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President Harrison's Shotgun sought by family

by Floyd L. Baldwin

Where is President Benjamin Harrison's shot gun? It is a beautiful double-barreled presentation piece with elaborate engraving including hunting scenes. A plaque states who presented the gun and the occasion. I saw the gun briefly many years ago and the details are dim, but as I remember it, Harrison's campaign slogan (Young Tipecanoe and Morton Too) was included in the engraving.

Let me start at the beginning.

President Harrison's first wife died while Benjamin, our 23rd President, was still in the White House. After he was defeated for a second term by Cleveland, Benjamin returned to his mansion in Indianapolis, Ind. to resume his law practice there, in 1896, he married Mary Scott Lord Dimmick, the niece of his first wife.

After the president's death in 1901, his Indianapolis mansion was used by the family and later rented to the Arthur Jordan Foundation as a boarding house for their music students. In 1936, the Foundation bought the home from Mrs. Harrison.

Soon thereafter, Bernard Batty, an employee of the foundation, had the idea of turning the mansion into a museum to commemorate the late president and to house his memorabilia. The Foundation agreed and appointed Batty the Restoration Curator. He worked closely with Mrs. Harrison and her daughter Elizabeth to restore the home to its original splendor. The Indianapolis mansion opened to the public in 1938.

In gratitude for his hard work on the restoration of the home, Mary Harrison and her daughter presented Batty with the late president's prize shotgun along with a letter of authentication. Mary Harrison died in 1948.

Bernard Batty was my wife's grandfather. When he passed on in 1958, my wife's mother, Jane Batty Newby, inherited the gun. In 1958 or 1959 during a time of financial need, Jane Newby sold the gun through Warshal's Sporting Goods in downtown Seattle. It is thought that the then manager of the gun department bought the shotgun. We have been unable to verify this point.

My wife, Betty Newby Baldwin, is deep into a historical documentation of her family including genealogy, photos, documents, letters, etc. She would like to document the passage of this historic shotgun through her family's hands.

Do you know where the gun is today? We would like to obtain a god photograph of the shotgun, and if possible, a copy of the letter of authentication written by Mary Harrison. If you know where the gun is, we would like to contact the present owner. Please notify this publication or the author of this article.

(Editor's Note: This article was sent to the editorial offices by Mr. Baldwin. It sounds like this shotgun could very well be in the Pugent Sound area. If anybody knows of its whereabouts, Mr. Baldwin may be reached at 20828 223rd St. SE, Monroe, Wash. 98272. Please notify Rod Wright, so he can notify the Gun News staff.

Washington Arms Collectors Gun News, Nov. 1998