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HISTORICAL AND IDENTIFIED WILD WEST PRESENTATION RIFLE - Lot #4691

Another in a long line of outstanding offerings from our website, this one has so much history, I can hardly pack it into one listing. At the end of this description, you'll find a major and extremely important historical discovery that I made during my research. This is a Martini-Henry Model Rifle Produced by Providence Tool Works and presented to a true Western Pioneer, Buffalo Hunter, Cavalry Scout, Indian Fighter and Sheriff, Harvey S. Faucett. It is beautifully inscribed on the left side of the frame, " H. S. Faucett, from Z. Chafee, for Services". On the right side is inscribed, "Kill Deer, Peabody & Martini Patents". I can tell you much more about Faucett and his gun that I can put to text here, but will do my best. In a nut-shell, Harvey Faucett was a true American Icon, but remained a virtual unknown until I was contacted by family members who offered his gun, documents and history to me, and which I purchased about 5 years ago. With little knowledge of his total background, I purchased the rifle and other items based on a newspaper obituary that was included with the numerous documents and original photographs. After a few days of research, it was my opinion that his adventurous life on the frontier was strikingly similar and often equal to the great historical figures of the American West such as Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Doc Holliday and Buffalo Bill Cody.

And Harvey Faucett knew them all.

Faucett was born in February of 1845 in Butler County, Ohio and after his family moved to Elwood, Indiana, Harvey packed up at the age of sixteen for his first adventure assisting Federal supply trains during the Civil War. He was aboard the steamship Nassau when it struck a sandbar at Brazos Bay, Texas in 1863 and became an assitant scout between Brownsville and various Texas posts. After returning to St. Louis and then Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, he joined a group crossing the plains to Montana where he had his first experiences fighting Indians. He spent the fall and winter of 1865 with "California" Joe Milner trapping on the Republican River in Colorado and Nebraska, and visited Ft. Kearney the year before the infamous Fetterman Massacre. It may have been Milner who gave Harvey his nick-name of "Arapaho Harv". By 1870, Harvey was back in Indiana as a druggist, worked as a surveyor, buffalo hunted in Nebraska and tried other enterprises. In 1874, he joined the Custer geological expedition into the Black Hills and with many other men, prospected for gold over the winter. In the spring of 1875 General Crook returned and removed several hundred men and women including Faucett who were illegally prospecting on Sioux and Cheyenne Indian lands and began another geological survey of which Faucett was a part.

It was during this excursion that Faucett met such notables as Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok. It is documented that about June 23, 1876 Fossett learned of the planned massive Indian attack on Gen. Custer and rode his horse to its death in a failed attempt to warn regiment. In 1877 at Fort Russell near Cheyenne, Wyoming, Faucett met ex-Texas Ranger Hank Wormwood. Wormwood and Faucett were hired by Professor Henry Newton as guides for his geological expedition. The professor died unexpectedly of what they called "Moutnain Fever" and his body was returned to Deadwood, Colorado for embalming. This is where Faucett's history becomes extremely interesting. A young Brown University student named Zechariah Chafee had accompanied Prof. Newton, Wormwood and Faucett on this expedition as Newton's assistant and which for him was a summer "field-trip". After Newton's death and the following spring, Zechariah asked Faucett and Wormwood to help him escort the body of Newton on a perilous journey through Indian Territory to the railroad cut in Sydney, Nebraska, the first leg of his returning the body back east to family and friends. Faucett and Wormwood agreed to join him and this adventure was completed with many hazards including fighting off enormous wolf packs, crossing rivers and streams and avoiding hostile Indians. The entire story smacks of the adventures of Woodrow Call returning the body of Gus McRea to his beloved "Clara's Orchard" in the book, "Lonesome Dove". Several months afterwards, both Fawcett and Wormwood received an inscribed Peabody Martini rifle from Chafee whose father was at that time president of the Providence Tool Company in Rhode Island, manufacturer of the rifles. Each gun was inscribed, with the one in this grouping belonging to Faucett.

Faucett returned to Deadwood for a while to work a mining claim and also worked with a man named Holden, hauling freight from Bismarck and Fort Pierre under the name "Fossett and Holden Freight Company". Hank Wormwood went on to Miles City, Montana where he became the first city Marshall and where he died of pneumonia in 1882. In 1879, after hearing of the carbonate silver discoveries in Leadville, Colorado, Fossett traveled there for prospecting. The Colorado National Guard was formed in 1879 there and he joined the 3rd Colorado Volunteers, first as a lieutenant and then a captain of Company F. Fossett remained in Leadville and was appointed the city Marshal in nearby Robinson, Colorado while naming William G. Milner as his deputy. In 1882 he married Miss Mary Young of Leadville. In 1884, Fossett was appointed Marshal of Leadville. He helped clean up the mining town and was known as a tough law man on the criminal element. He was presented a solid gold and diamond mounted Marshal's badge (which accompanies this grouping) from the Leadville citizens on July 11, 1884. He arrested Doc Holliday for his last murder which occurred in Leadville in a saloon. Holliday was later acquitted, but the story only added to the amazing group of characters that passed through Faucett's life. 1886 found Faucett in the produce business in Leadville. In 1887 he was a deputy sheriff for Lake County, Colorado. In 1888 he was appointed city Marshall of Virginia City, Montana. In 1890 he moved to Seattle Washington and worked as a deputy marshal for the Washington District and then as a detectives for the Seattle Lakeshore and Eastern Railroad Company. In 1891 Fossett was a member of the Seattle Police Department where he worked mainly as a detective for the next four years, capturing the notorious Kid Donnelly after a pistol duel with him and his partner during a burglary attempt. Faucettt left the Seattle Police Department in January, 1895 and returned to Colorado for a visit with friends. He then moved back to Elwood, Indiana where he was named superintendent of police. In 1896 he moved his family to Kansas City, Kansas and basically retired. In 1920 Fossett was listed as a widower and his occupation as a writer. He was busy writing his memoirs with the help of his friend, Clyde Roberts of the Kansas City Star newspaper. Faucett died on September 25, 1930 after he broke his pelvis in a fall during a friendly scuffle at the city market.

The Grouping ; One fact warrants special mention in this grouping of photos and artifacts and it is very important. You'll note the copy of one of the most famous photos of the Wild West to be included with the posted photos. Let's call it photo "A". I downloaded this photo from the internet. This is the famous photo of two men at the gravesite of Wild Bill Hickok, taken very soon after Hickok's death. The two men at the site have been erroneously referred to in the past as "Steve and Charlie Utter" or "Arapaho Joe" and "Colorado Charlie" which is actually written on the verso of the original photo. Well, I'm going to have to respectfully disagree. That ain't Charley Utter or Steve Utter or anyone else. That's my hero Harvey Faucett, and good old Hank Wormwood is standing on the other side of the grave. How do I know this? You'll note the original cabinet card that came directly from Faucett's family with the other photos in this grouping. It is the photo of Faucett in his buckskins wearing what looks to be a navy blue shirt with yellow piping on the collar with a nice (probably yellow) neckerchief tide in it like George Custer used to wear. We'll call this photo "B". His puffy fringed breast pocket is stitched on, and he is holding a Henry Rifle. This same photo appears in numerous publications that published Harvey's obituary in 1930. Now check out the man kneeling next to Wild Bill Hickok's grave. There's no question that it's not only Harvey Faucett, but he's wearing the exact same outfit that he was wearing in the photographer's studio, Navy blue shirt with yellow piping, yellow neckerchief and same buckskins. Also in the grouping are other original family photos that show Faucett in his militia uniform, as a Police Officer and one with his wife and children. In my opinion, and that of all others that I've shown these photos to is that they are all of one man, Harvey Faucett.

There are also two photos of Hank Wormwood (downloaded) that I have included. One (photo "C") shows Hank ready for action with his 1873 Winchester across his lap and a large revolver in his belt. The other ("D") shows a very handsome and cleaned-up Hank in a fine suit and badge while Marshal of Miles City.


Another amazing part of this group is the lot of over 300 letters written by Faucett and sent to Zechariah Chafee over a 30 year period that were recently found by noted collector, author and great friend, Greg Lampe, which he discovered in the Rhode Island State Library. These letters re-count Faucett's early adventures as well as a weekly report of happenings out west that Faucett wrote colorfully for Chaffee. The feature items of course, are the fine condition Inscribed Peabody-Martini Rifle presented to Faucett by Chafee and the world-class Marshal's badge. The rifle retains traces of color-case hardening on it's frame and 85%+ original blue. The wood is fine and the bore and action are excellent. The condition of the badge is near mint. All in all, this is a dynamite grouping.
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HISTORICAL AND IDENTIFIED WILD WEST PRESENTATION RIFLE

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