Historic gun brings big bucks at auction

A proud family man who enjoys history, 80-year-old John McBride had a hard time parting with a Colt Walker original that had been handed down through the generations.

This past week, McBride traveled to Maine to auction off the historic 44-caliber revolver. An anonymous bidder paid $920,000 for the right to own the gun. Bidding ended at $800,000 and the buyer then had to pay another $120,000 fee to the auctioneer.

“It was a difficult decision and one I’m not too sure if I did the right thing,” said McBride, who lives near Libby. “It was a painful decision. For the good of the family, it was the best thing to do.”

McBride isn’t sure what the net result of the $800,000 will bring. But whatever the post-tax amount turns out to be, the money will be used to purchase land.

“Not until recently did I think it might be sold,” McBride said. “It was not my property, it was the family’s property. None of my children collect firearms and none have a place to display it and are only mildly interested in origins of the family. I was afraid that somewhere down the line it would end up in someone else’s hands.”

The family owns a summer camp at Troy.

“My idea was to sell it and invest in land that was adjacent to our summer camp,” McBride said. “Ultimately, family said ‘do it.’ Š We’ll see how much the government leaves me.”

The history behind the gun is fascinating and played a primary role in its value.

The Colt Walker made its first appearance in 1847 as a result of a collaborative effort between Capt. Samuel H. Walker and firearms designer Samuel Colt. Walker had just received a pair of the powerful handguns before he was killed in the Mexican War.

McBride, who researched the Colt Walker’s history, said Walker contracted for Colt to make 1,000 of the new handguns. Without a factory to produce the new model, Colt commissioned Eli Whitney Jr., to make them.

“At that time, it was the first revolver that the Army had ever purchased,” McBride said. “The Walker Colt at that time was probably considered the big assault weapon of the Army. You had six shots at your disposal while others were single shots.”

The guns made their way in segments to the Texas rangers where they went into use during the Mexican War and on the Texas frontier. A Colt Walker was issued in 1847 at Vera Cruz, Mexico, to Private Samuel Wilson.

Wilson scratched his name on the trigger guard during his time in the war. He died at age 33 in December 1847 or January 1848 of unknown causes at Jalapa, Mexico. John Reese Kenly obtained the gun either from the dying man himself or perhaps through Col. John Coffee Hays, who commanded Wilson’s unit, the First Regiment Texas Mounted Volunteers.

“He was in the right place at the right time and essentially had a new gun in his possession,” McBride said of Kenly, his great-great uncle. “He kept it clean and taken care of until he died in 1891.”

Kenly’s possession of the gun brings even more color to its history. Kenly led a group of Maryland volunteers into the Mexican War and eventually achieved rank of major. He later entered the Civil War as colonel of the First Maryland Infantry. During the war, he was promoted to rank of brigadier general and was the highest-ranking officer from Maryland on the Union side.

McBride’s grandmother picked up everything she could of Kenly’s following his death in December 1891. The revolver then went to McBride’s mother and father, and then into his possession in 1971.

For a while, McBride had no idea of the piece’s value and was once told by a gun store owner that he could get $4,000. McBride didn’t sell but instead cleaned it and hung it back on the wall where it had been for years. Through the generations, the gun was kept in pristine condition – a major factor in the amount it drew at auction.

“I knew of some other guns not nearly in good condition Š I figured I would probably get $500,000 and I had hopes for $600,000,” McBride said. “The fact that I got $800,000 blew me away.”