I understand that John Mose Browning is not London, but it does affect THE LONDON CONNECTON. The Browning family has had a great impact on our family. Mr Val Browning who died a few years ago in his 100th year was one of my closest friends. The Browning family was a major contributor to the arts and to the universities in the Intermountain area, particularly in Salt Lake City and in Ogden, Utah. I gathered many of the items which were used to restore the Jonathan Browning in Nauvoo, Illinois, where the old grandfather joined the Mormon movement that eventually came to the Great Salt Lake Basin as well as to other areas in this fabulous western part of the country. I was chairman of the Browning Museum for eleven years where the prototypes of all the JM Browning inventions are on display. It was a fantastic problem which required the restoration of the Ogden Utah Train Station where the museum is housed. My youngest son Richard married one of the great grandchildren of Jonathan Browning, so in some regards we are friends as well as family. Years ago, a client of the Union Station called to book a wonderful flat in London. During the conversation, I asked for his name and address. When he told me his name, I knew exactly who he was: a great grandson of John Mose Browning. Since that time, this Browning family member and I have become good friends. We meet up in London, and we visit when he comes to Utah. A year ago, this great gun collector told me that he had John Browning’s pocket knife, and he would like to contribute it to JM Browning Gun Museum. Yesterday, this wonderful item arrived on my desk. I held the knife in my hand, looked at the initials of the inventor which are set in silver to the side of the pocket knife. I thought to myself: IMAGINE WHERE THIS GREAT GUN HAS BEEN. I am thrilled to pass this knife to the museum on the part of Tom Ballantyne, a great grandson of JM Browning. I thought my readers would enjoy this “human interest” story. Wow.
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Thomas Moore email: TMooreSr@me.com Telephone: 801.791.9918
