Sponsored by the Kendall County Historical Commission, on March 30, Frank Graves, an early American percussion firearms expert, will present “Rifles and pistols used in early Boerne history including the rifle patent of Boerne gunsmith E.A.F. Toepperwein.”
Graves’ program is free and open to the public in the Patrick Heath Public Library’s Community Room at 6 p.m.
Weapons have always played a role in Kendall County’s early heritage, whether for food, for recreation by the German-influenced Boerne Schuetzen Verein (Shooting Club) or for life-or-death Native-American engagements, information from the historical commission stated. In his presentation, Graves will share the back story on a variety of pistols and rifles, several with Kendall County pedigrees.
Two of his artifacts are on loan from the Boerne Area Historical Preservation Historical Society and the Old Jail Museum.
Even our county’s namesake, George Wilkins Kendall, when visiting his Post Oak Spring Ranch located just four miles east of Boerne in the 1850s, focused on armaments and humorously assessed the presentation of his shepherds.
“Instead of ‘crooks on their shoulders and perhaps lutes under their arms,’ as poets were wont to describe the gentle folk who tended the flocks, each was ready to stand off a full-fledged Comanche raid,” he once said. “Standard equipment for guarding a flock of eight hundred sheep included a double-barreled gun, a Bowie knife, and a Colt six-shooter.”
Any questions may be directed to Bryden Moon at [email protected].
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