In 1860's Oregon, most young men, and even teenagers, had guns and went hunting.
In December 1861 two Jacksonville, Ore., boys, 14-year-old Alick Berry and Alexander Mensor, 13, rode their horses on a hunting trip along Bear Creek. After they reached the creek, they tied the horses to a tree and began walking with their shotguns. The hunting looked better on the other side of the river, so they searched out a fallen tree across the creek for their crossing. The tree had many branches, so Mensor held Berry’s gun while he crawled between the branches. As Mensor handed him the gun, the muzzle pointing up, Berry reached for the gun, but slipped. One barrel’s hammer caught on a branch, and the blast hit Berry in the chest, knocking him into the creek. Mensor jumped into the river, pulled Berry to the bank and ran to the nearest home, but when he returned with help, they found Berry dead.
Berry’s schoolmates were let out of school for the funeral, walking behind the horse-drawn hearse to the cemetery. His stone in the Masonic section reads simply, “A.M. Berry.”
Source: Miller, William M. Silent City on the Hill: Jacksonville Oregon's Historic Cemetery. William Miller, 2004. Print.
