As many years as I knew Ben Toxvard, he never referred to the gunsmith from Parker-Whelen by name. He always referred to him as "the old man on the mountain". By the time I started hanging out at the shop, the old man was no longer at the shop. I got the impression that the old man owned the shop and sold it to Ben when he retired. Ben said he would visit occasionally, but never when I was in the shop. Apparently, according to Ben, the old man brought the Parker to the shop after Parker-Whelen closed. Ben sold many of General Billy Mitchells guns through the shop. I didn't know until years later that the Parkers and other nice guns that passed through the shop belonged to Mitchell. I always got the impression that Ben's stockmaking abilities were a result of working under "the old man".
