Rare Sample Rifle Shoots Past Estimate Bringing $25,850
In Skinner's April 16th Discovery auction, a Maple "Kentucky" Flintlock Rifle, from Lancaster, Pennsylvania shot past its estimate to bring $25,850. The "Kentucky" rifle was first developed in Pennsylvania by Germanic settlers who had emigrated from their homeland. Long, lightweight and accurate, the rifle was fashioned to meet the needs of pioneers and frontiersmen.
This particular rifle was signed, inscribed and dated: "Jacob Fordney Jns. Sample Rifle Deposited with his proposals. Dated August 18th 1837, Lancaster, PA". History shows that J. Fordney was a Lancaster PA gunsmith active circa 1830 - 1878 who made full and half stock Indian trade rifles and Kentucky rifles.
An interesting bit of history:
The first time "not guilty by reason of insanity" was used as a legal defense, was in Lancaster in 1846 after John Haggerty murdered gunsmith Melchior Fordney with an axe. Loose said Fordney got axed because he wouldn't shoot Haggerty's horse -- the horse that Haggerty said climbed a tree and talked to him. Haggerty thought his horse was possessed, Loose said. The jury didn't agree with the insanity defense and Haggerty was hung. Afterward, doctors sawed off the top of his head to look at his brain to see if it looked different than any other, Loose said, but it didn't.
