A Parker in the Old West..

[Drew Hause]

Neat Jerry.
Information about Schmelzer here
https://www.trapshooters.com/threads...c-1900.824043/

http://www.vintagebaseballgloveforum...hp?f=10&t=4888

It appears the company did not survive the Great Depression and closed about 1931

[Randy Roberts]

I think that's neat. 3 days off my Bday, wrong year though There's a little spot on the map in SD named Bonesteel, always thought that was a unique name.

[stumpstalker]

invoice upright

[Jerry VanHorn]

I have a cancelled postcard..dated 1903 from Hunter Arms to Bonebreaks store in El Reno. IT....telling them a catalog is on the way..

[stumpstalker]

Miscellany, here; but I was curious about the “Agency” reference on the invoice.

J. F. Schmelzer and Sons was an agency of a gunpowder company built up and owned for many years by Colonel Augustus George Hazard, located in an industrial village of Enfield, Connecticut. At some point that section of town was named Hazardville.

So, despite the inherent risks of explosion in manufacturing gunpowder, the naming of the company was not a matter of flippancy.

Hazard was born and raised in Rhode Island and Connecticut had strong business ties with the South, where he worked for a spell when a young man. That may account for the title “Colonel”, since I am not aware of the gunpowder mogul having had any military experience. (You might say the counterpart to such an honorific in the North in the 19th Century was the title “Uncle”, as in “Uncle Dan” Lefever; trap-shooter “Uncle Bob” Elliott (see Drew’s link above) or even “Uncle Ed” Jenks, on whose old farmstead my brother now lives in Maine.)

Visitors to Hazard’s mansion in Enfield included Daniel Webster, Sam Colt and Jefferson Davis.

Explosions at the mill were expected. Large stone blast walls were erected so that when one building blew up it would not destroy another. Plus, the buildings were designed to be easily put back together.

The Colonel died in 1868; the concern was later owned by DuPont and a major explosion destroyed much of the plant in 1913, ending production.
(source info: The Enfield Historical Society.)

[edgarspencer]

This is a gunpowder pail from the Hazard works, Hazardville CT. It is made entirely of copper, including the rivets holding the bale mounts. We use it for wood stove ash.

[Drew Hause]

What Russell said

May 31, 1902 Sporting Life
https://digital.la84.org/digital/col...coll2/id/40916



The great J.A.R. Elliott (from KC) and Parker shooter C.W. Budd were "Blue Ribbon" professional reps
Sept. 17, 1898 Sporting Life



In Feb. 1898, C.W. Budd received on consignment a Parker $400 AAH Pigeon Gun SN 87449 with 30” Whitworth barrels F/F and 2 7/8” chambers. LOP was 14” and DAH 2 1/4” with a pistol grip stock and no safety. It weighed 7# 12 oz.