The Kentucky rifle, also known as the long rifle and the Pennsylvania rifle, is a muzzle-loading firearm that was widely used in the 18th and early 19th centuries. It was a staple of frontier life in America, used for hunting, defense and warfare. 

It’s long, slender barrel gave the rifle exceptional accuracy, allowing it to strike targets at greater distances than other muskets of the time. The flintlock mechanism used a piece of flint to strike the frizzen, creating sparks that would ignite the powder in the pan. Often the ball or load would be wrapped in a greased patch, which improved accuracy and prevented the ball from fouling the barrel. 

Frequently these rifles would be decorated with carvings and brass inlays, serving both aesthetic and practical purposes, providing a better grip and protecting the wood from the elements.

Among the many known makers of Kentucky rifles are Martin Meylin and his son of Pennsylvania, Adam Haymaker of Virginia, and John Frederick Klette of Virginia and North Carolina.

Sometimes, a Kentucky rifle comes with a provenance of it’s creation and use. Except for in his native geographic locale, the name of Chief Tunis is virtually forgotten to history, as is his relationship with Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, better known as the Marquis de la Fayette, the famous ally of the Americans in the Revolutionary War. Tunis (or Teunis) was a Tuscarora Indian who migrated from the Carolinas to the Beaverkill area of New York. During the French and Indian War, a scout named John Henry Osterhout from Pepacton, N.Y. found the abandoned young Indian boy alone and starving in the woods. He rescued him and raised him as a Christian. On one occasion, Tunis returned the favor by rescuing his benefactor and his scouting partner shortly before they were to be tortured and flayed by hostile natives. Later, a rejected marriage proposal led Tunis to leave the white man’s world and live alone in the woods as a hermit. But he still maintained a benevolent relationship with the whites, often at the expense of his relationship with his native counterparts. The first known reference to Tunis’s relationship with La Fayette tells of his service to La Fayette as a guide during the American Revolution, taking the Marquis through the hostile territory of the Iroquois in an attempt to enlist French Canadians against the British. The friendship continued long after the war, and extended to La Fayette’s tour of the United States in 1824 and 1825. It was during that period that the Marquis presented Tunis with a hunting rifle in Kingston, New York. The rifle was exhibited at the New England Antique Arms Society show in Hartford, Connecticut in 2004, where it won a “Best of Show” award, and it was described as having attributes similar to the work of gunsmith John Rupp and Jacob Kuntz as well. Features included a re-converted and engraved lock, a classic Lehigh County curly maple half stock, sixty-six punched kill marks for deer and bear, and an engraved brass wear plate with a period inscription reading ““Presented to Chief Tunis by Lafayette at Kingston NY 1824.” It also came with volumes of research and a catalogue from Sotheby’s, where it was sold in 1995. It sold at Morphy’s Auctions in Pennsylvania for $215,250.

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Kentucky rifle given by the Marquis de la Fayette to his guide and friend, Chief Tunis, selling for $215,250. Photo courtesy Morphy Auctions.