The "Landis Valley Village & Farm Museum: The Pennsylvania Long Rifle" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Thinking how I can write my story today without insulting those readers that may live in Kentucky, for you see, Kentucky should not be given credit for the invention of the long rifle.  That credit is part of Pennsylvania heritage and should be given to the many rifle makers that lived in Lancaster County between the 1770s and 1840s when long rifle making was at its height.  

The birthplace of the Pennsylvania Long Rifle.  This is
the Martin Meylin Gunshop near Willow Street, PA.  It
was in 1704 that Meylin made what is supposed to be
the first Pennsylvania Long Rifle.

The Pennsyl- vania Long Rifle is the gun that helped lead our nation across the Appalachian Mountains.  It also was the rifle that was given credit for defeating the British during the American Revolution.  One of my favorite TV personalities, Davy Crockett, was carrying a Pennsylvania Long Rifle when he died at the Alamo in 1836.  The Pennsylvania Long Rifle was the choice of Lewis and Clarke when they departed from near St. Louis in 1804 and made their way through the continental divide to the Pacific coast.  

The Lititz, PA Post Office on the far left was once the home
to Andrew Albright, a respected gunsmith who created
Pennsylvania Rifles.  The rifle was so popular on the frontier
that it later mistakenly became known as the Kentucky Rifle.

The Pennsyl- vania Long Rifle was also the weapon of choice of a guy named Daniel Boone who just happened to use it in Kentucky and made it so famous that Kentucky tried to take credit for making it.  Boone was a native Pennsylvanian who used his Pennsylvania Long Rifle for hunting and carried it west to tame the wilderness.  He helped establish the community of Boonesborough, Kentucky which made everyone believe his long rifle was a product of that state.  

The Lancaster Coin Club produced this commemorative
gold coin in honor of the "Hub of Colonial Gunsmithing -
1720-1820.  

But, that myth will be put to rest right now when I tell you that the first Pennsyl- vania Long Rifles were made in Lancaster County, PA by a German immigrant by the name of Martin Mylin in his gunshop in what is now known as Willow Street, PA.  A Long Rifle from 1704 bears the mark of Martin Mylin and leads one to believe that the Mylin Gun Shop was the birthplace of the most effective weapon in early American history.  

A display of flintlock Pennsylvania Long Rifles at the
Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum.

The Pennsyl- vania Long Rifle was able to shoot five times farther, and with greater accuracy, than any musket of the day.  The spin created by the "rifling" of the barrel produced a bullet that spun, thus gained the extra distance and accuracy than the smooth musket balls that tended to drift off-line and drop to the ground sooner.  

The Pennsylvania Long Rifle was famous for its accuracy, even at great distances.  Lancaster's Jacob Metzger was considered to be one of the best master gunsmiths of his time, creating both a reliable and attractive rifle.  These are just a few of the rifles he created in the mid-1700s.

The Pennsylvainia Long Rifle provided a considerable military advantage for the Continental Army because of the fact that they were more accurate and could shoot greater distances than the British smooth bore muskets that forced their troops to get close before their weapons were effective.  

A beautiful flintlock Pennsylvania
Long Rifle made from Maple wood.

I recently made a visit to the Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum where I had a chance to talk to the volunteer who was in the Village Gun Shop.  I learned about the early weapon and about a few of the gunsmiths from Lancaster County, PA who played a big part in establishing Lancaster as the leader in long rifle production.  Besides Martin Meylin, there was Robert Baker who formed a partnership with his son, Caleb and on August 1719 erected a gun boring mill on the Pequea Creek in southern Lancaster County.    Another local rifle maker was Jacob Dickert who perhaps made the Pennsylvania Long Rifle that Davy Crockett had with him at the Alamo.  

Ornamental pan primer and powder
horn for a flintlock rifle.

Mr. Dickert had a shop in the city of Lancaster on North Queen Street where the Brunswick Hotel was eventually built.  He eventually formed a partnership with Lancastrian John Henry and they built a gun barrel boring mill in Manheim Township.  The two were contractors for the Continental Army and in the early 1790s sold thousands of guns to the US government.  Other famous Lancaster gunsmiths have names such as Andreas Albrecht, John Newcomer, Christian Gumpf, Jacob Sees, Andrew Albright, Jacob Metzger, John Drepperd and Melchior Fordney.  Henry Eichholtz Leman was said to have sold rifles to the Indians via a War Department contract in 1839 for $14 each.  Most shops didn't make the entire rifle.  

Display at Landis Valley that shows the caliber of shot.

One might have made the stock, one might have made the barrel while another may have made the lock, butt plate or trigger guard.  Gunmaking was a big part of Lancaster's history and the Village gun shop I visited has many of the tools and machinery used for making the guns. I had the chance to see how they were made and saw the many racks that held some of the best weapons of the late 1770s to the early 1840s.  So, there you go Kentucky!  Seems that your rifle is famous because so many explorers, settlers and frontiersmen from Pennsylvania traveled west with their Pennsylvania Long Rifles and you got the idea that they were made in Kentucky.  Didn't happen!!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

This shows a flint lock rifle's parts.  The flint struck an iron plate, called a frizzen which created a spark which ignited a prime charge of gunpowder in the flash pan under the frizzen.  The spark traveled through a small hole in the back of the barrel and ignited the larger charge of powder projecting the ball out of the barrel.

The percussion cap rifle has a chamber which held a small amount of detonating powder which, when its firing pin was struck by the hammer, caused sparks into the barrel to discharge the gun.  Much more reliable and quicker.

This final frame shows a flintlock Pennsylvania Long Rifle made by John Drepperd who was a gunsmith in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.