Protecting stagecoaches and settling gunfights, John Kelsey's extraordinarily rare Winchester Model 1876 "One of One Hundred" has become a legend of the Wild West.
No other Winchester rifles have attained greater appeal than the "One of One Thousand" and "One of One Hundred" Models 1873 and 1876. They are rare and of high quality, usually with special features and finishes and quite often are of considerable historical interest. These rifles, however, didn't start out as museum pieces. They were often carried and used by the pioneers, lawmen and desperados who forged the wild frontier of the OldWest. This is the tale of one such rifle and the rough-and-tumble stage driver in Montana who owned it during the 1870s.
The Man
Records in the Butte-Silver Bow Archives in Helena, Mont., show John Kelsey was born on May 27,1859, to a Mormon family near Salt Lake in Utah. His early years were spent in the mountains, before the arrival of railroads in that region. His father, Eli Kelsey, became the historian of the Mormon Church after his arrival in Utah in 1848. Shortly thereafter, Brigham Young ordered a group of men to leave everything and to "go on a mission, without scrip or purse" to preach the Mormon gospel. A number of men, including Eli, refused, fearing they would lose all their worldly goods to someone else while in the field.
Along with the others, Eli was cut off from the church. He was also cut off from young John, who was 10 at the time. From that day on, little "Jack" Kelsey was a marked boy and was called an "apostate" by his schoolmates. He often heard this epithet on the way to and from school, and he was frequently forced to fight his Mormon schoolmates. John paid dearly for his father's refusal to obey church elders, but he learned lessons that later stood him in good stead on the roads and in the rough mining camps of Montana.
By 1880, he had enough of Utah life and set out for Montana, where he bought a "deadaxe wagon," drove to Red Rock-then at the end of a rail line-and engaged in hauling passengers and freight. Sam Benham, a well-to-do businessman who lived in Butte and was involved in that city's mining operations, was a frequent passenger on Kelsey's stage. Benham had great admiration for Kelsey, and the two became fast friends.
On one of their trips near dark's Canyon, they saw a herd of elk, and Kelsey exclaimed, "There's our winter's supply of meat!" As the elk broke from the timber, Kelsey dropped one cleanly with his single-shot Sharps. Noting that Benham was standing silent, overwhelmed by buck fever, Kelsey grabbed the man's Winchester Model 1876 and dropped four more elk with four shots. Overcome with admiration, Benham gave the rifle to Kelsey, saying, "Hell, a man that shoots that well should rightly own it."
The Rifle
The Winchester Arms Co. catalogue of 1875 carried this announcement about a new bloodline of Model 1873 Winchesters: "The barrel of every sporting rifle we make will be proved and shot at a target and the target will be numbered to correspond to the barrel and will be attached to it. All of those barrels that are found to make targets of extra merit will be made up into guns with set triggers and extra finish and marked as a designating name One of a thousand' and sold at $100. The next grade of barrels, not quite so fine, will be marked 'one of a hundred' and set up to order in any style at $20 advance over the list price."
When the announcement was made, it applied only to the famous Model 1873 Winchester, then made in the .44-40 Win. center-fire cartridge. When the Model 1876 in.45-75 Win. was introduced in 1877, it was applied also to those guns as well. The Model 1876 was frequently referred to as the "Centennial Model," for it was first exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in the summer of 1876.
The manufacture and marketing of these rifles with premium grade barrels was short, with most being made by 1878. About 136 "One of One Thousand" Model 1873 rifles were produced, and eight were marked "One of One Hundred." The factory records indicate there were 54 Model 1876 "One of One Thousand" rifles, and only seven were marked "One of One Hundred."
Kelsey's rifle, a "One of One Hundred," was one of the seven, of which only four are known to exist today. His was by far the most historic. The gun left the factory in 1877 and was shipped to Montana, where it temporarily became the proud possession of Benham.
The Kelsey rifle is listed in the original factory ledgers that are housed in the Winchester Repeating Firearms Museum at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, in Cody, Wyo., as being: "Model 1876, Serial No. 713, Rifle, octagon barrel, set trigger, Pistol grip, long range sight, casehardened, Sling and swivel, 1 of 100. Received in the warehouse on Nov. 13, 1877. Shipped from the warehouse on Nov. 15,1877, with 9 other arms to order number 10379." Several other guns in this shipment were one of 1,000s.
The rifle is engraved at the breech end of the barrel "One of One Hundred" in a panel on the top barrel flat, with surrounding leaves and scrolls. Similar engraving is found at the muzzle. Inlaid silver bands also encircle the barrel at the inscription site and at the muzzle.
The rifle is an early first-model 1876-a so-called "open top" by collectors because of its lack of a dust cover. It also lacks the trigger block of later Model 1876s. It was bulkier and heavier than the 1873 Winchester, and it was the last model to use the toggle-link action of the Volcanic, Henry and 1866 Winchesters. The 1876 was chambered in .45-75 Win., which held 45 grs. of FFG blackpowder behind a 350-gr. bullet, yielding a muzzle velocity of 1350 f.p.s. and a muzzle energy of 1,485 ft.-lbs. It was the most powerful of Winchester's toggle-link rifles. Other calibers became available for the Model 1876 in time; they were the .45-60 Win., .40-60 Win. and .50-95 Win. However, all seven of the "One of One Hundred" rifles were chambered in the original cartridge, .45-75 Win.
Production of the 1876 Winchester peaked at 11,050 guns in 1882 and gradually declined until 1894-1898 when the production figures for these years totaled a mere 82. In all, 63,871 Model 1876 Winchesters, in various forms-rifles, carbines and muskets-were manufactured, far less than the 720,000 Model 1873s produced. The big .45-cal. 1876 was succeeded by John Browning's venerable Model 1886, which allowed the use of more powerful-and desirable-smokeless ammunition unlike the weaker toggle-link Model 1876.
Kelsey And The One
Early in his career as a stage driver, peace officers in Butte prevailed upon Kelsey to accept a local desperado as fare. Montana's "Bad Bill," as he was known, had caused great trouble in Butte. The lawmen set out to change his address, but Bad Bill quickly came to resent his forced departure. By the time the coach reached the Brown's Bridge stage station on the Big Hole River, Bad Bill had taken to drinking heavily and bullying a feeble passenger. In the melee that ensued, Kelsey took on the big brute, proceeding to throw him into the stage yard. Bad Bill responded with ill-fated gunfire, and Kelsey shot him dead with the big .45-cal. Winchester Benham had given him.
Kelsey found that early and often, he had to fight his passengers for the fare owed him at the end of the trip. One of them was a comedian named Adams who traveled about the territory with his troupe. They played Sheridan, Mont., as their first town, but Adams didn't pay Kelsey, telling him he "would settle up" in Virginia City. There, however, he refused to pay. Challenged for his fare by Kelsey, the ensuing fight left the much larger comedian on the floor and Kelsey in the hands of a city marshal. He avoided jail and was awarded the money owed him by the judge who fined Adams for "trying to cheat the boy out of his fare."
Some time later, he had two other passengers, men named Rafferty and Thompson, both armed, and all were set upon and robbed by highwaymen on the road between Deer Lodge and Helena. Preferring not to fight, the passengers threw their pistols in the brush. On their arrival in Helena, one of the men, who had concealed his purse from the robbers, refused to pay Kelsey his fare. Later that evening, Kelsey confronted him as he sat playing faro at the Centennial hotel with a large pile of chips before him. Kelsey put the man down and took his due from the table.
In later years, when more mellow, he became a bailiff for the Federal court and a guard in the U.S. Marshal's office, as well as a lookout for a gambling and bawdy house in Butte. He was indeed a tough customer and a man suited to his environment and times. His rifle was especially well suited to him, too.
Of Hands
