On Sunday last about 2 o’clock p.m., Charles Danner, aged about 16 years, son of Mr. and Mrs. C. M. Danner, who live three-quarters of a mile north of Leeseburg, shot himself while at Mr. John Ruth’s, near Leeseburg. Charley had gone over to Mr. Ruth’s as he had frequently done and while there he went into the sitting room and took the gun, a single barrel shot gun, out of an adjoining closet and commenced handling it. Mr. Ruth’s two little sons tried to persuade him to put the gun up which he refused to do. The boys started to go to Sunday School leaving him sitting in a chair with the gun in his hands, the muzzle pointing towards his head and the stock on the floor. Just as the two boys had got to the outside door, having to pass through a room to reach it, they heard the gun go off, and running back into the room found him lying on his back near the chair, dead, with the stock of the gun pointing from him and the muzzle near his head, as if in falling he had pushed the gun from him. The load had taken effect in the right temple mashing in the skull. Miss Ruth, a sister of the two boys, and a Miss Wherley corroborated the boys’ testimony. Mayor Horner and W. H. Derry, of Astoria, went out. The following jury was impanelled by Esq. Horner: W. H. Derry, foreman; John Burgard, Wm. Plate, Mr. Wherley, Neal Mummert and John Danner, who, after hearing the above testimony, rendered the following verdict: Charles Danner’s death was caused accidentally by a shot from a gun in his own hands.
The funeral was held Monday afternoon at the Woodland church, conducted by Rev. Hollinger and Rev. Cyrus Bucher. The remains were laid to rest in the cemetery near by.
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