"Gunner's" Parker

[Bill Murphy]

Rich, thanks for sending copies of the historical information on Gunner's Gun which I had misplaced. To add to that information, my accountant's wife is a direct descendant of one of the partners of Chiswell and Nicholson, the store where the gun was purchased. They are many generation residents of Montgomery County, and their first son was named "Nicholson" after the family name. They live within four or five miles of the store, even closer than I do. The successors to the Chiswell and Nicholson store were Chiswell and Jones, or maybe it is a different business altogether. The Jones family were long time merchants in Dickerson, MD, and the Jones family continued to an old trapshooting buddy of my teen years, Lloyd Jones, owner of the International Harvester franchise in Dickerson, which flowed down from the general stores of his grandparents and great grandparents. I found more information than I will ever need by googling "chiswell nicholson dickerson maryland" and "chiswell jones dickerson maryland" It brought us way more information than my accountant or his wife were aware of concerning her family and its businesses, even though they are amateur local historians. I have located one more identical 20 gauge VH in the Parker orders in my files that also came from that store. Unfortunately, I have no hope of locating that gun even though it probably lives just a few miles from me. I shot Gunner's Gun for many years before I sent it to you and enjoyed it very much, even though the chokes were a bit aggressive. It's one of the most original little Parkers I have ever owned, considering that it showed long time field use. The gun never went more than ten miles from its original place of purchase, even after I found it at a local auction. The original owner was a resident of the town where it was bought, if my research is correct. I bought a very high condition VH 12 gauge Parker from the same estate and failed to buy an earlier VH in almost as high condition. It seems the owner used the 20 gauge for almost all of his hunting, even though he owned three Parkers. His name was "Eader" and I'm afraid what I'll get if I google his name with the name of his home town, Dickerson, MD, or the neighboring Poolesville, MD. I still pass a mailbox with the name Eader when driving to and from my gun club. The 12 gauge VH that I did not buy at the auction is an "order book" era gun which I should have lettered, just to find out if it also was purchased at the same store. I have the serial number in my records, but am reluctant to order a letter on a gun I don't own. I hope this information is of interest to you, Rich.

[C.O.B.]

Bill thank you for the historical information on Gunner's gun. It's both interesting and amazing at how these guns travel from one place to another.

I'll have Gunner's gun at the Southern and your welcome to take it out for a round on the course if you wish.

I was going to take it out hunting this am but we got an ice storm and there will be little travel today, maybe tomorrow or Sunday.