about 5 years before the fire that all but destroyed the factory buildings.

Another

Dave and Dean thanks for sharing pictures and details of your trip, what a nice winter outing that must have been. It looks like you had more snow down there than we do up here on the NH coast.

In the last ten or fifteen years that has often been the case. Cape Cod, western and southern MA, CT, RI and the NYC areas have received more snow than northeast MA, NH and Maine. And, yup they have more snow this time too.

Dean,
Could the George Rckwell you speak of be affliliated with the private duck hunting club that was near me as I was growing up? This club was referred to as 'rockwells'. I have not spoken yet to the last caretaker. A nuclear power plant now sits on the property.
I am awaiting a cd of pictures of Cedar Point duck hunting clubhouses. The origianl was a 'boat'. Looks more like a barge to me. With these pics is also one of Pres Eisenhower hunting there. Will post for you guys to decide if is a parker he is hunting with. Blessings, Lee

Lee, where is/was this "Rockwell's"?

Ike hunted grouse and woodcock with a Parker for sure but for waterfowl hunting I can't say.

The Rockwell marsh was on the western basin of Lake Erie. On the north side of the mouth of the Toussaint river. Davis Besse nuke plant now owns all this property.

Certainly we would like to look at the Ike pictures and will try our best to identify his guns.

Dean, what information do you have of Ike shooting "real birds" with Parkers? I shot pheasants for years with my Dad on a piece of ground very close to Ike's Gettysburg property. In those days, Ike's relationship to bird hunting was far from my mind.

Bill, I should have qualified that by saying I have no evidence of Ike ever owning a Parker but I was e-mailed a photo of him and an elderly NH gent and a pair of setters with Ike holding the 16 ga DHE with straight stock owned by the older gent. Also included was a letter from Ike to the fellow stating that he had every intention of returning the Parker someday and that he planned to get one of his own. I had a chance to buy that Parker about six or seven years ago (maybe more) for $3K but missed it by mere minutes. I've told this sad story before...

Wonder where Ike's M42 .410 is?

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower--A great leader indeed
 

Mae and I are history buffs, John. This past summer (2009) we took a three week trip from MI- first to Gettysburg- and we visited the Eisenhower farm. I also asked about his guns, being a Winchester man, I knew he loved his M42 for quail, possibly skeet. The curator happened to be a fellow gunner, he told me they were all out in the Eisenhower Museum in Abeline. All but one, on display behind glass was a fishing rod and reel given to "Ike" by his Chief of Staff in WW11- Gen. Walter Bedell Smith- and a Beretta 20 semi-auto skeet gun given to "Ike" by another staff member later on.

I am going to guess that when Mr. Murphy and his father hunted phesants near the Eisenhower Farm adjacent to Gettysburg, it was prior to Nov. 23 1963. We saw the Secret Service annex and the older armory room (no weapons) set up to protect the Eisenhowers after the tragic death of President Kennedy. I can still recall where I was (USMC- LeJeune) when a Major came in and told us that our Commander-In-Chief had been shot by a sniper in Dallas--

The best story about "Ike" I have yet heard was his way of explaining leadership. He took out a piece of string and placed it on his desk, and said that "Leadership is like moving a piece of string from A to B-- if you get behind it and shove, it just balls up and goes nowhere- BUT if you get out in front of it, it will follow you where ever you go"!!