Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill Murphy
It is assumed that Mr. Highsmith performed most of Nash's gunsmithing and stockmaking when he was domiciled in Tennessee. However, Nash spent some time in other areas of the South and also spent some time in Washington, D.C., although I'm not sure how long he was a resident of the evil empire. Does anyone know where Nash lived exactly when he was in Washington? I have not found his address.
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Yes, Bill -
Nash did one of his many "agro-eco-ego-financial Special Assignments" in our own Washington Metro area in the late 1930s, compliments of John Olin, J.N. "Ding" Darling, Aurthur Morganthau, Winchester-Western, and Ducks Unlimited. When receipts from his (shiney) seat on the cotton exchange in Memphis began to go south, he turned to writing, whose outputs made him a hot commodity on the "what are we doing to the planet" circuit.
Nash enjoyed an idyllic existence during his brief stay here, having worked out an arrangement with none other than "Marse" Henry Bartholemew, uberFox patron, whereby he lived rent-free in one of the comfortable outbuildings on "Marse" Henry's palacial estate. Actually an ante-bellum "farm" lying between Broad and Swan creeks east off the mainstem of the Potomac River, between Fort Washington and Marshall Hall plantation in Prince Georges County, MD, about 12 miles south of Washington DC, the place is to this day known as a Canvasback stronghold.
The farm was seized by the federal government after the Civil War from Confederate sympathizers, of whom there were many in the area (do Mary Surratt, George Atzelrod, Dr. Samuel Mudd and the guy who broke his leg leaping off the balcony of Ford's Theatre ring a bell?). Nash worked out a deal with "Marse Henry" whereby he lived essentially free in an "outbuilding" on the estate, his only responsibilities being those of rising early to set decoys, ensuring an adequate supply of corn (not for making tortillas), and keeping the local pickers (not Bluegrass musicians) at the ready for processing the prodigious amounts of ducks they killed (not "harvested") on the Potomac.
When WWII broke out, carefree frivolity like duck shooting on the Potomac went south (what does that term acutally mean? - like migrating ducks or what??) and Captains of Industry like "Marse Henry" turned back to the business they loved best - making money. In sharp contrast, Nash, eshewing the dust, heat and light of wartime DC, returned to his beloved Southland to continue "giving the next customers a whirl" with his Becker-bored Super Duper Uber Fox Magnum (HIS barrels, BTW, "Guaranteed"!). The rest, as they say, is history.
So in the end, who really cares if the "Original Bo Whoop" has had two stocks or three; so what if the letters on the "Burt Becker custom built for Nash Buckingham" barrel stamps are crooked; and tell me this: did anyone ever actually count up all those shot holes to make sure that those barrels shot 90% patterns? Not likely!