CIRCA SPANAM WAR, IXL GEORGE WOLSTENHOLM POCKET KNIFE, NAMED COLONEL, UNITED STATES ARMY HERBERT JERMAIN SLOCUM
Herbert Jermain Slocum (April 25, 1855 - March 29, 1928) was in charge of the 13th Cavalry Regiment during the Battle of Columbus, New Mexico in 1916 where Pancho Villa burned several buildings in Columbus, New Mexico, stole weapons and horses and killed 18 Americans.
Colonel Herbert J. Slocum was born on April 25, 1855 in Cincinnati, Ohio to Colonel Joseph Jermain Slocum (1833-?) and Sallie Hommedieu. He was an eighth generation descendant of Plymouth Colony militia commander Captain Myles Standish.
Slocum was appointed to the United States Military Academy on July 1, 1872, but left the academy shortly after failing to graduate in 1876. Nevertheless, he received a commission in the US Army shortly afterwards. Solcum was assigned to the 7th Cavalry Regiment where he rose to the rank of captain in 1896. He spent most of his early career posted in the Dakota Territory. He graduated from the Infantry and Cavalry School in 1883.
During the Spanish–American War, Slocum was commissioned as major in the Inspector General branch in May 1898 and reverted to his permanent rank of captain a year later. He served in the occupation of Cuba from 1901 to 1902 and the Philippine Insurrection from 1905 to 1906. He was stationed in the Mid-West (mostly at Fort Riley in Kansas) from 1906 to 1910. He returned to the Philippines in 1911.
In August 1912, Slocum was promoted to colonel and assigned to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. On September 1, 1914 he took command of the 13th Cavalry Regiment at Cavalry Camp Columbus in Columbus, New Mexico. He commanded the regiment during the Battle of Columbus on March 9, 1916, where Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa burned several buildings in Columbus, New Mexico. Although Villa's forces were successful in capturing 300 rifles and shotguns, 80 horses, and 30 mules it came at the cost of at least 70 of his men being killed compared with American casualties of 8 soldiers and 10 civilians (including a pregnant woman) killed. Slocum was exonerated for his failure to prevent the attack by a board of inquiry led by United States Secretary of War Newton Diehl Baker, Jr.
Solcum remained on active duty with the Army through World War I and retired from the Army when he reached the mandatory retirement age of 64 on April 25, 1919.
Colonel Slocum died on March 29, 1928 in Washington, DC and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. His estate was valued at over 3 million dollars.
Colonel Slocum was a hereditary member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, the Society of Colonial Wars and the General Society of Mayflower Descendants.
Military Awards
Herbert Jermain Slocum of Ohio: Dates of Rank
**Breveted First Lieutenant, 27 February 1898 for gallant service against Indians at Canyon Creek, Montana, 13 September 1877
LOCUM, HERBERT J
COL USA RETD
DATE OF DEATH: 03/29/1928
BURIED AT: SECTION SW SITE 1928
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
SLOCUM, MARY R W/O HERBERT J
DATE OF DEATH: 06/13/1952
BURIED AT: SECTION 3 SITE 1928
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
This vintage pocket knife has had an extremely long life of use and all of the blades show the wear commensurate with its age. With that said, all of the blades still snap perfectly into place in both directions and is in great working order for a pocket knife well over 100 years old. The knife is approx. 3" long and weighs a total of 1-3/8 oz. Please see all of the photos for condition, and don't hesitate to contact me to ask any questions you may have before buying or making a bid.
In buying or making an offer on this pocket knife you are stating that you are at least 18 years of age, and seller cannot be held responsible in any way or manor for a breach of this requirement.
In the mid-1700’s, there was reputedly a cutler by the name of George Wolstenholme (b 1717) working in the village of Stannington, near Sheffield (the supposed birthplace of the Barlow pocket knife). However it took three generations and one name change for the company to really make its mark on Sheffield’s cutlery history.
George’s son Henry was apprenticed to his father and in the 1750s was granted the use of the words “spring knife” by the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire - spring knife being the term of the day for what is known now as a folding pocket knife. Henry’s son, a second George (b 1775), after having been apprenticed to another cutler, John Mickelthwaite, joined his father’s concern and the two continued in cutlery production until Henry died in 1803.
Originally the family name was spelt ‘Wolstenholme’ but, story has it that the second George found this name too long for smaller knives so he omitted the letters ‘l’ and ‘e’. The name has been spelt Wostenholm ever since.
The second George moved production to Sheffield where he built the fabled Rockingham Works (known locally as the Rockingham Wheel) in around 1810. Knives made in this factory and marked “Rockingham Works” are highly prized by knife collectors to this day.
The third George Wostenholm (b1800) served his apprenticeship under his father at Rockingham Works. The first entry in The Sheffield City Directory (which incorrectly spells the name!) confirming the father and son partnership comes from 1825;
"WOLSTENHOLME, GEORGE & SON, manufacturers of table knives and forks, pen, pocket and sportsman’s knives, and general dealers in cutlery, 78 Rockingham Street"
In 1834, following his father’s death, the third George Wostenholm took the company reins. Although the company had achieved considerable success under his father, it was the third George that catapulted Wostenholms to the head of Sheffield knife making. He was an incredibly astute and fiercely determined businessman.
Wostenholms were selling knives to America as early as 1830 through a partnership with a William Stenton. George’s sales trips to America began soon after, and subsequently he established offices from New York across to San Fransisco through which he could service growing demand for his craftsmen made I*XL knives. George himself is reported to have made a great many visits to America at a time when trans-Atlantic passage would have been arduous to say the least.
THE I*XL TRADEMARK
The I*XL trademark had originally been registered in 1787 to a W A Smith. The mark books of The Company of Cutlers show I*XL being registered to Wostenholm’s in 1831. I*XL was not only present on Wostenholm’s Bowie Knives. Wostenholm also made a vast range of folding knives which also proudly bore the I*XL markings and were carried in the pockets of a great many Americans.