Gunsmith Charles Flowers Collection August 1, 2008

Harmony's Charles Flowers made percussion long rifles in the classical Pennsylvania style ca. 1850-1890. A former coal miner, he changed careers at about the age of 30 to build custom rifles by hand when relatively inexpensive factory-made rifles were becoming readily available. Flowers rifles have a long barrel engraved "C. Flowers" or "C.F." in script on the top flat, and are fully stocked in curly maple with back-action locks. A most distinctive feature is a brass plate protect the stock from corrosive effect of percussion cap flash. Other elements that generally distinguish Flowers' rifles include incised butt and fore stock carving, decorative patch box and German silver escutcheons, inlays and other silver or brass mountings, incised lines framing the sights, fore stock wear plates of German silver or brass and decorated muzzle faces. Flowers, a Civil War veteran, died in 1897 and was buried behind the Mennonite meetinghouse north of Harmony. His shop was behind the family home two blocks from the town diamond. Neither survived the 20th century. The Harmony Museum's remarkable Ball Collection exhibits 10 rifles spanning Flowers' career. Generally reflecting the requirements of those for whom they were built, they range in appearance from plain to ostentatious. Among them are the earliest known example of Flowers' work (ca. 1850-55), and the lavishly decorated rifle pictured in Henry J. Kauffman's book 'The Pennsylvania-Kentucky Rifle.'