Introduction
This page (which is still under construction) is intended to demonstrate that the old-time gunsmiths of Somerset and Bedford counties, Pennsylvania had access to commercially made gun parts. That will not be a suprise to dyed-in-the-wool rifle cranks, but it may be news to more casual admirers of Somerset and Bedford county long rifles.
Chronologically organized evidence
1750: I don't claim to know a lot about the initial settlement of what is now Bedford and Somerset counties, but I can identify at least a few people who were living there in the 1752-1755 timeframe. Whenever the earliest settlers came, they had to travel eastward to obtain necessaries such as salt, flour, and iron. One of the nearest stores was the Ohio Company store in what is now Allegany County, Maryland. A July 26, 1750 record of "George Mason and the Ohio Company" documents John Ross selling himself a gun lock. I believe this would have been at the Ohio Company store erected on Thomas Cresap's farm at Old Town, Maryland before the store at Wills Creek was built. The store at Cresap's was approved for construction on March 29, 1750. John Ross was a local resident, and was evidently one of the storekeepers, along with Hugh Parker, who was the individual authorized by the Ohio Company to build the store at Cresap's place. I cite this to show that even at a very early date, store-bought gun locks were available within easy traveling distance the area that now forms Bedford and Somerset counties.
1796-1797: The store ledger of Martin Rieley documents the Bedford County gunsmith Conrad Atley purchasing two rifle locks, a rifle barrel, and 4-3/4 pounds of iron in the 1796-1797 timeframe. The 2017 book "Gunsmiths of Bedford County, Pennsylvania" indicates that Conrad Atley purchased a silver lock at the Rieley store.
1842: The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was opened to Cumberland, Maryland on November 1, 1842.
1871: Regarding the Pittsburgh & Connellsville Railroad Company, the 1884 book "History of Bedford, Somerset and Fulton Counties: states, "...April 10, 1871, the track was finished between Pittsburgh and Cumberland..." This railroad passed through and served Somerset County.
1872: The "Gunmaker's Materials" section (pages 16 to 28) of the 1872 mail order catalog of Pittsburgh's Great Western Gun Works company advertised all manner of commercial gun parts for muzzle loading firearms. The company also sold new muzzle loaders by mail order, such as a half-stock rifle that belonged to my relative Ephriam Geiger, who lived in Larimer Township of Somerset County.
Non-chronologically organized evidence
The barrel of a percussion rifle by Somerset County gunsmith Benjamin Franklin Troutman (1780-1856) is stamped "REYNOLDS". The second edition of Sellers book "American Gunsmiths" lists two barrel makers named Reynolds. One was in Steubenville, Ohio and the other was in Elmira, New York.