James Clark II, Bedford County, Pennsylvania gunsmith

Introduction

A gunsmithing compendium lists James Clark as being a gunsmith in Bedford County in 1877. I refer to this individual as James Clark II because a James Clark is also identified as a gunsmith on the 1821 tax roll of Hopewell Township, Bedford County. It seems unlikely that one individual could be a gunsmith in 1821 and 1877 and yet escape detection as a gunsmith in the intervening 55 years. I could, of course, be wrong. I do not know which township the 1877 gunsmith James Clark lived in.

This page is part of an online project that features the old-time guns and gunsmiths of Bedford and Somerset counties, Pennsylvania.

L. Dietle
camouflage

Chronology

1858: I don't know if it is relevant, but the property of a James Clark that was located in or near Liberty township is mentioned in the following notice from the May 7, 1858 issue of the "Bedford Inquirer" newspaper.

1860: I don't know if it is relevant, but there is a farmer named James Clark listed in the 1860 census of Liberty Township (page 293). His age appears to be 60. Living in the same household are 56-year-old Margaret, 18-year-old farm hand Thomas, 23-year-old Mary, 21-year-old Margaret, 16-year-old James, 15-year-old Elizabeth, and 11-year-old Josephine.

1861: I don't know if it is relevant, but there is a "Jas. Clark" along the Juniata River in Liberty Township on the 1861 Walker map of Bedford County, Pennsylvania.

1870: I don't know if it is relevant, but there is a listing for the household of a 30-year-old Ireland-born railroad laborer in the Saxton Borough portion of the 1870 census records of Bedford County. A 25-year-old woman and one and three-year-old children are also listed in the household. I did not see a listing for a James Clark in the general Liberty Township portion of the 1870 census records.

1877: Sellers' 2008 book "American Gunsmiths" lists a James Clark as a gunsmith in Bedford County, Pennsylvania in 1877. Sellers indicates his source for the information is a directory.

1877: I don't know if it is relevant, but there is a "Jas. Clark" along the Juniata River on the Liberty Township map in the 1877 atlas of Bedford County, Pennsylvania.

1880: I did not find a listing for James Clark in the manuscript 1880 census records of Saxton, Liberty Township, or Stonerstown.

Work product?

A full stock rifle with a Bedford County-style buttstock and a 38-inch barrel marked J. Clark was sold at auction for $1,495.00 on September 7, 2012 by RIA. It has a cap box instead of a patch box, which suggests it is a later period rifle. The consignor of the rifle described it as a rifle by James Clark of Bedford County, Pennsylvania and also of Mercer County, New Jersey.

Visit the Gunsmith Project Index for biographical info on various Bedford and Somerset county gunsmiths and the longrifles they crafted.

Go to the Korns family genealogy home page