Parker Bros Mark 23, 1879

[Bill Murphy]

Family guns and pictures of family with their guns are our most wonderful possessions. My Grandfather was born in 1856. His special order E Grade Lefever pigeon gun was made in 1887. I don't have a clear picture of him with that particular gun, which I still own and shoot. One picture, from about 1915, shows him and my Dad and a third person. My Grandfather is holding a double gun with a metal piece in the cheek of the stock. It is either a pinned repair or a Greener safety. My assumption is that the gun is a Greener. I do have one picture of my Grandfather and the Lefever at his pigeon ring in Hazleton, either shooting box birds or training dogs, I don't know which. The view of the gun is not clear. What is clear is that he is in his Sunday best, sans jacket. I guess some of his shoots were held Sundays after church. The pigeon ring was on Pine Street in Hazleton Heights, only a short walk from St. Gabriel's Catholic church.