Museum displays rare 1841 firearm
By Candice Cunningham Staff writer
“It was the Mercedes-Benz of rifles,†local historian Barbara White tells a group of school children.
The fourth graders peer at the 1841 Phillip Gillespie rifle encased behind glass at the Macon County Historical Museum.
To them, it looks like an old gun.
To those more familiar with history, the rifle tells the tale of the oppression and compassion of its owners.
It has surpassed tumultuous times, handed down from one to another, treasured and kept safe until finally making its resting place on a shelf in the museum.
It is now no longer fired to hunt game. Its black gunpowder blasts don’t ward off enemies and one’s marksmanship can’t be tested with the aiming of its hand-wrought walnut stock barrel.
It simply is a legend in itself, silently on display to share it with others.
Nice to see pockets of America here and there across this increasingly strange land.