A Gunsmith’s Final Misfire
A lifelong firearms expert and pioneer gunsmith meets a tragic, accidental end at his home near Shelton.
Last Saturday word was brought down that Enoch L. Willey had accidentally shot himself at his home at the head of the bay. From the particulars of the case, we learn that Mr. Willey was about to mount his saddle horse and was placing his rifle, a .32 calibre Stevens rifle, into the holster when it was accidentally discharged. The bullet entered his body just above the groin and ranged down, severing one of the main arteries. Despite medical attention from Drs. Herzer and Armstrong and a telephone consultation with a doctor from Olympia, he succumbed to internal hemorrhage on Sunday afternoon. Enoch L. Willey was born in Steuben, Maine, in 1820. He was a first-class gunsmith who drifted to the Northwest coast in 1856. In 1865 he settled on the place where he died, constructing a saw mill and logging alongside his gunsmithing work. He was buried in the cemetery at Oakland with the rites of the Masonic fraternity.
“The accident of Saturday is yet another lesson that one cannot be too careful in handling firearms, and that although a person has used guns all his long life, he is not exempt from accident.”
Willey’s death serves as a stark reminder of the danger inherent in the tools of the trade, a theme that remains resonant in modern conversations about firearm safety and the legacy of gun culture in rural Washington. His transition from Maine gunmaker to Puget Sound pioneer illustrates the migration patterns that built the early economy of Mason County.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.