Posted on 12/22/2006 11:56:04 AM PST by girlangler
Gunsmith Unearths Buried Treasure
Wealth Of History Recovered Inside 1740s Musket
By Kelly Jasper
SINGERS GLEN — Finding the blackened, broken musket was at least, at first, Scott Musser’s buried treasure.
This summer, he found an antique gun — a 1740s-era musket that sold for $125, plus tax — in one of Philadelphia’s South Street shops.
"I knew I had already struck gold," said the 43-year-old family man from New Jersey.
It wasn’t until six months later — just a few weeks ago — that Musser visited a gunsmith in Singers Glen and discovered that someone had actually stowed gold inside the gun’s hollowed stock.
To be exact, Musser and Douglas Bates, the gunsmith, had discovered four gold, seven silver and six copper coins. Musser says the owner of the Belgian-made musket had also jammed a will and a $5 silk note inside a fragile leather pouch, hidden behind a metal plate on the butt of the stock centuries ago.
The coins date to 1743. The will is dated Jan. 20, 1848. It’s signed by a New Jersey man, the son of a patriot who died in the War of 1812. The family — the Hillmans — has a rich history with ties to the Revolutionary War, maybe even the French and Indian War, Musser says.
Now more than 250 years old, the gun isn’t in pristine condition. A musket ball is lodged in the barrel and Musser repaired the bayonet this fall, a decision that led to the gold’s discovery when the two men first disassembled the gun three weeks ago.
Still, early estimates appraise the gun and collection around $20,000, Musser says.
As far as he knows, no one has seen the artifacts for at least a century.
"No one would have ever thought to look for treasure here," Musser said. "I didn’t think things like this happened."
That is, until Musser and Bates first laid eyes on the forgotten relics.
Know Where To Look
The gun, Bates says, was in good condition considering its age, but the bayonet lug at the tip of the musket had come loose and needed repair.
"I’ve seen much worse," said Bates, a 50-year-old man who says he’s tinkered with guns, especially antiques, for years.
Bates is owner of Handgun Repair Shop, a business run out of his Singers Glen home since 1998. Here, Bates fixes the guns of collectors across the United States who seek his expertise with fragile antiques — like Musser’s 1740s musket.
In July, Musser’s wife, Lisa, spotted the musket hanging high up on the wall of an antique store, Pearl of Africa. The $150 price tag was too good to be true and Musser says he wrote off the gun as a fake.
Upon inspection, though, he realized the gun could be worth a good bit of money and haggled the price down to $125.
Musser took it home and pledged to clean up the artifact. He turned to Bates, a gunsmith he found online, when other repairman said they couldn’t fix the musket without damaging it. Bates thought he could and was willing to give it a go, Musser says.
It was important to preserve the finish because Musser didn’t want to destroy the first clue — an engraving he found on the gun — that started him on the treasure hut.
Musser found the engraving when, against the advice of others, he decided to clean up the old musket. As he polished, he uncovered a partial letter on the stock, an engraving obscured under centuries of grime.
That letter was part of a name, Josiah Hillman, the original owner of the gun. Hillman, Musser later learned, was the nephew of a solider in the New Jersey militia who died in the War of 1812.
But it was only after more than 200 hours of research and the discovery of the artifacts that the gun’s ties to the family began to unfold, Musser says.
Several dead ends already convinced him that the origins of the musket would remain a mystery. Musser had Googled and pulled historical records, sought the advice of collectors and brought the gun to Bates.
When Musser made the trek to Bates’ shop in November, he still couldn’t explain who Hillman was, even though the name had been revealed months earlier.
All that changed once he got the gun into Bates’ hands, Musser says.
Problem was, Bates’ business was booming and he had a six-month waiting list. Musser offered him three times his regular rate. Bates accepted, even offering to open his shop on a Saturday when the business is normally closed.
Musser drove the six hours to Virginia and showed Bates the gun. Lisa was a "trooper," agreeing to come on the trip, but she waited in the car as the two men inspected the gun, Musser said.
It wasn’t long until she heard her husband screaming from the shop.
Those Who Seek Shall Find
Gunsmiths sometimes hollowed the stock for two reasons, Musser said. The hollow stock could stabilize the musket as hardware was installed, and the empty cavity also provided a place for soldiers to store their cleaning kits or extra flints.
That November day, Musser and Bates spotted a rotted hole on the side of the stock, leading both to think it might be hollow.
Musser gave Bates the go-ahead. Once he removed the butt plate, Bates saw a wad of leather, so soft it looked like cloth, and thought it was a cleaning kit.
Musser said he should try to remove it. As Bates tugged, the leather began to disintegrate.
"He was getting anxious," Musser said. "I didn’t want him to feel responsible if something broke."
So Musser asked for a pair of pliers. He grasped the sack and pulled. It gave way, ripping a bit, unveiling the first of several Spanish coins.
"I was like a kid with a new toy on Christmas morning," he said.
Musser says the presents got bigger and better the deeper he dug. He unfolded the pouch on a workbench. His jaw dropped at what he saw.
"I was shaken with joy," Musser says. "I’m normally levelheaded. But I was shaken, trembling. I screamed, ‘You’re not going to believe this.’"
He found 17 coins and a tattered paper, signed by James Hillman, which detailed his wishes upon his death.
While Bates has worked with a few other guns as old as this one, in all his years in business he says he has never found anything more than a few dust bunnies inside a stock.
"My jaw was hanging out," Bates said. "I was flabbergasted."
The men pored through the collection, photographing what they had found. Musser took the information back to New Jersey to continue his research. That’s when he found the link for which he had been looking.
James, whose will was found in the gun, is the cousin of Josiah Hillman, the original owner whose name is inscribed on the gun.
Musser still isn’t sure how Josiah, the original owner, got his hands on the gun. But in his research, he learned that James’ father was Samuel Ashbrook Nicholson Hillman, a man dubbed "the Fighting Quaker." Musser’s research shows that Samuel was captured by the British and died during the war.
Now, with the discovery prompting the attention of collectors and galleries, Musser says the artifacts will likely fall into the hands of a museum. He’s talked with the Gloucester Historical Society — the county where members of the family are buried — but Musser says it would also be nice if a descendent was to own and preserve the relics.
He explains that the coins James stowed away weren’t just "saved for a rainy day." They’re a time capsule of sorts.
Each year of a coin corresponds with a marriage or birth in the family. The contents of that stock were a family history, he says.
The needle-nose pliers used to pull the sack from the gun only left bite marks in one of the copper coins, he said. The rest are fine.
For now, the gun is kept in a climate-controlled safe. It’s awaiting appraisal from a New Jersey gallery.
In the meantime, Musser is compiling a book on the gun’s history and has e-mailed Bates with regular updates as he learns about the history of the gun.
"It’s a lot of work and a complicated process," Musser says. "It’s been a long, hard road."
But, of course, he adds, not nearly as long as the road Josiah’s gun has traveled.
Contact Kelly Jasper at 574-6273 or kjasper@dnronline.com
Ping
I believe the owner of the gun is a FReeper, can't recall his name.
Very cool.
ping
GASP! Sold without a trigger lock! And a Bayonet! Did the seller have an FFL! This needs investigating! Maybe he should have turned it in for $50.00 in cash at a gun buyback. Philadelphia can rest easier now this evil thing off the street!
Sarc/off
That is a great story.
Great story!!!!
James died 1853 in Glouchester County, NJ.
Hillman family history -
http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=heath-swanger&id=I1251
http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=PED&db=laurieun&id=I14002
Great story, thanks for posting it.
Sam,G'nad,300WM - good story ping.
I was so tired today from my trip, I forgot to ping my favorite freepers.
I was doing some research for one of my articles and came across this, so I hurriedly posted it. After coming back and reading the comments this evening I realized I'd left you all out.
This really is a neat story. Like the George Varney engraved handmade bambo flyrod I bought at an auction in October, never overlook a collectible. I paid $35 for my flyrod, and found out it is worth a minimum of $350.
That's interesting, thanks for posting it.
I have a relative who compiled all my McCoy family history, many of whom eventually settled in Tennessee. She wanted me to join the Daughters of the Confederacy or something like that many years ago, and I never did.
She did provide me all her family history records, and it is similar to this. My ancestor fought in the Revolutionary War, and received a land grant in east Tennessee for his service. The first there were trappers, etc., some of the first to settle this new frontier (it was the frontier then).
They were here before the county and town they settled became such, in the mid 1700s.
I have copies of a will the Revolutionary soldier wrote with a quill pen and it is amazing to read. He willed cooking pots and some goats, so forth, to his wife. Then he stipulated she would be cared for and live on the property for the duration of her life.
He willed one son a lot of his land, and so forth.
He actually left a lot (for those days) of money to a grandaughter, named Rebecca. She comes up later in the family history. I often wonder what he thought, who she was, etc. I know what he became from family history, a squire (in those days the lawman, judge, jury, etc., and a prominent businessman).
I can go to one county here in Tennessee and on land donated by my ancestors for churches, schools, and graveyards, point out the graves of my relatives from the Revolutionary War all the way down to my maternal grandmother.
I have a real connection to that land (my Tara), and I'd love to be buried there myself, can't explain why, but I have been fascinated about that historical place that is my ancestor's original homeplace for many years -- it is surreal to visit there, and use my imagination combined with many family stories (I actually interviewed my great aunts and uncles once there)to reconstruct the lives of people who built this country and contributed to my genes.
Whew, our genes sure got watered down somehow along the way, but maybe that's why I am so fascinated by these accomplished ancestors (grin)
Hope everything is going well with you. Haven't seen you in a while.
Thanks for posting, girlangler and the ping yank. A really interesting read.
MERRY CHRISTMAS to all.
I got started into genealogy when I was about 20 and while snooping around in a great uncle's horse barn found a box filled with old unidentified family photos. It's amazing they hadn't been ruined by the weather or rodents. Thankfully, my grandmother was able to identify 99% of them. The best vacations I've had were the couple we went across the country to all the family homesteads. In Arkansas, we saw a car dealership with our unusual last name and pulled in. Our jaws dropped when a man that could have been my grandfather's twin brother walked out. Those genes were apparently strong.
My gosh, the unusual name, car dealership, in Arkansas could be a connection to my husband's family.
Maybe we need to freepmail. I used to work for a small newspaper chain in Arkansas, and found that a lot of the people there had ancestors who migrated from this part of the country (Tennessee).
The area of Tennessee where my ancestors settled was originally part of N.C, the original 13 colonies. My ancestors, and my husband's go back to some of the first Europeans in this country.
Yes i am a FReeper,user name is Musketfinder.
I appreciate the interest in the find, but the family history behind the musket is so more facinating. A Lt. Colonel Josiah Hillman that served in the New Jersey Militia and who's name is engraved on the stock is responsible for helping Gen. Washington to his first victory, "The Battle of Trenton" by way of his cat and mouse skirmmishes with Hessian troops under the Command of British Officer Colonel Dunop. So, that by the time Washington and his men were reportedly coming, Higher level British officers enjoying some Christmas Eve cheer dimissed the hand delivered reports of Washingtons advancements as just another irritating and threatless taunt by the back woods militia boys. Henceforth, you snooze you lose, and as history shows/reports they did. Just one of many of the Hillman stories.....
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