The Pennsylvania - Kentucky Rifle by Henry J. Kauffman - December 24, 1980

This book is like new. The only problem is it does not have a dust jacket. The pages inside are clean, white and crisp.

The history of this nation's settlement and the expansion of its frontiers is inseparable from the rifle. This is especially true of the surge of settlers who moved into Ohio and Kentucky in the early part of the 19th century. With these pioneers went one of the necessary tools of colonization of those days, a muzzle-loaded flintlock rifle. Evolved from German arms, which were brought to these shores by early settlers, and which for a time were copied by native gunsmiths, this New World weapon met the needs of the environmentin which the American settler found himself. While this rifle found extensive use in many places other than Kentucky, it was here that its reputation was made. Researchers prior to Mr. Kauffman have used the familiar term, "Kentucky Rifle,"and made little effort to establish its true lineage. It is the theme of this book that this weapon at least deserves a hyphenated name since it was born a Pennsylvania rifle and was later married to Kentucky. Exhaustive research has been done in this book to prove that this product of 1961 Pennsylvania gunsmiths simply lost its identity when it became most closely allied with the then "new frontier," Kentucky. In documenting this belief Mr. Kauffman made detailed studies of the census records of 1850, deeds, wills, intestate inventories, and tax assessment lists of a large number of Pennsylvania counties and one Maryland county. Much information, never before known, has thus been compiled about the makers of these rifles.