Southern Derringers of the Mississippi Valley

Since I got my first muzzleloading gun when I was 12 years old, I guess you could say I have been collecting guns for 38 years. In that length of time I have met many wonderful people and made numerous everlasting friends. Among these people are Hume Parks, Hal Swann, Cecil Godman, Dr. Bill Huckaba, Dr. D. R. Moore, Leon Jackson, Robin Hale, Harry G. King and Charles Elias all of which ably assisted me with this booklet and without those efforts, it would not have been possible.

{Trophy Shelf}

During the 20 months in 1969 and 1970 that we have been displaying our derringers at gun shows we have won 25 awards. Our derringers have been displayed from the East Coast to the West Coast and from the North to the South. Great acclaim was given them at the National Rifle Association Convention. Considering the point that awards are won not only on quality or quantity but on the educational value, we believe that our display is one of the best. Now that the ice has been broken towards listing and showing all of the different southern makers, let us hope that our collector friends will come up with more information and more details of when these little known gunsmiths and dealers operated and perhaps new makers that are not now recognized or known.

This chart shows the relative rarity of Southern derringers in the opinion of several knowledgeable collectors. Position #1 is the easiest to obtain and position #10 is the hardest to find. The text of this book takes up each maker in this same order.

1.	Hyde & Goodrich	1
2.	F. H. Clark	2
3.	Schneider	3
4.	F. Glassick	3
5.	C. Suter	5
6.	H. E. Dimick	5
7.	F. J. Bitterlick	5
8.	Lullman & Vienna	6
9.	Bitterlick & Legler	7
10.	S. O’Dell	7
11.	Schneider & Glassick	8
12.	W. H. Calhoun	8
13.	L. Swett	9
14.	J. A. Schafer	9
15.	J. R. Trumpler	9
16.	J. B. Gilmore	9
17.	Linde	10
18.	Folsom	10
19.	A. Weisgerber	10
20.	J. Mirriman	10
21.	Louis Hoffman	10
22.	J. Conning	10
23.	A. R. Mendenhall	10
24.	J. Hausmann	10
25.	A. J. Millspaugh	10
26.	Holyoake-Lownes	10
27.	F. S. Schumann	10
28.	E. R. Sieber	10
29.	H. G. Newcomb	10

Henry Deringer of the famed Philadelphia company believed that the greatest part of his trade was in the southern states. It was only proper that many independent makers of derringer type guns would spring up throughout the area where they were so popular. The line from St. Louis to New Orleans was the starting point for the westward trade and many of these guns were carried as a hideout weapon to California during the most popular period from 1845 through 1870. A casual study shows great differences between the southern made derringers and those of Philadelphia, each of which has its own peculiar and particular characteristics.

In the court case of Henry Deringer vs. Plate, Deringer states that he started producing his celebrated small gun in 1825. A careful study of the southern manufactured derringers shows that all of them started around 1855 or later with some of them continuing production until the 1870s.

There are two kinds of Southern Derringers; those that are made by Henry Deringer with agent markings and those that are manufactured in the South.