Build Date Clarifcation & Other

[Robert Tarbox]

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.

[MarketHunter]

Robert,

I'm very interested to see your photos, thanks for going to the trouble of getting them ready to post.


Destry

[Robert Tarbox]

Well, That didn't go well. I will try again to attach the photos I mentioned before.

Where are the Grandkids when you need them?

[MarketHunter]

Very nice, those are some great photos.

"English Mallards" that's not a phrase I've heard used in reference to anything except live decoys. Interesting!

Down in Louisiana some folks call mallards "French Ducks" oddly enough.


Destry

[David Hamilton]

Dear Robert, The Sampit as well as the other rivers emptying into Waccamaw Bay have been amongst the most productive hunting waters in eastern USA. My family has hunted those waters for centuries. The Santee Club was near-by and included many Northern sports who came for the shooting. Your pictures reveal a part of that shooting arranged for visiting sportsmen. As the area was economically flat on its back, locals could not afford steam yachts and the like. It was a tourism business and all were glad to get it. There were some very colorful people who infested the area and the tales are interesting and long. My people were from Charleston but included Georgetown and they were sportsmen. David

[Robert Tarbox]

David:

Yes, you are absolutely right, These photos were part of an effort to promote the Winyah Bay and The Santee Delta as "The Sportsman's Paradise" in 1916. As was previously discussed, the devastation to the economy when the rice industry failed was enormous for the region. My Grandfather was a rice planter and owned the Willowbank Plantation, on the (Black) Pee Dee. After the hurricane, they turned the rice mill into an oar factory and produced oars until they Ash lumber was depleted in the Black River area, around 1912. Hunting and fishing were a better part of the economy at the time. The Atlantic Coast Lumber Company on the Sampit River in Georgetown, was the only major employer in the region at the time, I believe.

I hope this discussion does not seem to be too far off topic for some, a little history is good for all of us now and then, don't you think?

[Dean Romig]

Robert, on the contrary, this discussion is the kind of thing that makes this forum what it is. Historical facts about Parkers, People, places that were hunting and shooting destinations are the kind of things that augment the great historical articles many of the members write for the Parker Pages - the wonderful "newsletter" of the PGCA. The Parker Pages, in reality, is the fifty odd page journal of the PGCA and Parker history in all it's forms both past and present.

Thanks for sharing.

[MarketHunter]

It's thread like this that keep me interested. Not being a tech or mechanic, sometimes that sort of thing can be a little dry. Keep it coming!

Destry

[David Hamilton]

Robert, My Great Grandfather was a rice factor who worked with a good many rice growers in the Georgetown area. Perhaps our ancestors knew each other. Mine was named Henry O'Neill and as he died of heart failure he made some notes about his business but it had been his habit to keep all his records in his head! I need not tell you the rest.
My grandmother told me that the family ate mostly game at the table and that beef was a rarity. I will try to find a photo of him with a deer he shot. David

[Robert Tarbox]

David, It would be very likely that they knew of each other, However I have no way of knowing at this date. It seems there is no one left to ask. If I knew then, what I know now, I sure would have asked more questions of the older folks when I was young. There is so much detailed history lost forever for the lack of just asking. A word to the wise for some of you younger people, ask questions of your relatives, of their lives, knowledge of their work, hobbies, geographic areas, people in their lives, before it is too late.

For geographic reference, my grandfathers plantation was on the north side of Georgetown and adjoining the town limits. It was on the portion of the Pee Dee between the Black river and Winyah Bay. The rice fields are still apparent and visible from the bridge over the Waccamaw river. The dry land area is now a sub division and once was the farm portion of the property. The property was sold around 1914-15 and to whom, I don't know.