c. 1870 Wesson Firearms Co.

Letters in 'The American Field' in 1878 state that a barrel forger named John Blaze of Birmingham, England had immigrated to America to make Wesson's barrels. He was listed in the 1865 Worchester, Mass. City Directory as a 'Gunsmith', and 1878-1881 as a 'Blacksmith.' Whether he left Wesson for Parker's employ after Dan Wesson shut down his shotgun production in December 1870 is uncertain. Other Wesson gunmakers did take jobs with Parker, including Charles A. King. Daniel Wesson is reported to have ordered 400 sets of barrels from a Belgian source, 200 of which had "Wesson" spelled out in the damascus pattern. Only 229 guns were made according to existing factory records; the fate of the remaining barrels is unknown. Barrels courtesy of Gordon Green.