He must have been too poor to buy a gun, cause at one point he decided to make one from assorted parts of a broken pistol.  I don't recall whether he ever shot a squirrel with it but it worked with a tack for a firing pin and a piece of rubber to make it hit the cartridge.  He always had a facination with guns and shared his love of guns with his grandson, me.  I still have the small rifle he bought for me when I was very young.  'seems like he paid $8.00 for it.   

When grandpa married Angie McLeroy in 1899 they were very young but very happy so when she died of dyptheria very soon after the turn of the century he was heart broken.  They had an infant daughter and he cared for her as tenderly as he knew how until he married Angie's cousin Susan Elizabeth McLeroy at Angie's deathbed suggestion.  Susan was also born in 1876.  She made a much better mother for his infant daughter than grandpa did but the child was too weak to survive.  Other children were born to the couple and they were a stable and happy family.