It's a shame that there are virtually no records* of these old sporting good/hardware stores. I suspect the records of sales were destroyed when the store went out of business or the records were deemed to old to be worth keeping anymore. I have factory letters for the following:
A Parker DH - Shipped to W.H Hoegee Company in L.A. Ca. in 1907
A Fox Sterlingworth shipped to Belden Sporting Goods in 1921 (No location available)
*IMO: If,for example, the Sears Roebuck or Simpson Hardware records for the pre-WW II period gun sales were ever to surface it would be a real bonanza. These records would identify who the original purchaser happened to be.
Jim
