The Marquis De Mores-Theodore Roosevelt Presentation Rifle

Page 9 Spring 2012 His name was Antoine Amedee Maria Vincent Manca de Vallambrosa, the Marquis de Mores, a young man of French nobility. He was of medium build with dark eyes, a black mustache waxed into sharp points and a very fierce and determined demeanor. On the bluffs across from Little Missouri the Marquis founded the town of Medora, named after his titianhaired wife, Dora von Hoffmann, the daughter of Baron von Hoffmann, a New York banker and built her a fine chateau on the hill above the town, complete with twenty French servants, Sevres china and cases of fine wines. The man was a visionary ahead of his time and an entrepreneur who wished to develop a cattle ranch, abattoir and meat packing plant to ship beef to the Midwest and East. To this end, he purchased over forty thousand acres of rangeland. His goal was to build a meat packing empire to rival Omaha. The Marquis was a graduate of the French military academy, St. Cyr, as well as Saumur, France’s premier cavalry school. He was a crack shot and in Europe had a reputation as an expert duelist. When not tending to his cattle enterprise, he loved to hunt bighorn sheep in the buttes near Medora. When threatened by local cowboys when he attempted to fence his land, he faced them when he attempted to fence his land, he faced them down and killed one of them and although arrested for murder was acquitted. He frequently hunted with his neighbor Roosevelt and they developed a mutual respect for each other. However, at one point they had a serious misunderstanding and disagreement. The Marquis thought Roosevelt had instigated the accusation of the murder and sent a letter that Roosevelt interpreted as a challenge to a duel. Cooler heads reigned and the matter was settled amicably. THE RIFLE The Model 1873 Winchester rifle that was purportedly presented to Roosevelt by the Marquis de Mores was obtained in 1940 from the J.G. Wallace collection by his agent, F Theodore Dexter, a wellknown dealer in antique arms in the middle of the last century. Confusion was apparent in the advertisement of the sale. The rifle, listed as lot number 122, was variously described in the advertisement as a Model 1886 and as a Model 1876. The advertisement states that the rifle was given to Roosevelt by de Mores after Roosevelt had admired it when they had hunted together and it was thought to have been engraved by a small-town jeweler. The price of the rifle was $95.00. Dexter then advertised the gun in The Dexter Antique Arms Trade Journal where it was correctly described as a Model 1873 in .32 caliber rifle inscribed on the left sideplate: --TO-- Hon. Theodore Roosevelt --FROM-- Marquis De Mores Medora N.D. 1885

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