'Four Bs' in photo | The Salt Lake Tribune

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The recent feature "A Look Back: Hunting and fishing in the early 1900s" (Tribune, Sept. 21), included a photograph from the Utah State Historical Society of four "unidentified hunters." One is my great grandfather, John M. Browning.

The four men are identified in Curt Gentry's 1964 biography, John M. Browning, American Gunmaker: An Illustrated Biography of the Man and His Guns.

They were probably not hunting but shooting in some competition. Known as the "Four Bs," all four were excellent shots and competed successfully both locally and nationally at trap and live pigeon.

They are, from left to right, Gus Becker, John M. Browning, A.P. Bigelow and Matthew S. Browning, all from Ogden. Becker owned the Becker Brewing Company. Bigelow was a banker and builder of Ogden's Bigelow Hotel (later the Ben Lomond Hotel). John and Matt founded the Browning Arms Company.

John Browning

London