Replica of Grouseland Rifle, the official state gun, commissioned for bicentennial

Indiana is among six states where lawmakers have designated an official state gun.

In the other five, it is a type of gun — the Colt 45 in Arizona, for instance, or the Browning M1911 automatic pistol in Utah.

In Indiana, however, it is an individual firearm. Just one gun: The Grouseland Rifle.

But that lone gun is about to lose its one-of-a-kind status. A commemorative replica built to mark the Indiana bicentennial will be unveiled Saturday in Noblesville.

An ornately detailed example of the style commonly known as the Kentucky long rifle, the original Grouseland was made about 10 years before Indiana became a state in 1816.

The unique gun was handcrafted by John Small, a contemporary of then-Territorial Gov. William Henry Harrison, who would go on to become the ninth president of the United States.

While lesser known than friend and colleague Harrison, Small's role in Indiana history also was far-reaching — and remains evident today in more than just the state rifle.

Indiana lawmakers designated Small's historic gun the official state rifle in 2012, and named it the Grouseland. The state gun shares its name with the Vincennes home where Harrison and his family lived during his term as governor of the Indiana Territory, and is on display at the historic site preserved and operated by the nonprofit Grouseland Foundation.

The law designating the state rifle prohibits "any duplication or reproduction or sale of any duplication or reproduction" unless it is authorized by the foundation, which recently commissioned second-generation Hoosier gunsmith Marvin Kemper to make the bicentennial reproduction.

The Posey County artisan has spent about two months, working 50 to 60 hours a week, to faithfully replicate the Grouseland Rifle — as much a work of art as it is a functional weapon. The bulk of Kemper's painstaking wood and metal work was done with the same types of hand tools Small used to make the original sometime between 1803 and 1812.

Kemper's replica will be on display Saturday and Sunday during the 33rd annual Living History and Antique Arms Show at the Hamilton County Fairgrounds in Noblesville.

The weekend event will be first of several stops at gun shows for the reproduction of the state rifle, which will be sold at auction this summer. Proceeds from the sale will help support the Harrison home and its educational programs about Harrison and frontier life in the Indiana Territory.

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While the bicentennial gun project shines a light on Harrison and Grouseland, it also illuminates the legacies of Small, as well as Kemper and his late father, Cornell Kemper. The elder Kemper, who died in 2003, is widely regarded as the most prolific builder of Kentucky Long rifles in Indiana history — even though he worked more than a century after the heyday of the now-primitive weapons that helped open the frontier.

Reproduction commissioned

The chain of ownership of the Grouseland Rifle after it was made by Small is unknown.

Kemper said there is some "Vincennes lore," typical of stories of that time, about the rifle. The story goes that Small shot a Native American accused of kidnapping a settler from across the Wabash River with his "copper head rifle." Some think that might have been a reference to the Grouseland, he said, which has copper cladding on the muzzle.

"There's no real way to tell," he admitted. "It may have been his personal gun, or he may have sold it right after he finished making it."

Until its designation as the state rifle, in fact, the Grouseland was known simply as a John Small rifle. The maker's signature — "Jn Small Vincennes" — is engraved in flowing script on a silver plate affixed to the top of the barrel.

Nearly as notable for its elaborate brass and silver embellishments as its ties to Harrison, the rifle landed in the hands of the foundation after a board member learned one of the only six known remaining Small rifles was being offered for sale in 2004 at an auction in North Carolina.

A successful bid — officials declined to reveal the purchase price — brought it back home to Vincennes.

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Since its return to Indiana, the rifle has been "a very special feature" at Grouseland, said executive director Lisa Ice-Jones.

"The Grouseland Rifle helps give visitors an idea of the times," she explained. "It was a hostile environment. The frontier was unruly. William Henry Harrison had to come here and take charge. This gun reflects that."

Ice-Jones said the Grouseland Rifle also reflects American ingenuity and the skills of the settlers who came to the area after the Revolutionary War.

The Grouseland and other American-made long rifles from that period, she said, were different from European guns of the time.

Those differences include the barrel length; the Grouseland's octagonal barrel is a half-inch shy of five feet. It fired a smaller caliber ball, allowing more ammunition to be stored in the "patch box" built into its curly maple stock. The inside of the barrel also was "rifled" with spiral grooves to improve accuracy.

Detailed work

The gun's utilitarian features are complemented with distinctive decorative elements. They included sterling silver inlays and what Kemper describes as "two significant embellishments" on the stock. One is an engraving of the angel Gabriel blowing a horn on the patch box surrounded by intricate brass scrollwork.

The second distinct decorative element is a three-inch silver disc on the opposite side of the stock from the patch box. The medallion is engraved with the Liberty Eagle, flags and a number of military symbols, including cannons, swords and spears.

Those unique elements represent Small's skills as both an artist and craftsman. And they have been faithfully recreated by Kemper, along with other features such as the distinctive copper-clad muzzle and silver diamond inlays stretching the length of the barrel.

The 57-year-old Wadesville resident made his first gun, with the oversight of his father, in 1972. Gunsmithing was a hobby for the next 30 years, before Kemper followed in his father's footsteps into the craft full-time about three years ago.

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Kemper's effort to replicate the Grouseland Rifle started with a trip to Vincennes, where he spent about five hours photographing, measuring and tracing the gun and its various components.

"They're pretty protective with the original gun," Kemper said. "They keep it in an acrylic case, but they took it out for me. I had to sign a confidentiality agreement not to share my drawings and measurements."

While the replica is fully capable of being fired, Kemper said he has no plans to shoot it.

"Realistically," he said, "it will probably never be shot. It will probably spend its life on display somewhere."

Small's big figure

Kemper's replica of the Grouseland Rifle is his fifth reproduction of a Small rifle.

In 2014, he was commissioned by the National Rifle Association to make a presentation gun for the organization's annual convention in Indianapolis. He selected what is likely the most famous of the remaining Small rifles, known as the Kindig Rifle.

The original Kindig sold at auction in 2011 for $184,000. At the time, that was a world-record price for a Kentucky long rifle.

Joe Jansen of Fishers, a writer with an interest in Indiana history, said the Grouseland and Kindig rifles are two of the six known, remaining examples of Small's rifle work. Two others, known as the Vigo and Girty rifles, are in the Indiana State Museum. A fifth — very similar to the Grouseland and once owned by explorer William Clark — is now in the collection of the Missouri Historical Society. The sixth is owned by Jeff Jaeger of Fishers, who is coauthor of the book "John Small of Vincennes: Gunsmith on the Western Frontier."

Jansen said Small is one of the most-important but least-known characters in Indiana history. According to his research, the "earliest records of John Small as a gunsmith were from 1773, when he was about 13 years old, as an armorer and militia soldier at Fort Pitt, and apprenticed to a pair of gunsmith brothers, Richard and William Butler."

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Small moved to the Indiana Territory after the American Revolution, and one collector described him as “perhaps the finest gunsmith to work west of the Appalachian Mountains in the years following the American Revolution.”

But it wasn't just Small's work as a gunsmith that cemented his place in Hoosier history.

Small was the first sheriff in Indiana, serving Knox County when it stretched into parts of what now is Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan. That "first" is memorialized today on the sheriff's department uniforms and vehicles, which include patches and decals that proclaim: “First in Indiana — 1790.”

In 1799, he was elected to the Northwest Territorial Legislature.

Small also served as adjutant general to the Indiana Territorial Militia headed by Harrison. The force was the forerunner of the Indiana National Guard, which counts Small as its first adjutant general.

The frontiersman, who also operated a tavern and ferry on the banks of the Wabash River, made one other significant contribution to Hoosier history. Small designed the official seal for the Indiana Territory, which served as a model for the current state seal.

As Indiana celebrates its 200th birthday this year, Small's original design provides an enduring vision of frontier life that ties the state's present to its past.

Call IndyStar reporter Tim Evans at (317) 444-6204 and follow him on Twitter: @starwatchtim.