An unusual coincidence - from the 1903 forum
This thread began on the 1903 forum, where a gentleman expressed his thoughts as to how wonderful it would be to actually have a documented family military weapon. I said that I was lucky enough to have such an item, and asked if the "long version" would be of any interest. Several people expressed interest, so here is what I'll call an unusual coincidence:
To begin, I had two wonderful mentors when I started collecting trapdoors in the 1970s, Dick Branum, whose amazing collection is now up for auction at RIA, and the late Bob Hill, who co-authored the first truly serious trapdoor book with Al Frasca in 1980. I had asked Bob about the M1884XRRB, a very rare gun which, while quite similar in appearance to the common M1888RRB, actually has a number of differences, mainly in the internal workings of the latch, and design of the front sight. 1000 were made, but nearly all were rebuilt/upgraded to the later "production" arm. Bob said I'd probably never find one, but that he had a set of the metal parts (obtained from Martin Retting) and would put together a representative "wall-hanger" for me, price to be determined by how it came out, but not to exceed $1000. I said, go ahead, and was very pleased with the results (it had ended up at $950). End of story? Not quite.
A few years later, I had a 'phone call from another friend who made annual trips to upstate New York, visiting family and picking up stuff to sell. He'd found a RB trapdoor, which he said was "strange" in that it lacked a front sight, and part of the latch. I asked him the serial number, and he said "300,000 something, I don't know, I'll show it to you in a couple of weeks." Of course, he was describing an 84XRRB, which he had gotten for next to nothing, and was very happy to sell to me for $325. When I saw the rifle, I immediately knew it was "right" (you cannot fake the stock of that model by modifying something else, as there is more wood than any possible donor, in two very obvious places). By now, SRS was on the scene, and I soon discovered that the rifle (318991) was listed - this is hugely important, not just to be listed, but listed as the rare model. It definitely deserved to have the latch and sight restored (everything else was very nice, and complete) and so I did so, using parts from my wall-hanger, and a couple of bits from Dixie, who, in those days still had some original rare parts. Before anyone asks, I sold the "wall-hanger" years later (with full disclosure!) for more than I'd paid for both rifles, plus the few parts.
I ordered a letter from SRS (Frank Mallory was alive then of course) and it came with copies of a period document listing the person to whom it had been issued, some scores, and tabulations of how many times it had been fired, etc. - also noting that it had been returned to SA for work on the sights. This explained the (just slightly nicer than the rest of the rifle) Buffington sight, and the double cartouches [SWP/1885] [SWP/1887] and the double ℗s! The rifle had been issued to one Captain William Cheney Manning of the 23rd Infantry, stationed at Ft. Mackinac during 1886-87. He must have been a shooting enthusiast as issuance of a rifle to an officer would have been unusual. He was from Maine, and had had a distinguished CW record, twice wounded, etc. He could have retired but chose to stay in the service, at reduced rank.
To close this off, I have Manning ancestors from Maine, but could not (using the LDS on-line data - which has to be treated with some caution!) for a long time, make a positive connection. From various clues, including references to the identical tiny village in the UK appearing in both US and British archives, I was pretty sure I had the right Manning family, but was missing (only) the immigrant generation. Finally, after a long search, finding a previously overlooked second marriage in the late 1500s, I was able to establish what appears to be a solid lineage - so, I honestly believe that I have my cousin's rifle!
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