As detailed in last week’s column, in the 18th and 19th centuries most every tavern held one or more shooting matches during the fall and winter. Prizes attracted contestants who were usually found later patronizing the host taverns. It was also noted that shooting matches were an old custom that immigrants brought with them from Switzerland and the Germanic states west of the Rhine. In the late 17th century, craftsmen from that region practiced the technology of cutting spiral grooves inside rifle barrels, which imparted a spin to the ball, thus greatly improving accuracy.
In the early 18th century, some of these gunsmiths settled in this area and developed the famous Pennsylvania flintlock rifles noted for their beauty, craftsmanship and accuracy. Inevitably, contests among marksmen developed, and the staging place, as with most things, was the village tavern.
The announcements for these matches were posted in the newspapers of the day, but few of these from the 18th century have survived. However, the 19th century is a different story, and we do have some notable advertisements in the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect.
The matches were advertised in the German language newspapers of which there were three locally: The Reading Adler (Eagle), Sumneytown’s Bauren Freund (Farmers’ Friend) and the Skippack Neutralist (politically neutral). Those in the Berks County papers were rather prosaic, but the Montgomery County papers waxed poetic in their shooting match ads. In the original Dutch, the poems have rhyme and meter, which is lost in the translation. Also, whether they are the inspiration of the tavern keepers who bought the ads or the papers’ editors is unknown. The first one carries the headline “Berks gegen Montgomery!” (Berks against Montgomery!)
“(Translated): Berks versus Montgomery Shooting Match. A large board shoot will be held on Thursday the 16th of February 1851, at the tavern of Samuel Landis, in District Township, in Berks County for a fat hog weighing 800 pounds with number one shot at 60 yards. Sharp shooters from near and far are invited to take part in the shooting.
Sharp shooters, now’s the time, we invite you,
To shoot for the heavy pig,800 pounds is a weight,
That you do not see every day.Montgomery has fat pigs for sure,
Yet none as heavy on the hoof,So come on in you Montgomery shooters,
Last chance to see the wonder beast.
You from the Swamp who always hit,
If eye and gun do not mock you.
Finish it and come to join,You all know Landises Stand;
You Pottstowners, and Sumneytowners,
Are well known as good shotsBy shooting where it is a hair’s breadth.
Come and bring good shooting equipment
Where good shooting rights are in force.
We give our greeting to allThat each may find
To the best shot for the mammoth swine.
Many Sharp shootersJanuary 24, 1851″
Another one, also in translation:
“Attention Sharp Shooters!A shooting match will be held at the tavern of Jacob Bucher, in Upper Salford Township on Wednesday the 2nd of February next for a fat hog weighing between 600 and 700 pounds. With number 2 shot, at 50 yards distance. Each shooter shall bring his own board and shot. The best shot shall have the first half of the pig, and the second shot the other half. The following day the swine will be butchered at Bucher’s Tavern and a box opened to guess the weight of the pig.
If the weather shall be unfavorable on the 2nd of February the board shoot will be held the following day on the 3rd.
Come out now you shootersLet it crack and flash
It will determine who will have the honor of the best shooter.
So collect yourselves right here
A double reward will be yours for playing,
The half pig and the box is the goal
Shoot along side and you will have missed it,
And received none of the fat hog,
Whoever guesses the correct number for the box
Must not forget the rest.Whoever is the nearest correct
Will have the box and cash as a present.
January 11, 1859.””Now you Skippackers come on,
Let’s see who can hit the black,
You from Salford do not keep back.
Try your good luck at shootingFrom Sumneytown, from Marlborough
There are many shooters here,You from Lederach, come on in
Clean your gunsAnd you shooters from Limerick
This time stiffen your necksThose from Pottsgrove come here,
You Trumboursvillers are knownAs good shots throughout the whole countryside
You Tylersporters do not stay away
It is a pig and not a mouse,Come on from near and far,
You are welcome, we will see you gladly,
At Bucher’s in Salford is the place
Where you make your mark for the pig
Mark the 3rd of February wellThe shooting match shall be held.
Jacob BuchertJanuary 17, 1854″Notices that contestants had to bring their own board and shot implies to this author that these were board shoots with shotguns rather than contests of rifle marksmanship. Commonly, the target for a board shoot was an “X” drawn with chalk on a board. Each shooter in the round fires his charge of pellets at the board; the shooter whose board has a pellet closest to the cross of the “X” is the winner of the round. This type of match introduces a large element of chance. Most anyone could shoot well enough to hit the board, and beyond that it was pure luck as to the winner.
Almost surely this system would draw more contestants than rifle shooting wherein the best shot with the best rifle could simply travel around to the various matches and walk off with every prize!
The Historian is produced by the New Hanover Historical Society. Call Robert Wood at 610-326-4165 with comments.