Manufactured in 1893 as a Third Model with integral dust cover rail and dust cover with rear serrations. The accompanying factory letter lists this carbine in .44 caliber when received in the warehouse on August 19, 1893 and shipped on August 21. The barrel has carbine sights and is marked with the two-line address/patent dates legend as well as "44 WCF." The cartridge elevator is factory marked "44 CAL." above hand marked "VM" initials. In the accompanying notarized letter of provenance, Judy (Weaver) Hunt states that this carbine was carried by her grandfather, John Thomas Webber (1863-1960), who "was reputed to be one of the best shot in Carbon County, [Montana], even when he was well into his 80s." According to Hunt, Webber ran away from his Missouri home at age 13 and eventually arrived in Montana where he met and became friends with famed mountain man John "Liver Eating" Johnson. Webber found employment through various odd jobs "including dealing cards, liberating horses from their current owners, assisting in the many battles over land claims and water rights, and, in some cases, ridding the country of the criminal element. Keep in mind, the criminal element was anyone who was not your friend. None of these pursuits paid very well…As a result, by 1890, both Liver Eatin' and my grandfather had settled in Red Lodge, and become respectable business owners and law officers." In her final story, Hunt tells us that Webber was deemed a squatter on land owned by the railroad. On this land he constructed a cabin out of railroad ties. Railroad executives sent Liver Eating Johnson to "shoot up the place" in order to drive Webber away. Webber was unshaken by the arrival of Johnson and a shootout ensued. Perhaps this Model 1873 was a gun Webber used in the shootout against the man known for eating the liver out of the men he killed. Nevertheless, Johnson withdrew and Webber was allowed to keep the land where decades later his granddaughter, Judy Hunt, was raised. Additional information is obtained from Webber's obituary where he was referred to as a "Red Lodge pioneer." He arrived in Montana in 1882 working as a cowboy herding cattle. In 1888, he moved to Red Lodge and operated a commercial ice business and for a short time published the newspaper "New Ideas." In 1912, he started the Webber Greenhouse and operated it until he retired in 1945.