Warren County NcArchives Biographies.....Pipkin, Johnny 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Guy Potts gpotts1@nc.rr.com October 2, 2005, 9:56 pm

Author: Pipkin Family Association

Pipkin Family Stories 
by Mrs. J. Nolan Callahan

Johnny Pipkin was a Knock-Out
News & Observer, Raleigh, NC
July 10, 1949

Warrenton, NC - One of the last of the old time military sharpshooters, whose 
army career began during the Reconstruction Period - a man who could snuff out 
the flame of a candle at 15 paces with a handgun and who competed on the rifle 
range at Camp Perry, Ohio, with men of international reputation - is living 
out his life in Warrenton in semi-retirement as a watchmaker, engraver 
extraordinary, and jewelry store proprietor. [Northampton County]

He is affectionately known as Johnny Pipkin, born in Virginia during the War 
Between the States. He was sworn in as a regular of the Virginia Volunteers at 
the age of twelve and advanced from private to captain and was retired as a 
major, after serving 26 years.

During that quarter-century he attracted state-wide attention for his 
marksmanship on the rifle range in the South before the turn of the century 
and even today can puncture bull's eyes whenever he engages in a practice 
session with his crack rifles.

Mr. Pipkin was born with an eagle eye. At 12, he was a "marker" with the 
Virginia Volunteers - one of the two little boys who held flags at corners 
along the line of march of the Suffolk Grays. That is, he was a "marker" until 
his company went to the rifle range. Throughout the matches, little Pipkin was 
very much in evidence among the contestants, and just before the final awards 
were to be presented, a corporal factiously suggested that the little marker 
be given an opportunity to exhibit his skill. It was all a joke - but not to 
Johnny! Standing off hand, kneeling or prone, he nailed the target dead 
center - and walked away with the silver goblet that a few minutes before was 
to be presented to the top sergeant, whose score he had beaten.

"Any man who can shoot like that" said the captain, "belongs in the Company. 
Swear him in!"

For the next 26 years Pipkin would win, place or show, on the State Rifle 
Range, although his team never was able to defeat the performance of the 
regular Army and Navy teams at Camp Perry. From a small chest of memoirs, he 
can produce several gold awards as evidence of his marksmanship.

According to Mrs. Pipkin, her husband began collecting guns at the age of six 
months. He says she exaggerates, but the truth is that he has one of the 
finest gun collections in this section. Among his collection of guns and 
pistols are the "assassin's cane," which shoots about a .20 gauge shell by 
tripping the firing pin at the handle, commonly used during the War between 
the States. Another gun came from the Battleship Maine, which was blown up in 
Havana Harbor - a light .25 caliber rifle, used by sailors at the time and 
later discarded for the standard .30 caliber.

His other guns include a Revolutionary piece, used in the Battle of Great 
Bridge; a French pinfire gun, 16 gauge with cheek rest;  two pistols about 14 
inches long, made by the French government for Confederate officers called "La 
Mort," which was a pistol and shotgun combined; a pen pistol and knife pistol; 
a .41 caliber Colt vest pocket derringer which was taken from a Suffolk Negro 
who was mortally wounded as he used it in exchanging gunfire with police; a 
muzzle-loading revolver, vintage of 1856; a .44 caliber English piece with the 
military swivel ring in the butt, and a most valuable "Capt. John Smith" type 
dueling pistol with a 10 inch brass barrel and heavily inlaid in silver. 
Lugers, little "belly bursters," frontier guns and Winchesters, and a host of 
other rare and antique pieces make up his collection.

Without a male child to perpetuate his hobby, what disposition has he planned 
for his collection? Mrs. Pipkin has suggested donating them to the William and 
Mary University shrine. He has pondered the idea of selling. However, 
prospects of disposal by deed or gift is more probable, as his ties with 
Virginia, in spite of his 28 years as a watchmaker in Warrenton, NC, are 
binding due to his illustrious ancestry, which he traces on his maternal side 
to the Riddicks, Burgesses of Nansemond. 

John Albridgton Pipkin died in 1959 in Warrenton at the age of 96. He was 
buried with military ritual in the family lot in Cedar Hill Cemetery, Suffolk, 
Va, where he was followed by his wife a few years later. She was the family 
genealogist whose work formed the core of my contribution, the Isaac Pipkin 
Line.

In the Isaac Pipkin line, there were five generations of men in direct line in 
the military: (1) Johnny Pipkin; his father (2) James R. Pipkin, who was to be 
lieutenant in the Civil War but was struck down early in the war with typhoid; 
(3) Gen. John D. Pipkin, a local militia general; (4) Capt. Isaac Pipkin; and 
(5) Col. Isaac Pipkin of Gates County, NC who was in the Revolutionary War.


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