I saved this because I have Gillespie's that married into my WINE family in the early 1800's.....hope this helps... joannie THE GILLESPIE LONG RIFLES THE GILLESPIE LONG RIFLE TAMED THE FRONTIER AND HELPED TO WRITE THE AMERICAN HISTORY! They were pioneer gunsmiths and they had a gunshop right here under Forge Mountain in the hills of Henderson County in North Carolina. Their long rifles tamed the wilderness and talked independence down on King's Mountain. Many a mountain man who gambled his life on his gun trigger swore by the Gillespie rifle. For downright true-firing, the Gillespie rifle spoke right up to anybody or anything on the frontier and a man could be as certain of hitting where he aimed as he was of death and taxes. The first Gillespies, father and six sons, came out of England about 1700. They settled in Lancaster County in Pennsylvania, where German, Swiss and French Huguenot gunsmiths had begun to do business. They brought with them the tools of their trade and a heritage of Old World gunsmithing. It wasn't too long before the fame of the Gillespie rifle spread far and wide and Lancaster County became synonymous with the Gillespie rifle. Daniel Boon carried a Gillespie rifle in the crook of his arm when he headed out of Pennsylvania for North Carolina and the Promised Land where a man could have room to spit without hitting a neighbor. Some of the Gillespies followed Daniel Boon down into the wilds of the Blue Ridge, a range of timbered peaks that were old when the Rockies were new. They came down the Boone Trail, down through what is now called Gillespie Gap and Spruce Pine. One of them, Mathew by name, crossed the French Broad and followed the Estatoe Trail, an Indian trading path, along Mills River (located in Henderson County, North Carolina). A half-mile down the river he discovered Philip Sitton operating an iron works on the south side of Forge Mountain, a loaf-shaped peak that was rich in iron ore. Mathew Gillespie figured he had reached the end of his long journey. This seemed a likely spot for setting up his gunshop. Sitton told Gillespie that there was a great need for a master gunsmith. So Mathew Gillespie sat down his forge and anvil here on Shooting Branch and began to turn out long rifles that made his a name legend on the frontier. It wasn't long until he married one of the iron maker's daughters, Elizabeth Sitton, who proceeded to bear him three sons in a row. And each of them…Wilson, Harvey and Philip…became a crackerjack gunsmiths under the patient but demanding tutelage of their father. They shaped the gunskelps, hammered out by their Grandfather Sitton, into guns and rifles whose reputation for accuracy spread far and wide. The Gillespie rifle, long of barrel, slender and graceful of stock with a good deal of crook, became a frontier legend. No two rifles were identical and yet any man could spot a Gillespie rifle in a wink. Many of them were often ornamented with inlays of brass, German silver or even coin silver. Silver sights adorned some and at least one rifle was turned out with a sight fashioned from Carolina gold! To the man who owned one, it was a prime, superfine rifle, one that was fitting for doing a trustworthy piece of shooting, be it Red Skin, Red Coat or grizzly bear. Of course, a lot of extravagant claims were made about the Gillespie rifle, none of which the Gillespies ever originated and which they themselves were the first to deny. All that the Gillespies ever claimed was that their "rifles wouldn't blow up and they would shoot where a man aimed". And no man ever questioned their true firing. Well, at least not more than one and he didn't rightly question the rifle itself. He laid it all to a witch. At any rate, that's the story that's been handed down about old Ned McFalls who lived on Cataloochee Creek. Old Ned was quite a hunter in his days and he swore there wasn't a rifle in all the land to equal a Gillespie rifle for true firing. His faith in his Gillespie rifle was a thing that was worth a man's life to question it. But one day when old Ned was out hunting, he got a close-up, broadside shot at a big buck and he missed it. Some say the old man figured the world was coming to an end and he didn't have much time to get ready for the shot. They say he stood there and looked at his rifle and the cold sweat popped out. And then he got to studying his rifle and decided somebody had bewitched it. Well, he took off down the mountain and made his way past his cabin and on down into the faraway cove where he sought out a granny woman who had a reputation for lifting "spells." He struck a bargain with her and handed over his rifle. For the better part of the day he sat there while the old woman crooned and moaned and mumbled strange words. Eventually, she handed him his rifle and told him she had lifted the curse. Old Ned headed back for his cabin on Cataloochee Creek. When he got home he took his hunting knife and cut an "X" in a tree, stepped off thirty paces, primed his rifle and then took aim. His finger brushed the trigger and the gun exploded. He walked over to the tree, not without a little doubt, and looked at his mark. Right there in the center of the "X" was a hole. After, that, old Ned didn't miss his target too often and when he did, he'd go search out the old granny woman. It never did cross his mind that his eyesight was getting a mite fuzzy with the years. The Gillespies could have told the old man his trouble. For they always said their rifle, "put a ball where a man aimed". The Gillespies kept right on making rifles here on Shooting Branch until the Civil War. Philip was the last of the gunsmiths. And he went off to war and didn't come back. He was carrying a true firing Gillespie long rifle of his own make when he left. The iron works fell into disuse. The forge was abandoned. And a Gillespie rifle became a rare collector's piece. There is nothing now to remind a visitor that once the famed Gillespie gunsmiths had a gunshop here on Shooting Branch. The water trompe is gone. There is no trace of the anvil and hammer. But now and then you will run across a Gillespie rifle. There are at least three still around. One is in the rifle collection at the Pioneer Museum in the Great Smokes above Cherokee. And Mrs. Sadie Patton of Hendersonville owns another. On their long barrels are the initials "PG", two of the last rifles made by Phillip Gillespie, who was the last of a long line of Pioneer gunsmiths whose long rifles tamed the frontier and helped to write the American history! Gloria Studdard (glowyj49@aol.com) ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237