Clark, Sherrard & Co.

Name	Street	Town	State	From	To
Clark, Sherrard & Co.	West Main Street	Lancaster	Texas	1860s

Patent	Date	Remarks

Contract	for
State of Texas during the Civil War	400 Revolvers of Colt Dragon type

Product
J.H. Sherrard was engaged in Tucker, Sherrard & Company, Sherrard, Tailor & Co and Clark, Sherrard & Co. Dallas Herald of February 19, 1862 " "Messrs. Sherrard, Killen and Brunie, of Lancaster, have formed a copartnership for the purpose of manufacturing Colt's and other revolving pistols. They commence immediately to arrange the necessary machinery . . . and if justified by large subscriptions, will be able to manufacture this arm in any desired quantities . . . at $40.00 each for Navy pistols and $50.00 for the Army size. Those desiring to add their names to the list can address either Dr. J.H. Swindell, Hon. Jeff Weatherford, or J.H. Sherrard, Esq., Lancaster, Texas." On March 6, 1862, the Military Board wrote John M. Crockett of Dallas, Texas, who was Lieutenant Governor of Texas, requesting he "interview immediately with gentlemen in your County who are constructing revolving pistols, and learn . . . whether the Board can in any way aid them to increase their results, and whether they can build guns for use in the army. further request that you will learn whether the company or contractor will enter into a contract with the Board to build arms for the defense of the State, and if so at what price they can make." Crockett's replied." I have taken all the pains that I could to ascertain the facts you desire there is no establishment of this kind in this county, but there are about twenty gun-smiths, some of whom are first-rate. I have induced a few of the first men among the smiths to open a shop . . . they say that with the corps that they can organize and the tools and materials at hand they can make about thirty Colt Revolvers per week. The men who are undertaking are . . . in every way worthy of the confidence of Board, but they have no means, and could not have started but for my assurances." Crockett, with the Military Board's offer in his pocket, apparently went to the Lancaster pistol people and offered them a chance at a government contract if they would make him a co-partner, which they did, and from then on Crockett was spokesman for the pistol firm in all its relations with the State. By April 11 the Military Board offered "Messrs. Tucker, Sherrod & Co." $5,000 in advance on signing of a contract with a performance bond, the contract promising the Board would, at $40 per weapon, "take . . . all the pistols they shall make within one year, not to exceed three thousand" with 100 pistols per month to be delivered after May, 1862. It also stipulated, "Said pistols are to be of the kind and quality of the Colt Revolver, but the exact form and style being immaterial so that said pistols are good and substantial arms of the size and after the manner of said Colt Revolver." The Lancaster men signing this contract were Laban E. Tucker, Joseph H. Sherrard, W.L. Killen, A. W. Tucker, Pleasant Taylor, and John Crockett. (The State's constant spelling error of "Sherrod" as firm name has added historical confusion. No "Sherrod" was connected with the project.) Laban Tucker had manufactured revolvers prior to the war, a fact most historians have overlooked. Argyle W. Tucker was his son. One account calls the elder Tucker, "near genius in both the metallurgical and mechanical principles of gunmaking." Joseph H. Sherrard was a Lancaster blacksmith, W.L. Killen was a wagon maker, while Pleasant Taylor, the capitalist of the venture, was a Lancaster merchant who had come to Texas in 1844 from Illinois. By June 30, 1862, the final deadline for delivery of the initial shipment, Crockett was forced to write the Military Board, "We are not ready to deliver 100 pistols." He spread the blame by stating that Confederate government agents were buying up every article needed by the pistol factory "at the most exorbitant prices." He feared that when pistols were made ("We have several hundred on the way") they would be "pressed" (confiscated) by Confederate officers. He also states that while one local agent "has advised us that his men will not be allowed to press our pistols," he is also aware, he says accusingly, that there is a secret proviso wherein the Military Board has consented for one Confederate officer to have them. "And he is not all," Crockett moans, "the walls - law - have broken down. We therefore think of putting none (pistols) together until ordered to do so." On July 3 another Crockett letter states the factory has "several waggons on the way from San Antonio with materials which are long due" but the newly enacted (April 16, 1862) Confederate Conscription Act, which forced able bodied white men ages 18 through 35 into the army, may have stopped them. "We understand that the conscript Officers are taking the drivers & turning the trains out & we greatly fear they have done ours so. We now employ twenty-five hands & have machinery & materials to keep them going for some time. We have now machinery for about as many more hands &will have it all running in about ten days with fifty hands." On July 21 yet another letter defends the factory's failure "to have the first hundred pistols ready" and says Col. Burford, the Confederate agent, "has been urging us to let him have what we can complete . . . and has conceived the idea that we are refusing to finish off for fear of getting them pressed." August 5, Crockett wrote, "We are pressing on with the work and have a good many on the way but the difficulty of getting machinery has prevented us from finishing some of them. We have expended at least half or more of our labor making tools & machinery . . ." Two weeks later Crockett reports, "We are at no childs play . . . but are traversing every portion of the Country assessable, and when we have the least hope of securing material or machinery are paying the most exorbitant prices, having to come in competition with Government Agents who, you well know, are not generally any ways particular about the prices they pay. We are now at work on the third hundred pistols and our expectation is to complete the four hundred during the month of September. We had to send to Boggy Depot, Choctaw Nation for coal we have paid as high as 75 cents per pound for steel and $700 for a lathe. We have expended more than as much more money was advanced to us, and we are now out." On October 2, despite the failure of Sherrard, Taylor & Co. (the new name as of mid August) to supply any arms, the Military Board advanced the firm another $5,000. A $10,000 performance bond was signed by Sherrard, Killen, Taylor, Crockett, G. W. Record and R.M. Hawpe, the latter two of Dallas. Crockett complains this time that the factory's workers are being drafted "regardless of the law exempting men from military duty who are engaged in the manufacture of fire arms, etc. They utterly refuse to let us have one out of any company or regiment. Even Texas Colonels have been most rigid with us. We have tried Cols. Ross, Spaight and Elmore for men whom we know to be good mechanics and who wish to come to us but they refuse to yield to any request. It only takes 54 men to fill our shops . . . yet we have not been able to reach thirty yet." On November 20, Crockett is writing the board "nearly all of the pieces of the four hundred pistols are finished. Now we are failing to find material and are preparing to melt our own ore and do all we can to secure material by our own resources. There is ore in Denton Co." Also, "There is great prejudice against our establishment on account of the exemption of conscripts in it, and much is being said to injure it." "Under all the circumstances could not the Board afford to give us a little encouragement by advancing $10 a piece on the price of our pistols and letting us have a little more money? We are actually told here that we can have $100 a piece for them . . ." At one point in November the plant had only three hands available for work. On January 28, 1863, Crockett complained, "All assurances were given that artizans and mechanics would be relieved of their engagements in the army to engage in the manufacture of arms. But strange to say, we have been able to employ on an average about twelve." On top of that, New Orleans, "whence we hoped to obtain material," fell to the Federals. "For hands we have been compelled to pay $4.00 per day and over," he says. But the elusive 400 pistols are being finished "with all possible dispatch." In January, Crockett went to Austin, Texas, as the Legislature opened its session, and took with him two completed revolvers, alleged to have been manufactured at the Lancaster plant. He later reported the pistols were tried "by Governor Lubbock, Ed Fannin and others, in the presence of the members of the Legislature, and pronounced true and trusty." On February 28, The Texas Almanac, a newspaper, remarked, "We were shown the other day a beautiful specimen of a six-shooter, manufactured in Dallas (sic) by Col. Crockett, who has a large armory in successful operation. The pistol appears, in every respect, quite equal to the famous Colt's sixshooter. We learn that Col. Crockett has now 400 of these pistols' on hand, which he has manufactured within the last six months, and which he has offered to the Governor at remarkably low figures - not one-third of what they could be sold at by retail." Obviously Crockett was misquoted by the Texas Almanac, because on March 14 he addresses his friend, Governor F.R. Lubbock, reporting that Major Johns (one of the Board members) said Crocketts only alternative was to sell the pistols to individuals, and winds up by saying, "We can sell the pistols for $100.00 each without any trouble but we shall be pleased to hear from you." The 400 pistols belonged to the State of Texas, under terms of the contract, but it is doubtful that anywhere near that number had been finished. In fact, except for the "pilot pistols," none of the 400 were delivered to the State. The Military board in September 1863 reported, "The Legislature . . . thought proper to relieve the parties of the contract on their repaying the sums advanced with legal interest, and in July last the parties repaid the loan in Confederate Treasury notes with $814.00 interest." The loss of the contract ended Sherrard, Taylor & Co. In 1867 Clark and Sherrard (who had served in the Confederate army after Sherrard, Taylor & Co. folded) were advertising pistols for sale in the Dallas Herald. In a letter to a Jefferson, Texas, merchant, Clark says "We have about 400 cal .44 old style army revolvers that we plan to finish and embellish into high class merchandise." The embellishment consisted of fancily decorated cylinders and Clark & Sherrard, Lancaster, Texas etched across the top of the frame. Besides, the wholesale price of $20 gold was rather steep, since Colt revolvers of newer design were retailing for $30 at that time. The characteristics that make them alike are the dragoon size and the lack of a loading aperture on the barrel lug, while the most distinguishing difference is the square-backed trigger guard and the round trigger guard. Those revolvers with the square-backed trigger guards were the earlier models made during the war by Tucker, Sherrard & Co. After reading all the material from the Texas Archives, one would have to come to the conclusion that Colonel Crockett accepted the suggestion of Major Johns and sold the guns on the retail market at a higher price than the Texas Military Board would allow for them. Also, some of the few square-backed revolvers in existence today show considerable holster wear. If they had not been finished until after the war, it is doubtful they would have received much use at all, since they already were obsolete. The round trigger guard models were those revolvers sold after the war by Clark, Sherrard & Co. Close examination and comparison of the square-backed trigger guard models (Tucker and Sherrard) and the round trigger guard models (Clark and Sherrard) reveal conclusively that the round trigger guard models were not made from leftover parts of the square-backed models. All the parts are of different size, dimension, and configuration, with two exceptions. The barrels of the Clark and Sherrard could have been made of unfinished barrel blanks from Tucker, Sherrard and Co. and the loading levers could have been left over from the same company. Everything else, including the serial number dies, are completely different. Now in short, two revolvers delivered to the State of Texas in January 1963. Others were obviously sold to private individuals. The Square-backed trigger guard revolvers wer likely made by Tucker and Sherrard (Sherrard, Taylor & Co. as of mid August 1863) and the round trigger guard revolvers were made by Clark and Sherrard. Copy of Colt Dragon Revolver made for the State of Texas. left side right side In June 2001 number 288 3rd Model Colt Dragoon type revolverin .44 caliber percussion was sold for almost $73.000. The gun was marked on the barrel CLARK, SHERRARD & CO./LANCASTER, TEXAS. It is believed that this gun was made in 1866. This ia number 115. The barrel has a pin front sight and "CLARK, SHERRARD & CO/LANCASTER TEXAS" etching with floral accents. The cylinder has "TEXAS/star/ARMS" and floral and martial motif etching. Included documents from the Brooklyn Historical Society state the revolver was owned by 1st Lt. John D. Hanning (1838-1883) of E Company of the 2nd Rhode Island Cavalry who served from January 15 to August 28 of 1863 and was discharged in New Orleans. No. 115 left side No. 115 right side

Product

J.H. Sherrard was engaged in Tucker, Sherrard & Company, Sherrard, Tailor & Co and Clark, Sherrard & Co.

Dallas Herald of February 19, 1862
" "Messrs. Sherrard, Killen and Brunie, of Lancaster, have formed a copartnership for the purpose of manufacturing Colt's and other revolving pistols. They commence immediately to arrange the necessary machinery . . . and if justified by large subscriptions, will be able to manufacture this arm in any desired quantities . . . at $40.00 each for Navy pistols and $50.00 for the Army size. Those desiring to add their names to the list can address either Dr. J.H. Swindell, Hon. Jeff Weatherford, or J.H. Sherrard, Esq., Lancaster, Texas."

On March 6, 1862, the Military Board wrote John M. Crockett of Dallas, Texas, who was Lieutenant Governor of Texas, requesting he "interview immediately with gentlemen in your County who are constructing revolving pistols, and learn . . . whether the Board can in any way aid them to increase their results, and whether they can build guns for use in the army. further request that you will learn whether the company or contractor will enter into a contract with the Board to build arms for the defense of the State, and if so at what price they can make."

Crockett's replied." I have taken all the pains that I could to ascertain the facts you desire there is no establishment of this kind in this county, but there are about twenty gun-smiths, some of whom are first-rate. I have induced a few of the first men among the smiths to open a shop . . . they say that with the corps that they can organize and the tools and materials at hand they can make about thirty Colt Revolvers per week. The men who are undertaking are . . . in every way worthy of the confidence of Board, but they have no means, and could not have started but for my assurances."

Crockett, with the Military Board's offer in his pocket, apparently went to the Lancaster pistol people and offered them a chance at a government contract if they would make him a co-partner, which they did, and from then on Crockett was spokesman for the pistol firm in all its relations with the State. By April 11 the Military Board offered "Messrs. Tucker, Sherrod & Co." $5,000 in advance on signing of a contract with a performance bond, the contract promising the Board would, at $40 per weapon, "take . . . all the pistols they shall make within one year, not to exceed three thousand" with 100 pistols per month to be delivered after May, 1862. It also stipulated, "Said pistols are to be of the kind and quality of the Colt Revolver, but the exact form and style being immaterial so that said pistols are good and substantial arms of the size and after the manner of said Colt Revolver." The Lancaster men signing this contract were Laban E. Tucker, Joseph H. Sherrard, W.L. Killen, A. W. Tucker, Pleasant Taylor, and John Crockett. (The State's constant spelling error of "Sherrod" as firm name has added historical confusion. No "Sherrod" was connected with the project.)

Laban Tucker had manufactured revolvers prior to the war, a fact most historians have overlooked. Argyle W. Tucker was his son. One account calls the elder Tucker, "near genius in both the metallurgical and mechanical principles of gunmaking." Joseph H. Sherrard was a Lancaster blacksmith, W.L. Killen was a wagon maker, while Pleasant Taylor, the capitalist of the venture, was a Lancaster merchant who had come to Texas in 1844 from Illinois.

By June 30, 1862, the final deadline for delivery of the initial shipment, Crockett was forced to write the Military Board, "We are not ready to deliver 100 pistols." He spread the blame by stating that Confederate government agents were buying up every article needed by the pistol factory "at the most exorbitant prices." He feared that when pistols were made ("We have several hundred on the way") they would be "pressed" (confiscated) by Confederate officers. He also states that while one local agent "has advised us that his men will not be allowed to press our pistols," he is also aware, he says accusingly, that there is a secret proviso wherein the Military Board has consented for one Confederate officer to have them. "And he is not all," Crockett moans, "the walls - law - have broken down. We therefore think of putting none (pistols) together until ordered to do so."

On July 3 another Crockett letter states the factory has "several waggons on the way from San Antonio with materials which are long due" but the newly enacted (April 16, 1862) Confederate Conscription Act, which forced able bodied white men ages 18 through 35 into the army, may have stopped them. "We understand that the conscript Officers are taking the drivers & turning the trains out & we greatly fear they have done ours so. We now employ twenty-five hands & have machinery & materials to keep them going for some time. We have now machinery for about as many more hands &will have it all running in about ten days with fifty hands."

On July 21 yet another letter defends the factory's failure "to have the first hundred pistols ready" and says Col. Burford, the Confederate agent, "has been urging us to let him have what we can complete . . . and has conceived the idea that we are refusing to finish off for fear of getting them pressed."

August 5, Crockett wrote, "We are pressing on with the work and have a good many on the way but the difficulty of getting machinery has prevented us from finishing some of them. We have expended at least half or more of our labor making tools & machinery . . ."

Two weeks later Crockett reports, "We are at no childs play . . . but are traversing every portion of the Country assessable, and when we have the least hope of securing material or machinery are paying the most exorbitant prices, having to come in competition with Government Agents who, you well know, are not generally any ways particular about the prices they pay. We are now at work on the third hundred pistols and our expectation is to complete the four hundred during the month of September. We had to send to Boggy Depot, Choctaw Nation for coal we have paid as high as 75 cents per pound for steel and $700 for a lathe. We have expended more than as much more money was advanced to us, and we are now out."

On October 2, despite the failure of Sherrard, Taylor & Co. (the new name as of mid August) to supply any arms, the Military Board advanced the firm another $5,000. A $10,000 performance bond was signed by Sherrard, Killen, Taylor, Crockett, G. W. Record and R.M. Hawpe, the latter two of Dallas. Crockett complains this time that the factory's workers are being drafted "regardless of the law exempting men from military duty who are engaged in the manufacture of fire arms, etc. They utterly refuse to let us have one out of any company or regiment. Even Texas Colonels have been most rigid with us. We have tried Cols. Ross, Spaight and Elmore for men whom we know to be good mechanics and who wish to come to us but they refuse to yield to any request. It only takes 54 men to fill our shops . . . yet we have not been able to reach thirty yet."

On November 20, Crockett is writing the board "nearly all of the pieces of the four hundred pistols are finished. Now we are failing to find material and are preparing to melt our own ore and do all we can to secure material by our own resources. There is ore in Denton Co." Also, "There is great prejudice against our establishment on account of the exemption of conscripts in it, and much is being said to injure it." "Under all the circumstances could not the Board afford to give us a little encouragement by advancing $10 a piece on the price of our pistols and letting us have a little more money? We are actually told here that we can have $100 a piece for them . . ." At one point in November the plant had only three hands available for work.

On January 28, 1863, Crockett complained, "All assurances were given that artizans and mechanics would be relieved of their engagements in the army to engage in the manufacture of arms. But strange to say, we have been able to employ on an average about twelve." On top of that, New Orleans, "whence we hoped to obtain material," fell to the Federals. "For hands we have been compelled to pay $4.00 per day and over," he says. But the elusive 400 pistols are being finished "with all possible dispatch."

In January, Crockett went to Austin, Texas, as the Legislature opened its session, and took with him two completed revolvers, alleged to have been manufactured at the Lancaster plant. He later reported the pistols were tried "by Governor Lubbock, Ed Fannin and others, in the presence of the members of the Legislature, and pronounced true and trusty." On February 28, The Texas Almanac, a newspaper, remarked, "We were shown the other day a beautiful specimen of a six-shooter, manufactured in Dallas (sic) by Col. Crockett, who has a large armory in successful operation. The pistol appears, in every respect, quite equal to the famous Colt's sixshooter. We learn that Col. Crockett has now 400 of these pistols' on hand, which he has manufactured within the last six months, and which he has offered to the Governor at remarkably low figures - not one-third of what they could be sold at by retail."

Obviously Crockett was misquoted by the Texas Almanac, because on March 14 he addresses his friend, Governor F.R. Lubbock, reporting that Major Johns (one of the Board members) said Crocketts only alternative was to sell the pistols to individuals, and winds up by saying, "We can sell the pistols for $100.00 each without any trouble but we shall be pleased to hear from you."

The 400 pistols belonged to the State of Texas, under terms of the contract, but it is doubtful that anywhere near that number had been finished. In fact, except for the "pilot pistols," none of the 400 were delivered to the State. The Military board in September 1863 reported, "The Legislature . . . thought proper to relieve the parties of the contract on their repaying the sums advanced with legal interest, and in July last the parties repaid the loan in Confederate Treasury notes with $814.00 interest." The loss of the contract ended Sherrard, Taylor & Co.

In 1867 Clark and Sherrard (who had served in the Confederate army after Sherrard, Taylor & Co. folded) were advertising pistols for sale in the Dallas Herald. In a letter to a Jefferson, Texas, merchant, Clark says "We have about 400 cal .44 old style army revolvers that we plan to finish and embellish into high class merchandise." The embellishment consisted of fancily decorated cylinders and Clark & Sherrard, Lancaster, Texas etched across the top of the frame. Besides, the wholesale price of $20 gold was rather steep, since Colt revolvers of newer design were retailing for $30 at that time.

The characteristics that make them alike are the dragoon size and the lack of a loading aperture on the barrel lug, while the most distinguishing difference is the square-backed trigger guard and the round trigger guard. Those revolvers with the square-backed trigger guards were the earlier models made during the war by Tucker, Sherrard & Co. After reading all the material from the Texas Archives, one would have to come to the conclusion that Colonel Crockett accepted the suggestion of Major Johns and sold the guns on the retail market at a higher price than the Texas Military Board would allow for them. Also, some of the few square-backed revolvers in existence today show considerable holster wear. If they had not been finished until after the war, it is doubtful they would have received much use at all, since they already were obsolete.

The round trigger guard models were those revolvers sold after the war by Clark, Sherrard & Co. Close examination and comparison of the square-backed trigger guard models (Tucker and Sherrard) and the round trigger guard models (Clark and Sherrard) reveal conclusively that the round trigger guard models were not made from leftover parts of the square-backed models. All the parts are of different size, dimension, and configuration, with two exceptions. The barrels of the Clark and Sherrard could have been made of unfinished barrel blanks from Tucker, Sherrard and Co. and the loading levers could have been left over from the same company. Everything else, including the serial number dies, are completely different.

Now in short, two revolvers delivered to the State of Texas in January 1963. Others were obviously sold to private individuals.
The Square-backed trigger guard revolvers wer likely made by Tucker and Sherrard (Sherrard, Taylor & Co. as of mid August 1863)
and the round trigger guard revolvers were made by Clark and Sherrard.

Copy of Colt Dragon Revolver made for the State of Texas.
left side
right side

In June 2001 number 288 3rd Model Colt Dragoon type revolverin .44 caliber percussion was sold for almost $73.000. The gun was marked on the barrel CLARK, SHERRARD & CO./LANCASTER, TEXAS. It is believed that this gun was made in 1866.

This ia number 115. The barrel has a pin front sight and "CLARK, SHERRARD & CO/LANCASTER TEXAS" etching with floral accents. The cylinder has "TEXAS/star/ARMS" and floral and martial motif etching. Included documents from the Brooklyn Historical Society state the revolver was owned by 1st Lt. John D. Hanning (1838-1883) of E Company of the 2nd Rhode Island Cavalry who served from January 15 to August 28 of 1863 and was discharged in New Orleans.

No. 115 left side
No. 115 right side