From discussions with Michael Petrov, I am sure John Hutton worked in the Parker-Whelen shop on 14th Street in Northwest Washington. He left Parker-Whelen to live on the mountain behind Ben Toxvard's shop, Shenandoah Guns on Route 7 in Berryville, Virginia. Hutton apparently brought Colonel Whelen's A.P. Curtis made Parker try gun with him to Virginia and Ben Toxvard ended up with it, using it in the shop for many years until he sold it to me in a weak moment. Ben was quite the rifle stocker, but I was not familiar with his shotgun stocks. The Humphrey connection is a bit of a mystery. I have Parker-Whelen postwar catalogs, but there is no information in them about custom gun making. Herman Proctor, who worked for Parker-Whelen, apparently not as a gunmaker, also worked for my dad in the Railroad Retirement Board office in Washington during and after the war, probably a bit of an overlap with his years with Parker-Whelen. Herman and my dad became great friends. I have a letter to a P-W customer written by Herman Proctor discussing some guns she was selling to the store. I found that letter on ebay. One gun was a 20 gauge Model 21. Herman told me when I was about 12 years old that he had a 20 gauge Model 21 that he bought from the store for $25.00. It was probably the 21 Herman told me about. At the time, I was looking for a shotgun for my first hunting season. At the time, Herman was working for Fred Davis at Davis Gun Shop in Falls Church, Virginia. My dad and I could not find a suitable gun for me at Fred's shop, but we found a minty Model 24 Winchester 20 gauge at Don's Gun Shop, also in Falls Church, for fifty dollars. It became my first pheasant gun, but only for a short time. Herman was also on the board at National Capital Skeet and Trap at that time, which I did not realize, although I was shooting at that club at that time.
