Powder Horn

(music)

[Narrator] In rural colonial America, gourds were a common garden crop used for food or hollowed and dried for everyday items like ladles and bowls. But during the American Revolutionary War, those same humble vessels became containers for a black powder that fueled a fight for independence.

[Kay Coats, Collections Coordinator State Historical Society of Iowa] This artifact is a powder horn made out of a gourd. It is approximately 14 inches long and about 2 inches wide at the widest diameter. It's a reddish brown in color and it has two labels with handwritten notes affixed to the surface.

So, powder horn is a container for black powder or gun powder. And they were used with a specific kind of musket or rifle. And during the Revolutionary War lots of different kinds of materials were used to make them. Often they were made out of actual animal horn. Other containers were made of leather. And some were made of gourds. And it was critical that black powder stayed dry, so that is why you have a closed contained.

[Narrator] Powder horns were an important part of a soldier's kit during the American Revolution and often determined effectiveness in battle. If a powder didn't stay dry, a musket couldn't be fired, leaving that soldier unable to play much a role in the fight.

(musket fires)

Preparing to shoot during a battle of that era was a laborious task.

[Coats] The powder horns would have been used to measure out a specific amount of black powder that was then loaded into the barrel of the musket and then a ball was rammed down the barrel of the gun and then it could be fired.

[Producer off-screen] So, it was not a fast process?

[Coates] It was not a fast process.

(laughter)

[Narrator] This powder horn was donated to the State Historical Society of Iowa in 1919. It's not known exactly when the handwritten labels were attached to it, but they give important historical context. The bigger label states that it was put there by Ephraim Polk, who in 1777 enlisted to fight in the Revolutionary War. The smaller label documents the names of family members who inherited the powder horn over the generations.

[Coats] The smaller label says, "presented May 20th, 1912 by W.H. Polk to Harry Herndon Polk of Des Moines, Iowa, son of Jefferson Scott Polk, son of Jehosaphat Polk, son of Ephraim and Rhoda Ann Morris Polk, who carried from Sussex County, Delaware to Kentucky in November, 1793. It is to be hoped that this relic will be passed down in the Polk name through those that will appreciate it."

[Narrator] In 1777, when 18-year-old Ephraim Polk carried this powder horn into the Revolutionary War, he had no way of knowing it would survive for 250 years, passed down through generations of a prominent central Iowa pioneer family.

[Coats] The powder gourd was likely donated to the museum by Harry Herndon Polk of Des Moines. Harry was the son of Jefferson Scott Polk, who settled in Iowa in 1855. Jefferson Polk practiced law with Judge Phineas Cassidy and Marcellus M. Crocker, helped organize the Equitable Life Insurance Company, organized the Des Moines Water Works Company and established the street railway in Des Moines. Harry worked for his father's street railway company and was also involved in real estate and investment banking. He served in both the Spanish-American War and the First World War. Jefferson Scott Polk and William Polk, who gave the gourd to Harry, were cousins.

[Narrator] From humble beginnings, to treasured artifact, this powder horn carries the story of the soldier who relied on it and the diligence of the family who preserved it.

[Coats] The Polk family is one we still know today, we still recognize the institutions that the Polk family helped create, and so this is a reminder of where that family came from and how they participated in the early days of the country.