It Fell From the Eaves

[Indian Outlaw]

http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110411/GJNEWS_01/704119921/-1/FOSNEWS

[Shotgun Franklin]

Some years back some folks were tearing down a very old chicken coop near San Antonio. Down buried in years of chicken poop was a Colt SAA. It was in very poor shape. Someone rebuilt it into a working gun. I have no idea who wound up with it.
If only they could talk.

[Montana Slim]

A better phot would help....but, oddly enough it actually appears to be an 1858 Model....vs. all the modern replicas based on the latter model Remington which are sold as "Model 1858". 

Slim

[Indian Outlaw]

Yep, it's a Beals.

[Bishop Creek]

A better phot would help....but, oddly enough it actually appears to be an 1858 Model....vs. all the modern replicas based on the latter model Remington which are sold as "Model 1858". 

Slim

It sure does appear to be a real 1858 model. But what is a "soffit?"

[Montana Slim]

Soffit is a term for the covering (like siding) that covers the overhang of a roof.

Not my field, though...that is my understanding & laymans explaination.

Slim

[Freedom]

One really has to wonder ...Why???.

Let's hear some of your senario's that may end with the old revolver being left and forgotten in the rafters.... I'm going to say "Young'ins. Maybe bought/found a new revolver and knew mom wouldn't let me keep it so into the attic it went.

[Shotgun Franklin]

He was a quiet man, had few friends and kinda kept to himself. No one really questioned how he afforded the house or land or why he left on the occasional business trip.
One day, late in the Spring, three darkly dressed men rode into the town. They went straight to the Marshall's Office and entered after looking closely around. Shortly the men, now walking briskly with the Marshall in front, headed to the house. They left as quickly as they had arrived. Later, the Marshall told of how the quiet man had lived two lives, one here and the other as seller of livestock, not his own. He now rested on a hillside looking up at the roots of a small peach tree. The three men, two Railroad Special Agents and a Ranger, under the eyes of the Marshall, had ransacked the house looking for 'lost' funds and the Remington the quiet man had used to persuade his customers to comply. The Marshall did mention that the shorter of the two Railroad men had really looked hard for the revolver. 'Oh well, it'll turn up sooner or later' became a favorite expression of the Marshall.
I'll be danged if it didn't, much later.

[Stu Kettle]

Shotgun Franklin, ya got a talent fer storrytellin' but if ya were to take it up as a vocation, I would recommend engaging yerself a proofreader - I'm guessin' he was a quiet man, quite possibly a quite quiet man

[Shotgun Franklin]

I started out ok but I think my spell check got the heaves?

[Shotgun Franklin]

There, manually fixed. ;-]

[Jamie]

While not Remingtons in any case, I've known of 4 ancient guns discovered in various ways.  The first was one of my uncles who was a serious (and quite successful) arrowhead hunter who one day back in the 1970's found a rust encrusted small open top revolver (it was loaded) that had been plowed up the day before in a field here in Western New York.  It was not a Colt, that much was obvious, but what it actually was is unknown to me.  I haven't seen it since the day after he found it.  The other three were all discovered as we prepared to tear down my grandmother's old house to make a parking lot for the Ford garage there in beautiful downtown Hume NY.  (The birthplace of Hume-anity)  As my dad and uncle (a different uncle) were working on an inner wall, my cousin and I were directly above them in an old bedroom.  I realized that it didn't sound like they were working on the same wall we were looking at.  Having removed the bed that had been up against that wall for all the years previous to that in my lifetime, I started looking at the wall, there where the ceiling followed the roof downward, leaving a 4 foot wall, floor to ceiling.  As I pressed both hands on the wall, and could feel the pounding of my dad and uncle down below, but not like we were on the same wall (hopefully that made sense.)  the wall gave a little bit, and I could see an opening crack from floor to ceiling.  I called my cousin over, and we both pushed.  There was a "snap" and a hinged section of the wall moved inward.  It had been latched from the inside with a hook and eye.  Inside a little room, about 8 to 10 feet by 3 with a steeply sloping ceiling, we discovered 3 muzzleloading caplocks, 2 rifles and a shotgun.  Checking with the ramrods it was obvious that all were loaded, with caps on the nipples.  They were rusty but as I recall, they could have been cleaned up easily enough, and the wood, though dusty, wiped off nice and clean.  My uncle took the guns, and I suspect sold them.  When I asked about them a couple years ago, just before he died, he didn't recall the incident at all.
      Hume was a known town that was part of the underground railroad, and a house 2 doors down was well known to be one of the stops.  I have to assume that my grandmother's house, which was definatly old enough was another.  The one mystery is how the latch could have been locked from the inside, since that door was the only entry to the little room, but I suspect that it simply fell in place the last time the door was shut.  It was a good friction fit along the floor, and would have stayed shut of it's own accord unless pressure was applied.
    The Remington of this thread might have been something of the same sort of thing, who knows?  I can see someone having a handgun stuffed somewhere out of sight, yet easily accessible.  Perhaps the structure was open from the inside, or had a simply removed panel on the inside.  Knowing the age and or history of the house would be helpful in speculation.  Considering the time frame of the revolver itself, it certainly suggests many possibilities, real, and fantastical as well...
Jamie

[TwoWalks Baldridge]

House was built 1896 according to the article.