Newstory: Gunsmith's Hidden Treasure

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Gunsmith Unearths Buried Treasure   Posted 2006-12-18
Wealth Of History Recovered Inside 1740s Musket
By Kelly Jasper

SINGERS GLEN ? Finding the blackened, broken musket was at least, at first, Scott Musser?s buried treasure.

This summer, he found an antique gun ? a 1740s-era musket that sold for $125, plus tax ? in one of Philadelphia?s South Street shops.

"I knew I had already struck gold," said the 43-year-old family man from New Jersey.

It wasn?t until six months later ? just a few weeks ago ? that Musser visited a gunsmith in Singers Glen and discovered that someone had actually stowed gold inside the gun?s hollowed stock.

To be exact, Musser and Douglas Bates, the gunsmith, had discovered four gold, seven silver and six copper coins. Musser says the owner of the Belgian-made musket had also jammed a will and a $5 silk note inside a fragile leather pouch, hidden behind a metal plate on the butt of the stock centuries ago.

The coins date to 1743. The will is dated Jan. 20, 1848. It?s signed by a New Jersey man, the son of a patriot who died in the War of 1812. The family ? the Hillmans ? has a rich history with ties to the Revolutionary War, maybe even the French and Indian War, Musser says.

Now more than 250 years old, the gun isn?t in pristine condition. A musket ball is lodged in the barrel and Musser repaired the bayonet this fall, a decision that led to the gold?s discovery when the two men first disassembled the gun three weeks ago.

Still, early estimates appraise the gun and collection around $20,000, Musser says.

As far as he knows, no one has seen the artifacts for at least a century.

"No one would have ever thought to look for treasure here," Musser said. "I didn?t think things like this happened."

That is, until Musser and Bates first laid eyes on the forgotten relics.

Know Where To Look

The gun, Bates says, was in good condition considering its age, but the bayonet lug at the tip of the musket had come loose and needed repair.

"I?ve seen much worse," said Bates, a 50-year-old man who says he?s tinkered with guns, especially antiques, for years.

Bates is owner of Handgun Repair Shop, a business run out of his Singers Glen home since 1998. Here, Bates fixes the guns of collectors across the United States who seek his expertise with fragile antiques ? like Musser?s 1740s musket.

In July, Musser?s wife, Lisa, spotted the musket hanging high up on the wall of an antique store, Pearl of Africa. The $150 price tag was too good to be true and Musser says he wrote off the gun as a fake.

Upon inspection, though, he realized the gun could be worth a good bit of money and haggled the price down to $125.

Musser took it home and pledged to clean up the artifact. He turned to Bates, a gunsmith he found online, when other repairman said they couldn?t fix the musket without damaging it. Bates thought he could and was willing to give it a go, Musser says.

It was important to preserve the finish because Musser didn?t want to destroy the first clue ? an engraving he found on the gun ? that started him on the treasure hut.

Musser found the engraving when, against the advice of others, he decided to clean up the old musket. As he polished, he uncovered a partial letter on the stock, an engraving obscured under centuries of grime.

That letter was part of a name, Josiah Hillman, the original owner of the gun. Hillman, Musser later learned, was the nephew of a solider in the New Jersey militia who died in the War of 1812.

But it was only after more than 200 hours of research and the discovery of the artifacts that the gun?s ties to the family began to unfold, Musser says.

Several dead ends already convinced him that the origins of the musket would remain a mystery. Musser had Googled and pulled historical records, sought the advice of collectors and brought the gun to Bates.

When Musser made the trek to Bates? shop in November, he still couldn?t explain who Hillman was, even though the name had been revealed months earlier.

All that changed once he got the gun into Bates? hands, Musser says.

Problem was, Bates? business was booming and he had a six-month waiting list. Musser offered him three times his regular rate. Bates accepted, even offering to open his shop on a Saturday when the business is normally closed.

Musser drove the six hours to Virginia and showed Bates the gun. Lisa was a "trooper," agreeing to come on the trip, but she waited in the car as the two men inspected the gun, Musser said.

It wasn?t long until she heard her husband screaming from the shop.

Those Who Seek Shall Find

Gunsmiths sometimes hollowed the stock for two reasons, Musser said. The hollow stock could stabilize the musket as hardware was installed, and the empty cavity also provided a place for soldiers to store their cleaning kits or extra flints.

That November day, Musser and Bates spotted a rotted hole on the side of the stock, leading both to think it might be hollow.

Musser gave Bates the go-ahead. Once he removed the butt plate, Bates saw a wad of leather, so soft it looked like cloth, and thought it was a cleaning kit.

Musser said he should try to remove it. As Bates tugged, the leather began to disintegrate.

"He was getting anxious," Musser said. "I didn?t want him to feel responsible if something broke."

So Musser asked for a pair of pliers. He grasped the sack and pulled. It gave way, ripping a bit, unveiling the first of several Spanish coins.

"I was like a kid with a new toy on Christmas morning," he said.

Musser says the presents got bigger and better the deeper he dug. He unfolded the pouch on a workbench. His jaw dropped at what he saw.

"I was shaken with joy," Musser says. "I?m normally levelheaded. But I was shaken, trembling. I screamed, ?You?re not going to believe this.?"

He found 17 coins and a tattered paper, signed by James Hillman, which detailed his wishes upon his death.

While Bates has worked with a few other guns as old as this one, in all his years in business he says he has never found anything more than a few dust bunnies inside a stock.

"My jaw was hanging out," Bates said. "I was flabbergasted."

The men pored through the collection, photographing what they had found. Musser took the information back to New Jersey to continue his research. That?s when he found the link for which he had been looking.

James, whose will was found in the gun, is the cousin of Josiah Hillman, the original owner whose name is inscribed on the gun.

Musser still isn?t sure how Josiah, the original owner, got his hands on the gun. But in his research, he learned that James? father was Samuel Ashbrook Nicholson Hillman, a man dubbed "the Fighting Quaker." Musser?s research shows that Samuel was captured by the British and died during the war.

Now, with the discovery prompting the attention of collectors and galleries, Musser says the artifacts will likely fall into the hands of a museum. He?s talked with the Gloucester Historical Society ? the county where members of the family are buried ? but Musser says it would also be nice if a descendent was to own and preserve the relics.

He explains that the coins James stowed away weren?t just "saved for a rainy day." They?re a time capsule of sorts.

Each year of a coin corresponds with a marriage or birth in the family. The contents of that stock were a family history, he says.

The needle-nose pliers used to pull the sack from the gun only left bite marks in one of the copper coins, he said. The rest are fine.

For now, the gun is kept in a climate-controlled safe. It?s awaiting appraisal from a New Jersey gallery.

In the meantime, Musser is compiling a book on the gun?s history and has e-mailed Bates with regular updates as he learns about the history of the gun.

"It?s a lot of work and a complicated process," Musser says. "It?s been a long, hard road."

But, of course, he adds, not nearly as long as the road Josiah?s gun has traveled.



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