 KENTUCKY RIFLES - HOW THEY EARNED THEIR
NAME
by Wayne Mattox
Surprisingly, one of America's earliest triumphs in artistic
and functional design, the "Kentucky rifle," was not invented
or generally fashioned in Kentucky. The name was coined from a
hearty stock of Americans who plied it.
Native Americans called Kentucky the "Dark and Bloody
Ground" because of the unending wars between Iroquois and
Cherokees for its possession. New worlders thought of the first
wild west as a hunter's paradise. In 1752, a stalwart American
Indian trader named John Findley, traveled the Ohio River
documenting the valley's beauty and abundance. In 1769, a bold
young explorer and skilled marksman, who was given an
American-made flintlock rifle at the age of twelve, hired
Findley and four other woodsmen to guide him through a
wilderness country road between Kentucky and Tennessee which is
now know as the "Cumberland Gap." In 1775,(Daniel)
Boonesborough, Kentucky was established.
During the Revolution, demoralized English officers wrote
home about a new type of American-made long-barreled "rifle"
backwoodsmen used with astonishing skill. When the war was won,
the new government paid debts to its officers by offering land
grants in untamed land. Claiming their acreage, these
adventurers brought their rifles to Kentucky with them.
Near the end of the lost War of 1812, American spirits were
raised when five thousand Americans, including two-thousand
frontiersmen with long barreled guns, under the command of
General Andrew Jackson, defeated the British in the Battle of
New Orleans. A popular song called "The Hunters of Kentucky or
The Battle of New Orleans" (no doubt, written by a proud
Kentuckian) forever named America's rifle.
"But Jackson he was wide awake, and wasn't scar'd at
trifles, for well he knew what aim we take, with our Kentucky
Rifles."
The Kentucky rifle was invented and predominantly made in
Pennsylvania. A good shooter cost half a man's yearly wage.
Most were used for hunting on a daily basis. They were handed
down from generation to generation, and are often found in worn
condition today. Antique dealers like myself call this "patina"
and charge additional fare for it. Many of the early
"flintlock" rifles were converted to the improved "percussion"
system in the 1830's. This does not ruin the value of a
Kentucky rifle. It is simply a chapter of its life.
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