The PGCA letter provided some further details indicating the first owner was not in my family as I first thought. However after consulting with some folks from Georgetown SC, I can come up with a plausable explanation of events. The gun was purchased from the Kaminski Hardware Company in Georetown SC, in 1887 by G.A. Lohr. Mr Lohr was a prominent business person owning a clothing store on Front Street. As a sportsman, he used the Parker for about 13 years then sold or otherwise conveyed the piece to my father or grandfather, after he had it factory refurbished in 1900. The area, at the time was a prime rice growing region and the small boys of the plantation owners and hands were given the chore to keep the "rice birds" out of the fields when the crop was in the ripening stage. This was the role my father was doing at the time and they used light loads suited to shoot or scare, the Bobolinks and other birds out of the fields. The Parker, with the twist barrel was well suited to this duty.The hurricane of 1905 changed that forever since, as the fields and crop was completly overrun with the salt water. The fields were never used for that purpose again as the rice growrers could not compete with the growers in the gulf region at the time. I don't know if the gun was used after that or not.
After looking over the photos I had mentioned in a prevous post, I find the Parker does not appear in the duck hunting these photos depict around 1915. I had not seen the actual gun for about 50 years, so I was mistaken when I mentioned the documentation. My apoloigy for this error.
I am attaching the photos now that I have gone through the learing curve to do this, even though the Parker is not one of the guns in the photos. The photos depict duck hunting along the Sampit, Santee and Waccamaw rivers in Gergetown County SC, circa 1915. My father appears in several.
Thanks for all your assistance in finding information and pointing me in the right direction to learn a little more about the Parker gun In my care.
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