CLAREMORE — J.M. Davis never got to see the cap and ball mid-eighteenth century French pistol which became the last gun added to his historic collection. He never saw it because even though it was donated by intent in 1944, the gun only came into the possession of the J.M. Davis Arms & Historical Museum this year.

The museum houses the world’s largest gun collection. By comparison to some of the pieces housed in the museum, the little French pistol is not particularly noteworthy for its historical or monetary value as an antique firearm, but the story that accompanies it is priceless.

The story we know of the French pistol starts in 1944.

War was waging in Europe, and Gen. George Patton was leading the Third Army across France.

U.S. Army Captain Robert McHolland of Hurley, Mo. was a commander of K company, Third Battalion, 358th Infantry Regiment, 90th Infantry Division. He was engaged in serious combat during that march through France but he didn’t forget family and friends back home.

McHolland had relatives in Claremore. In one particular letter, he wrote to his cousin, Dorla Dean Milliken, that he had picked up the muzzleloader while fighting in France.

“Tell the mayor of Claremore I have a very antique French pistol I’m saving for his collection of guns,” he wrote. “I’ve carried it all over France, but I can’t mail it home because you can’t mail firearms, even if it is too old and rusty to fire anymore.”

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, McHolland had been a regular visitor of the James and Elva Milliken family of Claremore. The Milliken’s were his aunt and uncle and lived near the Mason Hotel.

The letter to Dorla Dean Milliken is believed to be his last as, sadly, he was killed in action in Germany on Nov. 24, 1944.

McHolland was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for heroic action during combat.

After his death, McHolland’s personal effects were shipped to his sister, Roxabel Wiley.

Among the listed effects was a “flint pistol.”

Roxabel did not know of her brother’s intentions and eventually gave the pistol to her son. It was cleaned and mounted on a “velvet-like” background according to McHolland’s nephew and biographer, Jerry Wiley.

How Wiley put together the puzzle pieces and helped the pistol find its way to the museum is another story.

Wiley was gathering information for “Captain Mac: War Hero, My Hero,” his uncle’s biography.

“I was about four years old when my mom, who was next of kin got the telegraph,” said Wiley, remembering how hard the news of his Uncle Bob’s death hit the family.

His mother, who never cried, was sobbing as she called the other family members to inform them her brother was dead.

To Wiley, McHolland was Uncle Bob, a favorite because he gave the four-year old Wiley attention and candies when he visited.

Growing up in the small town of Hurley, Wiley heard through the years what a great guy and war hero his uncle had been.

“I always wanted to know all about him,” said Wiley, who started gathering information about his uncle over the course of the years. Eventually a family member suggested he write a book about McHolland’s life.

And so, he did.

“I wrote the biography, starting about three or four years ago. As a part of this were all of these letters...,” said Wiley. “A central part of the book are these letters.”

With the letters and a “very detailed history” of McHolland’s unit Wiley was able to track his uncle’s progress through France.

“One of the last letters he wrote to his cousin in Claremore, Dora Dean Milliken,” said Wiley.

As a visitor to Claremore, McHolland was near the Mason Hotel where he met J.M. Davis and saw the original gun collection.

 The Milliken’s lived at 303 North Missouri Ave.

“He drove down on Route 66 (to visit Claremore),” said Wiley.

So Wiley knew of the Claremore connection and had read the letter mentioning the gun, which his brother had given him after he started work on the biography, but he hadn’t thought much about it.

“We were driving last summer to San Diego, Calif.,” said Wiley. “When we were driving on the interstate, I saw that sign for the J.M. Davis museum. It didn’t click immediately.”

But the sign got Wiley to thinking.

“I was in the process of connecting the dots,” said Wiley. “I kept thinking about it after we came back.”

He did a computer search and found the museum’s web site.

“I had hit paydirt with J.M. Davis, but who is J.M. Davis?” he said. “Something made me pull up the city of Claremore, so I pulled up the Claremore website. That’s when I really found out.”

Wiley clicked on the page for former mayors, and there was J.M. Davis. That’s when Wiley realized that had to be the mayor who collected guns that his uncle had talked about in the letter.

“I wrote a letter to the museum commission,” said Wiley. “That was back in October or November.”

He sent the letter to the chair of the museum commission.

“I thought it was very interesting,” said Commission Chair Bill Higgins. “It has a great story behind it.”

The pistol was presented to the J.M. Davis Arms & Historical Museum by the family of Capt. Robert McHolland in honor of his service and in “loving memory of the ultimate sacrifice he made in serving his county in World War II.”

Executive Director Wayne McCombs said this “last gun” to be donated to the collection will be displayed next to the first gun ever collected, another sentimental favorite.

That new exhibit will open June 24 just in time to celebrate what would have been J.M. Davis’s 124th birthday on June 27.

After all these decades, the little French pistol finally found its way home to the mayor of Claremore’s gun collection.