This gun was built by my great great great uncle, George Kopp: Saturday, January 25, 2014 G. Kopp rifle at The Prince Gallitzin Chapel House Several years ago my nephew was on a tour of the Prince Gallitzin Chapel House in Loretto PA: Servant of God Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin (1770-1840) Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin was born of a Russian prince of Lithuanuan roots and a German countess in the Hauge, Netherlands on December 22, 1770. He left his claim to nobility and came to America in 1792. Wishing to serve God as a priest, he became a student at Saint Mary's Seminary in Baltimore. On March 18, 1795, Bishop John Carroll ordained Father Gallitzin, the first priest to receive all his orders in preparation for priesthood in the United States of America. He initially arrived in the mountains of west central Pennsylvania on a sick call to the McGuire Settlement. He persistently sought his bishop's permission to serve as this community's pastor. On March 1, 1799, Bishop Carroll assigned Father Gallitzin as resident pastor of the settlement in the mountains. The pioneer priest later renamed the place Loretto after the Marian shrine in Italy. Click here to continue the story of Demetrius Gallitzin.... He noticed that there was an antique long rifle hanging over the living room fireplace mantel and reached across the barrier with his smart phone to snap a photo of the top of the barrel. This is where most PA long rifle makers sign their guns, and to his surprise, this rifle was indeed made by our ancestor, George Kopp. Andrew Kopp and his son George were PA long rifle makers whose gun shop was in Geeseytown, PA, just outside of Hollidaysburg. This particular rifle is labelled to have been the property of Nicholas Stevens, whose wife Ruth was reputed to have been baptized by Father Gallitzin in Sinking Valley PA in 1812: The rifle hangs over a striking hearth and book shelf in Prince Gallitzin's early 1800's chapel house:
Thanks Beetle-Kill. I've known about this rifle for a while but yesterday was the first time I've had a chance to snap some photos. Unfortunately the curator wouldn't let me take the rifle down to get photos of the brass inlays on the opposite side. But I was happy just to finally get a good look at it. I had toured the museum years ago but never knew the background of the gun at the time.
If anyone is interested there will be an exhibit of antique Huntingdon County kentucky long rifles next month at the Huntingdon (PA) County Historical Society. There are going to be 30-40 antique Huntingdon County rifles on display including 4 Kopp rifles plus my brothers and I will be bringing our family's Kopp rifles.
5 1/2 hour drive or I'd be there in a heartbeat. Lovely craftsmanship made all the better by the history behind it.
That'd look good hanging on MY mantel!! I'm going to try REALLY hard to make that show, that's right over the mountain from my house!!
We're going to be there late Saturday morning. These things truly are works of art. Someone just sent me a PM at the American Longrifles forum that one of the few pistols known to have been made by my great great great great grandfather Andrew Kopp might be for sale. I might need to take out a second mortgage but man would I like to have that. Here's the only one I can find online:
Very nice Brian. It is amazing that you know of your family history and see their handiwork. I was able to see a nice collection of Vermont firearms including long rifles at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont a few years back. Here is the link. There are some gallery images in the link. http://shelburnemuseum.org/exhibiti...e-terry-tyler-collection-of-vermont-firearms/
That's really cool adn such an awesome piece of family history! I would be proud to hang any of those on my mantel!
Thanks! Here's three of the ones in our family, mine is in the middle. Its had a lot of restoration work done since this photo:
Thanks Pete. There's something immensely satisfying about holding a piece of workmanship like this in your hands, knowing it was made over 150 years ago by your great great great great grandfather and/or his son. My gun, the middle one in the photo above, was built by my great great great great grandfather, probably in the 1840s, because it was originally a flintlock that was later converted to percussion cap. Here's a little history of my rifle I wrote up in 2011. Please note the anecdote about the involvement of a wood stove in the "Update": Years ago, I asked my local gun shop to call me if they ever got in a Kopp rifle, and the call finally came in this morning. An elderly gentleman was going into a nursing home, and brought in several firearms to them to sell. Among them was the following piece with "An. Kopp" markings on the barrel and lock. Apparently the percussion cap assembly and hole was long ago rusted away. He was a machinist and years ago had attempted to make this rifle "work" by machining a percussion cap mount and re-drilling and re-tapping the barrel. In the process he made a large crescentic cut in the lock plate to accommodate his "custom gunsmithing." The cheek piece is missing on the left hand side of the stock, as well as most of the screws and the main spring from the lock. The stock itself is broken midway down the length of the barrel. More photos can be viewed at http://koppdpm.blogspot.com (click on each photo at the blog for larger higher resolution images.) UPDATE (January 15, 2011): I went back to the gun shop today and asked them if they could contact the gentleman who had brought in this Andrew Kopp rifle. They were kind enough to call him and I had a very nice conversation with him about the history of this rifle. Earl is 89 and lives in Johnstown. The rifle has been in his family since he was 9 years old, and the prior owners lived at the Spangler farm in Shanksville PA, near the current Flight 93 Memorial. Earl recalls being told that this rifle was brought to Somerset by the previous owners from Indiana County PA, and that it might have been manufactured around 1860. (Andrew Kopp retired from the trade in 1863.) Earl always liked to tinker with stuff. When he was 12, Earl took apart the rifle and tried to remove the breech plug, which was seized. He couldn't get it apart, so he put the breech end of the barrel in his family's wood stove to heat it up, to see if that would let him free up the seized breech plug. He didn't know the gun was loaded, and the gun fired off when it heated up. Fortunately, no one was injured! Earl subsequently worked as a machinist for US Steel in Johnstown PA starting in his teen years. He machined the sealed ignition device in these photos when he was nineteen, 70 years ago: He also ground off the surface of the hammer at that time, so it would contact the pin on the sealed ignition device: He was never able to get the gun working, but the gun has been in his possession ever since, providing an 80 year history of the provenance of this particular Andrew Kopp rifle. However, he was clearly very fond of this old rifle, and was very pleased that someone had bought it that would treasure it and have it restored. UPDATE (January 16, 2011): I took my Andrew Kopp rifle to Mark Wheland in Williamsburg today to drop it off for restoration. We took along my father's Andrew Kopp rifle for Mark to look at. He is going to use the cheek plate on my father's rifle as a template to recreate the missing cheek plate on my rifle, so he took several macro close-up photos. Mark examined my rifle closely and said the metal work on my rifle indicated it was actually an earlier rifle than my father's Andrew Kopp rifle, based on the trigger guard and butt plate. He also checked the bore; this rifle is a 38 caliber. However, the stock architecture has a higher comb than usual. Mark thought the rifle might have been re-stocked by George Kopp after he returned to Geeseytown from his ten years of working in Illinois, as the current stock has some western features, like the higher comb and stock angle, not usually seen in Bedford/Blair/Huntingdon PA rifles. My son and I talked with Mark in his shop for about an hour and a half, and we learned more in that time about these Kopp rifles than everything I've learned up to this point. He was a great guy to talk to, and his current work that he showed us in his shop was just spectacular. He estimates our rifle will be completed sometime this summer.
Brian, this is a simply amazing thread. These are things that I love to read about. Holding something that is that old, that your ancestors had touched/used/owned is absolutely humbling. Great thread.. With great pics. Thank you.
Brian, this is true historical Americana. Thanks for sharing your family's ancestry and awesome craftsmanship.
An absolutely proud historical heritage. Americana at it finest. Look forward to seeing pics of your rifle when the restoration is complete.
Its been finished for a while, I just need to shoot some new photos. The stock was repaired so you can barely tell it was ever broken, and the lock and percussion hammer were restored and a new nipple installed. Its at my dad's home right now so hopefully this weekend I can snap a few pics. This is as good a place as any to post these pics. This is an old Zippo type lighter that belonged to my father in law, who passed away 4 years ago. Its been sitting in my dresser drawer since then. My 17yo son asked for a custom logo Zippo lighter for Christmas (he doesn't smoke, he's just a pyro like his dad :0) so we also bought him the replacement parts for the Zippos. I was able to get this old lighter "fired up" this afternoon, the trigger makes it light: Its made in Japan so its not an antique, but I suspect its at least 50 years old nonetheless.
