Black Widow Custom Rugs?

[leftyfred]

Hello All,  We had a very pleasant guest in our shop on Friday, Charlie Peck, a happy 70 year old who was the plant manager for Black Widow Custom Bows from 1960 to 1976.  The bulk of my archery collection is Wilson Bros. bows made in the 60's and 70's.  Charlie was a walking information center of Wilson Bros.  Here is his photo, with a dirty farmer, me, sitting next to him in our office.

[leftyfred]

Charlie and I talked bows.  We went through Daniel Wilsons web site of historical photos of the plant on his site   www.danielvwilson.com.   Lots of pictures of Charlie there.  Charlie talked more than once of the integrity and kindness of the Wilson Bros. and what a pleasure they were to work for.  Charlie talked of the early days.  Working in a spider filled chicken shack in Springfield Mo, doing all kinds of things to get by.  Charlie's comments about how great Black Widow was to work for reminds me of the present day company, how they are loaded with integrity, love for God.  Customer service surpassed by none.  I think Bob, Jack, and Norman would be proud of the evolution of the company.  Also amazing to me was the lengths that people will go through to achieve the final goal.  The Wilson Brothers love to shoot and build their own equipment.  In order to fund the archery passion, the brothers made custom loop run needles from wood that could as easily had been a bow riser.  The loop needles extended different lengths to pull the yarn out different lengths in the pattern.  This needle was labeled Wilson Bros.  Spfd Mo, just like an old bow.

[leftyfred]

Charlie had many patterns, mostly flowered burlap patterns, all labeled Wilson Brothers, Springfield Mo.  These guys were creative in their archery building, making something different from the normal.  The Wilson Brothers Black Widow Bows today are worth many more times  than the original sale price.  They made numerous models over the years, many here on tradgang have these bows, and their favorite models.  Charlie looked over a large portion of my collection, mostly left handed.  He commented how much the brothers disliked making left hand bows, they felt that right handed was the correct way to shoot?  Charlie was handed the keys to the company in 1976 from the retiring Wilson Brothers.  They had been overran by the modern archery revolution, the outlook was bleek for traditional archery.  Charlie was unable to assume permanent ownership of Black Widow due to a divorce, which he felt would dissolve the company.  In order to keep the production going, Charlie passed the company along to his nephew, Billy Ray Richards, now of Billings Mo.  I now have the pleasure of taking Charlie on his first trip to modern day Black Widow Custom Bows, maybe he can get those country boys a snappin'.  He did run the plant for 2 decades.  Charlie has never made the trip to Nixa.  This will be fun, more pictures to come of that visit.  Thanks for your interest.  Mike
 

[neargeezer]

Thanks, this stuff is great!

[leftyfred]

This is a link to Charlie at work in the Black Widow shop in the 1960's.
http://danielvwilson.com/Handles.html

[JMSmithy]

Awesome awesome stuff.  Thank you so much.  Love to see your next installment when you take Charlie to Nixa!  

I'm a big fan of Black Widow and what they stand for, not only to us as archers but to what American manufacturing COULD/SHOULD be!  

Hoping to go to Nixa myself next spring for GFA seminar...can't wait...

Thank you again.  Be well >>>-->      

 

[2treks]

Cool Stuff Mike, I will be looking thru the Website for sure. Our best to you and your family. Thanks for sharing your visit with Mr.Peck

Chuck

[Benny Nganabbarru]

Thanks, Mike! Real interesting. They're good people at Black Widow.

[Tim]

Very Cool Mike......hope all is well!  Tim

[danbow]

Really cool to take us back in time!