About a week ago my 85 year old neighbor came to my place to tell me he had sold his house and was moving in with his daughter. We have been casual friends for several years and I have lately been mowing his lawn and the like as he is quite frail. Anyhow, he knows of my razor addiction and said he wanted me to have his grandfathers razor. It was a black as coal but I knew it was a New and accepted with great gratitude after asking him only once and rather quietly I'll admit if he was sure he wanted to give it away. He said he was sure and I shortly gave it several baking soda and aluminum foil baths and it looks like new. Serial number dates it as made in 1921.
Yesterday the gentleman came to my door and handed me a copy of a newspaper article and told me that it was about his grandfather, Henry H. Martyn, the owner of the razor. It seems that his grandfather was a member of General George Armstrong's 7th cavalry and was with him as they left headed, unwittingly, for the Little Bighorn and that infamous encounter. Sometime before they arrived, grandfather was sent back to tend to the shoeing of two horses which were following along in a pack train. So, he was spared the obvious and became known, at least locally, as the sole survivor of Custers Last Stand and I am the keeper of the razor he used later in life. The newspaper article in question was published in Lowell (MA) Sun on October 26, 1929 which was a year prior to his death. I have always been intrigued by the history of some of the razors in my collection so this one will be special and left to my eldest grandson when he needs his first shave.
Yesterday the gentleman came to my door and handed me a copy of a newspaper article and told me that it was about his grandfather, Henry H. Martyn, the owner of the razor. It seems that his grandfather was a member of General George Armstrong's 7th cavalry and was with him as they left headed, unwittingly, for the Little Bighorn and that infamous encounter. Sometime before they arrived, grandfather was sent back to tend to the shoeing of two horses which were following along in a pack train. So, he was spared the obvious and became known, at least locally, as the sole survivor of Custers Last Stand and I am the keeper of the razor he used later in life. The newspaper article in question was published in Lowell (MA) Sun on October 26, 1929 which was a year prior to his death. I have always been intrigued by the history of some of the razors in my collection so this one will be special and left to my eldest grandson when he needs his first shave.
