Carved Powder Horn of Revolutionary War Veteran Oliver Marble of Stow, MA

American Revolution

Nominally 12" long curved, carved cow's horn, 3.5" in diameter at base with the carved spout approximately 4" in length with carved scallops at the transition to the main body. Hard wood plug attached with old iron finishing nails, a small iron wire bale about 1" in length allows the attachment of a sling. The main body of the horn is decorated with geometric patterns , mostly triangles and wavy lines with cross hash and dot decorations. The horn is carved in two lines: OLIVER MARBLE : HIS HORN/STOW : JANUARY : THE : 31 : 1789.

Oliver Marble (1755-1827) was born in Stow (Middlesex County) Massachusetts Asa & Hannah (Wheeler) Marble. Oliver was a farmer like most of the people in the area and would live the first half of his life in the town where he was born. During the Revolutionary War Oliver was enrolled as a private in Capt. Caleb Brooks' Company of Colonel Nicholas Dike's regiment and served at Dorchester Heights during the fall of 1776 and spring of 1777. The majority of the regiment appears to have been 90-day men who enlisted in September-October of 1776 and then reenlisted in December for an additional three months of service.

Interestingly, Oliver had a twin brother named Jabez. They were either identical or similar enough in appearance that according to the Massachusetts History of Ashburnham, 1734-1886 Jabez later claimed that "in the fall after the British left Boston he went to Roxbury and took the place of his brother as a private soldier in captain Caleb Brooks' company of Colonel Benjamin Dyke's regiment, and served a tour of three months at Boston and was verbally discharged in the seventh of March, 1777." The book noted that Jabez went on to explain his service as a his brother's substitute by saying that "his brother's name was Oliver Marble; they were twins and that about two months prior to the end of Oliver's term of service his brother became sick and he took his place for the balance of the term and always answered to his brother Oliver's name when it was called." This story, absent the part about serving as Oliver's substitute, is told almost verbatim in Jabez's October 19, 1832 application for a Revolutionary War pension, which further notes that "he has not been able to furnish any evidence of this service." Jabez did have further service in the war that was documentable, including in the Rhode Island Line Infantry. Interestingly, Oliver's pension application, if he made one, could not be found.

In 1780 Oliver married Deborah Bailey (1761-1833) and they had nine children. In the spring of 1789 the family moved to Ashburnham, MA and in 1827 Oliver died in Lyndeborough, NH at the age of 71. This horn was apparently made by Oliver within a month of two of his families relocation to Ashburnham and may have been a memento of the 33 years that he had lived there. A small folder of research regarding Oliver Marble accompanies the horn.

This lot is located in Cincinnati.