During the late 1800s there were at least two hardware stores in the town of Somerset, Pennsylvania that offered "a full line of gun repairs": Holderbaum's and Byers & Barnett.
When I first encountered the phrase "a full line of gun repairs" in the advertising of the Byers & Barnett hardware store and Holderbaum's hardware store, I thought the stores were offering gun repair services. As I have come to understand that hardware stores were an important source of commercially produced gun parts for the gunsmithing trade, I now believe the phrase "a full line of gun repairs" indicates the hardware stores were stocking a full line of gun repair parts such as locks, nipples, drums, springs, and hammers. This belief was strengthened by an 1886 Holderbaum advertisement I found recently that mentions "Plugs and Nipples ... Gun-locks, Patch-boxes" instead of "a full line of gun repairs".
L. Dietle
The following recurring Byers & Barnett advertisement is from the August 20, 1879 issue of the "Somerset Herald" newspaper. This advertisement ran from December 4, 1878 to at least January 21, 1880.
I did not find the Byers & Barnett hardware store on the Somerset town map in the 1876 Beers atlas. The J.F. Blymyer hardware store was advertising at No. 3, Baer's Block before and after the August 20, 1879 advertisement shown above, so it is hard to understand how Byers & Barnett could be a business successor or business location successor to J.F. Blymyer. Click here to see a May 12, 1880 ad for J.F. Blymyer. A hardware store that does eventually operate at the No. 3, Baer's Block address is Holderbaum's, which commenced operations in 1884.
L. Dietle
Return to the Korns family genealogy home page
