Antedating of "Sawed Off Shotgun" (1890)

[Sam Clements]

OED cites from 1898.  M-W gets a pass, as the "sawed off" existed earlier.

Using Ancestry.com, I found two different, but equally interesting articles
on the subject.

The 'Western US' stagecoach weapon is cited in the Stevens Point(WI) Journal
from September 9, 1891.  Page ?, column 3:

Note--the article, which is rather long, would imply that the use of a
barrel-shortened gun by the "messenger" on a stagecoach pre-dated this
article by more than a bit.

     <<Of all the devices and inventions for the protection of treasure and
the circumvention of the road agent, the only one that has stood the test of
time and experience is a big, ugly-tempered man with a sawed-off shotgun on
the box.>>

and

<<If the robber gets the drop on the messenger and keeps it, and contents
himself with ordering the driver to throw out the box, he may win; but, it
is the business of the man with the sawed-off shotgun not to let him get the
drop, but to blaze away as soon as he shows up.  The gun is sawed off for
the greater convenience of the messenger in potting road agents.  It is
loaded with buckshot and scatters like a charge of bribery fired into a
California legislature. >>

The above article was reprinted from the San Francisco Examiner.

An earlier cite, 1890, was from the Waukesha(WI) Freeman, October 20, 1890.
Page 1?, column 4-5.  Another long article about the assassination of the
superintendent of police in New Orleans by the Mafia.

     <<The police found on Saturday another of the peculiar[guess they
didn't ever hear of the West in New Orleans--ed.] weapons used by the
Italian assassins--a sawed-off shotgun.  This makes three now in their
possession.  These guns have the barrels cut off to about seventeen inches,
the breech sawed off and a hinge put on it just back of the trigger guard,
so that the weapon can be folded up to a length of twenty inches, making a
gun that is carried under the coat by a hook which is fastened to the weapon
for the purpose>>

Boy, does that sound like something out of a modern movie!

Sam Clements