WHEELING — A rare antique shotgun made in Wheeling during the 1880s has returned to the city and will soon be on display at West Virginia Independence Hall.

But its journey involves a boat making “The Great Loop” up the east coast, and a dyslexic youth who learned to read and then graduated from both The Linsly School and Carnegie Mellon University.

Now a successful engineer, Curtis Kossman, Linsly class of 1987, has started two schools in Pittsburgh geared toward helping dyslexic students.

He runs both the Kossman Development Company and Provident Charter Schools from his boat called “True Grit.”

Kossman donated the gun made by the Hollenbeck Gun Co. of Wheeling in the 1880s to West Virginia Independence Hall on Thursday.

Kossman is a Pittsburgh native who also has a home in Boca Rat

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