doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Shenandoah Gun Shop

Does anyone have information relating to Shenandoah Gun Shop located in, I believe, Round Hill, VA. I believe the proprietor and chief gun smith was William L. Humphrey; he is credited with stocking some of Townsend Whelen's rifles. Also, one of his stockmakers was Roy Pullen, originally at Westley Richards.

Any input is welcome.

Humphrey must have been there before my time. I always thought that he worked out of Parker-Whelen. Shenandoah Guns used a Berryville address and was almost to the river bridge on Route 7. Ben Toxvard was the proprietor in the seventies. I purchased Ben's Parker try gun in the early seventies when he needed a few bucks to pay for a Hardinge lathe that had just been delivered. Ben always told me that the Parker had been owned by his predecessor in the shop, who I assume was Humphrey. The try gun had belonged to Colonel Townsend Whelen as part of the shop equipment at Parker-Whelen. I had been trying to buy the Parker for years. Now I'm beginning to see the connection. I never realized that Humphrey was probably the gunsmith who lived up on the mountain behind the Shenandoah gun shop. The shop gave up gunsmithing after Ben Toxvard died. His son, I assume it was his son, continued some retail trade for a while, but before long, the shop was closed. The building still stands as far as I know, but I don't know what it is used for.

I have a Ballard stocked by Humphrey. His work is the equal of any of the "interwar" gunsmiths.

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".

In the book Mister Rifleman, Whelen states that the gunsmith at Parker-Whelen was John Hutton. As I re-read my sources, I am not certain that William Humphrey was associated with Shenandoah Gun Shop at all.

I guess we'll wait for more information.

Could "the old man on the mountain" have been Roy Pullen? Or could it possibly have been John Hutton?

I checked my Humphrey file and have very little to add.

The only address I have seen for him was just Round Hill, VA with an Express address of Purcellville, VA.

Carpetsahib, I only know Pullen and Humphrey by reputation and don't know who the predecessor to Ben Toxvard at Shenandoah Guns was. I guess it was one of them. Bill Murphy

Can you post a photo