Remington Society – 1982 to 2007

Here is the chronological history of the most important events of our organization:

• The Karl Moldenhauer Auction of Remington firearms was on October 29, 1980. A discussion was held between several Remington collectors about setting up a Remington collectors group, a dream of Karl which he shared with his close friend Fritz Baehr.

• Over the next few years, Annual meetings of the Remington Society of America were held at every Winter Antique Arms Show in Las Vegas. Fritz Baehr wrote periodic letters to the membership on various Remington historical topics, mostly about E. Remington & Sons.
• Fritz Baehr served as Founding RSA President until he stepped down for Gordon Stanleys presidency in January 1988.
• In March 1987 Ed Hull volunteered to be the first RSA Newsletter Editor. He compiled articles from the members and laid them out on his word processor program and glued in pictures onto all sides of a 11″ by 17″ sheet of folded paper… to produce a four-page, photocopied newsletter. Roy Marcot volunteered the photocopy machine at his work to run off 200 copies every quarter. Roy confessed that on the day before Ed came over to run off the Newsletter, he would call in the Xerox serviceman to fine tune the photocopier to tip-top shape!
• In early 1991, Ed asked Roy to take over the job as RSA Newsletter Editor. Roys first product was the issue entitled April 1991. It was 8 pages in length and was printed on a printing press by Roys friend John Ewald, who was top salesman at his printing company. The membership liked the idea of a professionally printed publication, so every issue thereafter was done so. Thus began quarterly publications of the RSA Newsletter. The name of the publication was changed to the RSA Journal in the 1st Quarter 1992. Roy has served as Journal Editor ever since, and has now started his sixteenth year.

shown the room that doesnt exist. So stated
because if the men told anyone else about the room, it
would be closed to them forever. In other words… it
didnt exist. Going home, Roy put together a plan, and soon after
presented it to Remington management… The Remington
Society could put together a research team which
would travel to Ilion on their own nickel and would work
on the Remington records… categorize them, preserve
them, and put them in order. Management
agreed with the plan, and Roy hand-picked a
small group of dedicated individuals including
Jack Heath (historian), Leon Wier (E. Remington
& Sons pistols), Slim Kohler (ERS pistols), Jay
Huber (double-barrel shotguns and ERS
firearms), Jane Spellman (Director of the
Herkimer County Historical Society),

John Lacy(modern Remington bolt action rifles) and Jerry Swinney (early Remington history – prior to
1860). On Remingtons part, new plant manager VP Sam Rensi dedicated a new room for the Remington Archives and brought in open rack shelving and acid-free boxes and other materials. Importantly, he moved Kevin Cornell over from Consumer Services to become the Remington Archives Manager and hired Janice Estay as Conservator. Janice had recently graduated from Ohio State in their museum conservator program – the right person for the job at hand. Working full time, Kevin and Janice brought down the mountain of records from the storage room and placed them in boxes and began the task of putting tens of thousands
of records in order. RSAs newly formed Research Team traveled back to the new Remington Archives every year for a week of work, and slowly additional team members were added,

including Lou Behling (ammunition), Ed Hull (rolling block development), and Gene Myszkowski (Rem-Lee rifles and modern Remington slide-action and autoloading rifles). Later, other historical experts were invited to join the team, including Bob, Sue and Corey Creamer, Ken Blauch, Loren Dunham, Mark Eddy and Rich Shepler. The team now numbers fourteen dedicated individuals, each with a different Remington expertise: early Remington history, Civil War revolvers, hunting rifles, catalogs and brochures, modern shotguns, etc. One or two week-long research trip s are made by the team members to the Remington gun factory in Ilion, New York each year, and to the Remington ammunition plant in Lonoke, Arkansas, less frequently.

The Remington Society holds annual historical seminars each year, to better educate its membership in things Remington! The three-day seminars are conducted at locations important to the history of Remington. Over the past six years attendees have seen the original Remington Homestead (dating back to 1810), the site of the first Remington Forge, the location of the first manufacturing plant, and the facility where billions of rounds of ammunition are made each year.

The Remington Society now consists of more then six-hundred dedicated
collectors, shooters, hunter and historians. The future is bright, and
this growing organization promises to do even more to foster and understand
of guns that our soldiers carried in the war, and out fathers and
grandfathers carried as hunters in the gield… Joins us as we continue
to “SHARE THE HISTORY!”;