doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Parker-Whelen Co

Does anyone have any information or catalogs from the early post war era? Or any information on or examples of what they had the stockers they had employed doing?

If it's any help I know John Hutton worked for them, and possibly also William Humphrey. Humphrey stocked a lot of rifles for Whelen, and Hutton did at least a few. But that is all I know. You can see examples of their work in the Mr Rifleman book.

Tim

I think James V. Howe did as well.

From discussions with Michael Petrov, I am sure John Hutton worked in the Parker-Whelen shop on 14th Street in Northwest Washington. He left Parker-Whelen to live on the mountain behind Ben Toxvard's shop, Shenandoah Guns on Route 7 in Berryville, Virginia. Hutton apparently brought Colonel Whelen's A.P. Curtis made Parker try gun with him to Virginia and Ben Toxvard ended up with it, using it in the shop for many years until he sold it to me in a weak moment. Ben was quite the rifle stocker, but I was not familiar with his shotgun stocks. The Humphrey connection is a bit of a mystery. I have Parker-Whelen postwar catalogs, but there is no information in them about custom gun making. Herman Proctor, who worked for Parker-Whelen, apparently not as a gunmaker, also worked for my dad in the Railroad Retirement Board office in Washington during and after the war, probably a bit of an overlap with his years with Parker-Whelen. Herman and my dad became great friends. I have a letter to a P-W customer written by Herman Proctor discussing some guns she was selling to the store. I found that letter on ebay. One gun was a 20 gauge Model 21. Herman told me when I was about 12 years old that he had a 20 gauge Model 21 that he bought from the store for $25.00. It was probably the 21 Herman told me about. At the time, I was looking for a shotgun for my first hunting season. At the time, Herman was working for Fred Davis at Davis Gun Shop in Falls Church, Virginia. My dad and I could not find a suitable gun for me at Fred's shop, but we found a minty Model 24 Winchester 20 gauge at Don's Gun Shop, also in Falls Church, for fifty dollars. It became my first pheasant gun, but only for a short time. Herman was also on the board at National Capital Skeet and Trap at that time, which I did not realize, although I was shooting at that club at that time.

For more information, search "toxvard", "hutton", and "humphrey" one at a time. You will get posts from me, Michael Petrov, and many others.

Thank you, I will do that. I’m researching an early Firearms International rifle that has some James Howe characteristics, but certainly could be a Hutton stocked rifle.

What make was or is the Firearms International rifle? Have you had the metal out of the wood so you can see if it has any Hutton stamps?

The Parker try gun that Hutton and maybe Humphrey used to fit their stocks was ordered by Dupont to be sent to A.P. Curtis to be fitted with his try stock. It was originally used by famous Dupont shooter, Jack Fanning, and later passed to Colonel Townsend Whelen to be used in his gun shop in Washington, D.C., then to Ben Toxvard at Shenandoah Guns in Berryville, VA. No one can guess how many shooters were measured on that gun over the years. It is a shooting try gun, fully capable of normal firing activity. By the way, Michael Petrov placed Humphrey at addresses in Round Hill, Virginia and Purcellville, Virginia, both possible commuting distance to Shenandoah Guns in Berryville. It is still likely that the gunsmith who lived on the mountain behind the Shenandoah shop was John Hutton. It's too bad that given the many hours I spent with Ben Toxvard, I never asked him the name of the "old man up on the mountain". I was too interested in getting him to sell me the great Parker Try Gun. My quest probably lasted the best part of a decade.

Hutton ended up in Colorado working for the mint.