Hopkins and Allen Arms Company purchased Forehand Arms Company in 1902. Police insignia and a star over a screw and is a 6 shot with a serial number of.

F&W relentlessly knocked off Smith & Wesson’s.32- and.38-caliber double-action top-break revolvers in hammer and hammerless versions. Immediately after the Civil War, in which bloody battles raged within eyeshot of the nation’s capitol, and previously quiet city streets ran red, America became a nation of concealed-carriers. Some gunmakers, such as Smith & Wesson, rode this wave of gun consciousness to enduring fame.

Others did not. Consider Forehand & Wadsworth. The Forehand & Wadsworth factory was in Worcester, Mass. The Stately American Largely forgotten today, Forehand & Wadsworth was for a time one of the nation’s best-known manufacturers of small, concealable revolvers. In a market flooded with inexpensive pocket guns such as Avenger, Tramp’s Terror, Bang Up and Christian Protector, the guns of Forehand & Wadsworth managed to retain some respectability. Some of that reputation undoubtedly derived from the stateliness of the brand name, which was faintly British and unmistakably confidence-building. I can hear it now: “Stand back, vile ruffian!

I am protected by Forehand & Wadsworth!” Exit ruffian, stage left. However, Forehand & Wadsworth was a true-blue American enterprise presided over by Sullivan Forehand, a bookkeeper with a knack for numbers, and Henry C. Wadsworth, a former officer in the Union army. These ambitious entrepreneurs rose to prominence in the firearms industry of the 1870s in a time-honored manner: They married the boss’s daughters. And in that case, the boss was Ethan Allen, one of America’s most visible arms makers. Allen is not to be confused with the strong-willed Revolutionary War hero of the same name who compelled the British to surrender Fort Ticonderoga. This Ethan Allen was a pioneering gunmaker who opened his first shop in Grafton, Conn., in 1832.

Allen’s guns were held in high regard, and about 1842, he entered a partnership with Charles Thurber. Their firm of Allen & Thurber relocated to the burgeoning metal-working city of Worcester, Mass., in 1847. Thurber retired in 1856, and the company became known as Allen & Wheelock when Allen’s brother-in-law, T.P. Wheelock, joined what would become almost a dynasty of American gunmaking.

F&W introduced a nice copy of Webley’s snub-nosed Bull Dog revolver. This sturdy little gun was available in a seven-shot.32 version, a six-shot.38 and a six-shot.44 that chambered the stubby.44 Webley. Genesis of a Company Enter Forehand.

Hired as an accountant at Allen & Wheelock in 1856 after a stint at Worcester’s Pratt & Inman steelworks, Forehand soon lost his heart to Allen’s daughter Nettie, and they were married in 1859. Wadsworth had already married another of Allen’s daughters, and when Wheelock left Allen & Wheelock in 1863, it seemed like a good time to take another look at the situation. Allen renamed the company Ethan Allen & Co., the “& Co.” referring to his sons-in-law Forehand and Wadsworth, who became his active partners. When Allen died in January 1871, the firm was renamed Forehand & Wadsworth in honor of the two new principals. The first guns bearing the Forehand & Wadsworth name understandably resembled the guns of the former Ethan Allen & Co.

They included a.22-caliber single-shot derringer, a.41-caliber version of same and an elegant single-action.22-caliber sidehammer revolver. The sidehammer incorporated what would become an F&W trademark of sorts; an oddly pinched-up lug at the rear of the topstrap. This lug, into which was milled the rear sight notch, became more apparent on the F&W Center Hammer Revolver, which bore the names Terror, Bulldozer or Swamp Angel. (The last was named after an enormous Union cannon that did its best to level Charleston, S.C., in 1863 and then exploded.).

In the early 1870s the Center Hammer morphed into what would become the flagship of the F&W line: the rimfire.32-caliber or.38-caliber Forehand & Wadsworth Double Action. Some modern collectors lump the F&W Double Action — and almost all F&W handguns — into the category of “suicide specials,” but I’m not one of them. My F&W Double Action, which my grandfather carried regularly in his days as a banker in the heart of Dillinger country, still shoots fine, though its anemic.32 rimfire round won’t strike terror into many hearts. I’ve always thought that F&W’s revolvers were a cut above those offered by most of the company’s contemporaries, though admittedly not up to the standard set by Colt and Smith & Wesson.

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