finding the history of a gun I found.

Question
I recently got a newport shotgun that is in bad shape. I took a wire brush to it to try to clean it up a little, and I found the name on the side that said NEWPORT,and behind the trigger graud I found partial numbers A49_62 the middle # has rusted away. I was told by the person that found the gun that it was a pasture in the mud. They didn`t know anything about it. I was hoping that I could find out the history of if. I hope you can help me. Barry

Answer
Newport: Trade name used by the H. & D. Folsom Arms Company (distributor) on shotguns made for Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett and Company of Chicago.
The actual manufacturer was Crescent Arms Co. of Norwich CT.
It would have been built prior to 1930.
They low cost untility shotguns with no collector interest.
They often called hardware guns as the they were sold at hardware stores.