Von Lengerke & Antoine in Chicago and Von Lengerke & Detmold in New York were well know and respected arms and sporting goods merchants. Bob Christensen wrote a very thorough article for Hunting and Fishing Collectibles Magazine (articles in Vol 4, No. 1 and Vol 4 No. 2 are available from www.HFcollectibles.com) about the Von Lengerkes. Essentially, the story was that VL&D was formed in 1882 and VL&A in 1892 and were operated each by a Von Lengerke brother. Both companies were sold to Abercrombie & Fitch in 1928 but only VL&A continued to operate under its own name. In fact, VL&A survived in Chicago until 1959 when it too became an A&F store. The VL&D operation was folded into A&F in 1929 just in time for the Great Depression.

SHOT BY HIS EMPLOYER; Head of H. & D. Folsom Arms Company Under Arrest.
Says Second-Hand Revolver Was Accidentally Discharged — Peter Koller, Wounded
Man Now in Hospital. New York Times, July 3, 1900, Wednesday

While examining a pile of old revolvers lying on a counter in the store of the H. D. Folsom Arms Company at 314 Broadway, yesterday noon. Henry T. Folsom, the head of the firm accidentally, shot and fatally injured Peter Koller, one of the salesmen. Koller, unconscious and in a dying condition, was taken to the Hudson Street Hospital. The bullet entered his right breast, and although the doctors probed for it, they could not find it. 

The revolver with which the shooting was done was one of a consignment of secondhand weapons which had just been delivered to the firm by the Adams Express Company. Mr. Folsom and Koller were looking over the revolvers during the noon hour to see if any were loaded. Picking up one of the largest, a .38-calibre, Folsom pulled the trigger. A report that could be heard on the sidewalk followed, and Koller staggered back and fell to the floor, with this hand clasped to his right side. Those in the store stood dazed for an instant. Mr. Folsom, who was the first to recover sent one of the salesmen for a policemen. Policeman Daniel Nealis hurried into the store. He found Mr. Folsom and several Clerks bending over the prostate form of Koller. The policeman says that when he asked how the man was shot, Mr. Folsom replied “ He must have shot himself accidentally. 

The policeman immediately summoned an ambulance from the Hudson Street Hospital. When Ambulance Surgeon Page arrived he said the man was probably mortally injured. He was removed hurriedly to the hospital. It was not until 3:30 o’clock that Policeman Nealis again entered the store. He could not understand how the man could shoot himself accidentally in the right breast. To a reporter he said:” I went up to Mr. Folsom, and I says to him, Mr. Folsom, you shot that man.” “Yes’ says Mr. Folsom. “ I shot him. I was holding the pistol in my hand when it went off. It was an accident” 

Nealis told Folsom he would have to arrest him. The latter submitted quietly and the two went to the Macdougal Street Station, where Mr. Folsom was locked up. A few minutes after 7 o’clock Justus Von Lengerke of the firm Von Lengerke & Detmold, arrived at the station house in company with Magistrate Meade. The Magistrate fixed Mr. Folsom’s bail at $5,000 and Mr. Von Lengerke qualified as Folsom’s bondsman. 

The trio then left the station house together. At the store of the Folsom Arms Company all information was to the details of the shooting were withheld. No one in the store would admit that he had been a witness to the affair. Koller is one of the oldest salesmen in the employ of the firm, having been there for over twenty-two years. He is married and lives with his wife at 212 Lewis Avenue, Brooklyn. Word was immediately send to his wife, and she arrived late in the afternoon. He regained consciousness for a time while she was there, but soon lapsed into unconsciousness again.

Mr. Folsom is President of the H. & D. Folsom Arms Company. His home is in Orange, New Jersey. He is a member of the University Athletic, Yale Athletic and University Clubs of the Essex County Country Club of Orange. At midnight Koller was still living and Dr. Page said there was a faint ray of hope that the man would recover, although the chances were that he would not live more than a day or two. Late in the evening Coroner Hart visited the hospital and took down a statement from the injured man, in which he fully exonerated Mr. Folsom, declaring that it was an accident, pure and simple.