Post by: Uncle Russ on March 25, 2017, 02:53:32 AM
James Henry Dance and his brothers, David and George, had a pretty good thing going.
In 1853, the entire family had pulled up stakes in Alabama to settle in the bustling Brazos riverport of East Columbia in Brazoria County.
They had a profitable plantation of 400 acres, but the Dance boys didn't limit their ambitions to agricultural pursuits.
They set up a steam manufacturing concern, J. H. Dance and Company, to produce grist mills and cotton gins. Demand was solid and the profit margins high.
Then came the Civil War
The Confederate government of Texas was quick to take advantage of the Dance facility. The Dance boys were fixing wagons, mounting cannons and even grinding corn, but James Henry thought they could do more for the rebel cause.
[attachment=1:26vw7i85][/attachment]Deadly Dance 1.jpg[/attachment:26vw7i85]
He had a plan to produce fifty revolvers per week and wrote to Governor Lubbock asking for the funds to get started. Things moved more slowly than John Henry hoped, but by October of 1862 they had shipped a dozen of them to the arsenal at San Antonio.
The slow production can be attributed as much to the boy's perfectionism as to their inexperience. They revolvers they produced were cap and ball models of .36 and .44 caliber, based on the Colt Navy and Dragoon respectively. Each one was hand built, and while the materials and facilities may not have been on par with the big Union makers, their craftsmanship was.
By 1864, Matagorda Island was in the hands of the Federals and that was too close for comfort. The boys packed up and headed for a new factory built by the Confederate government in Grimes County. There they worked for the remainder of the war.
Their last batch of twenty-five was sent to the depot in Houston on April 18, 1865, nine days after Lee had surrendered at Appomattox.
After the war they went back to making grist mills and cotton gins in East Columbia. The firm and the families prospered and those three years of gun making became just a short, but romantic chapter in their personal histories. The factory carried on until it was destroyed in the Great Storm of 1900.
[attachment=0:26vw7i85][/attachment]Deadly Dance 2.jpg[/attachment:26vw7i85]
[size=85](Apache Chief Geronimo with a Dance Revolver - 1894)[/size]
Nobody knows exactly how many guns they made, but most experts put it at around 400. One of them, a .44 with serial number 4, wound up in the hands of the famous badman Bloody Bill Longley, who claimed to have killed thirty-two men with it.
It's estimated that fewer than one hundred are still around. When they come to auction, collectors stare each other down until somebody blinks, usually between $70,000 and $80,000.
Kinda makes you wish you could find that last shipment of twenty-five stashed away somewhere.
From the Texas History Reader 3/24/2017
Uncle Russ....
Post by: Hank in WV on March 25, 2017, 08:30:03 AM
Post by: greyhunter on March 25, 2017, 10:10:44 AM
Post by: Roaddog on March 26, 2017, 08:49:08 AM
Post by: Ohio Joe on March 26, 2017, 05:48:31 PM
Now I certainly didn't know that Geronimo had one.
I'm a bit surprised there was no mention of the Dance Company having to pay (and maybe they the did) a heavy fine on copying a Patent from Colt?
In any event, very interesting!
Post by: Uncle Russ on March 26, 2017, 07:42:12 PM
The Smithsonian Institute has them.....
J. H. Dance and Brothers revolver
This rare six-shot Confederate revolver was made in .36 and .44 calibers. Soon after the Civil War began, the Confederate government and individual states issued a call for firearms. As a result, a large variety of firearms—from flintlock rifles, pistols, and shotguns to current weaponry seized from federal properties—was used by Confederate soldiers at the beginning of the conflict. It became expedient for the South to begin manufacturing guns to keep their troops armed. Those organizations that did begin manufacturing arms largely used United States weapons as models, though this model is distinguishable by the lack of recoil shield protrusions on the frame. J. H. Dance and Brothers of Columbia, Texas, modeled their revolvers after the Colt Dragoon. The firm started manufacturing firearms in 1862. The men who worked for this company were granted exemption from military service by the state because the need for firearms was so great. In December 1863, the workshop was moved farther inland due to fear that the Union gunboats would shell it. Approximately 325 to 500 revolvers were manufactured by this firm.
Division of the History of Technology, Armed Forces History
National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Behring Center
Bequest of Charles Bremner Hogg Jackson
Link...... J. H. Dance and Brothers revolver (http://www.civilwar.si.edu/weapons_dance.html)
[attachment=0:1k8v14a8][/attachment]dance_bros revolver.jpg[/attachment:1k8v14a8]
Pietta has a copy;
Here is a You-Tube video on the Pietta:
Link..... 1862 Dance Brothers .44 Revolver (By Pietta) - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyTtrlrcGVA)
To me it is very "Walkerish" looking....in fact, it appears to have been designed with the Calvary in mind....
Link..... Pietta Dance Revolver | Reproduction Firearms | Gun Mart (http://www.gunmart.net/militaria/reproduction-firearms/pietta-dance-revolver)
Uncle Russ...
Post by: Bison Horn on March 26, 2017, 08:33:26 PM
Post by: Uncle Russ on March 27, 2017, 01:36:22 AM
Quote from: "Bison Horn"
Thanks Uncle Russ don't recall having heard any of that and just live out side Grimes County. BHBison Horn, written history is a wonderful thing, wouldn't ya say?
I'm was born and raised in El Paso, TX. Never left Texas until I joined the Army back in June 1957. Loved reading all the old stories of Texas, the Panhandle, the Brazos, Rio Grande River, Paso Del Norte, Hueco Tanks, Ciudad Juarez, Sonorra ....I couldn't get enough of it. A rich, exciting history, filled a young boys mind with thoughts and dreams like few other things available at that time. including Television.
Before reading this article in the Texas Reader History, I can not recall ever hearing anything about Dance Revolvers, before this!!
History, ya gotta love it.
Uncle Russ...
Post by: Ohio Joe on March 27, 2017, 09:14:06 AM
That Dance kind'a grows on a feller the more you look at it.
Post by: Craig Tx on March 27, 2017, 12:11:47 PM
Always learnin'...
Thanks for sharin'!
Craig
Post by: Winter Hawk on March 28, 2017, 06:56:34 PM
Quote from: "Ohio Joe"
I'm a bit surprised there was no mention of the Dance Company having to pay (and maybe they the did) a heavy fine on copying a Patent from Colt?Probably the Confederacy wasn't too worried about that!
~WH~
Post by: Ohio Joe on March 28, 2017, 08:36:45 PM
Quote from: "Winter Hawk"
Quote from: "Ohio Joe"I'm a bit surprised there was no mention of the Dance Company having to pay (and maybe they the did) a heavy fine on copying a Patent from Colt?Probably the Confederacy wasn't too worried about that! :bl th up