Gillespie Gun Makers of East Fork, NC Book Review

The Gillespie Gun Makers of East Fork, NC

By T. Dennis Glazener

76 pages, softcover: $22.50 plus S&H

Reviewed by Mike Nesbitt

This is a well-prepared book about the Gillespies, a family of gun makers from the East Fork, North Carolina area. It touches on the lives and the work of ten men beginning with John Gillespie, who was born in 1753 and died in 1822. The Gillespie family was generally well documented and notes referring to movements that they participated in are included in this book. One of the Gillespies was known to have traveled with Daniel Boone for a while and Boone possibly carried a Gillespie rifle.

The real highlight of this book, in my opinion, is the gun making that was done by the Gillespies. There are several pages filled with photographs of these old rifles. Here we can find some very good examples of the original rifles and that can mix very well with today’s interest in the Southern rifles and poorboys.

Among the rifles shown, there is some good variety. They all follow the general description of a Southern full-stock rifle, but there is no more established styling found between them. It is as if each rifle was truly an individual, which I’m guessing they really were.

There is one repeated feature on the Gillespie rifles that I will point out. On all of the rifles shown in this book, both percussion and flintlock rifles, the locks are held on with just one lock screw. In general that is a sign of the “later” rifles, such as the Hawken and Lemans, although we could easily expect to see poorboys, made when metal parts were not easily available, with only one lock screw.

It is also worthy to point out that the author, Dennis Glazener, is also a member of the Gillespie family. He is the third great grandson of John Gillespie, Sr. John’s oldest son, William, had a daughter who married Benjamin Glazener of Brevard, North Carolina. That’s how the Glazener name became associated with the Gillespies.

Orders for The Gillespie Gun Makers of East Fork, NC can be sent directly to T. D. Glazener, 917 Manakin Road, Midlothian VA 23113. Make payment directly to T. D. Glazener and the latest price is $22.50 each plus $3.00 first class postage and handling. Dennis Glazener also has a website and that has a short write-up about this book at <www.GillespieRifles.com>.