Switzer - Otis
Source: Crawfordsville Weekly Journal 21 April 1888 p 6
The story of a sad and bloody accident comes from Wesley Chapel, an accident which desolates the fireside of Abram Switzer and adds another to the long list of the killed through the medium of the careless handling of firearms. Sunday the family of Mr. Switzer went away for the day leaving James Switzer, a nephew aged 28 and George W, their son, aged 19 in charge of the two smaller boys, Lee and Otis, aged respectively 12 and 8 years. About four o’clock the two young men left the house in care of the little boys, and started across the field to a neighbors house. When about a quarter of a mile away they heard the report of a gun followed by the furious ringing of the farm bell. They hurried back to the house to find little Otis lying dead upon the kitchen floor, his face torn off by a load of shot. His elder brother could give no intelligent account of how it occurred. He first said a man had shot Otis and then that he did not see any one but had heard a noise on the porch and the door blew open. The best and most probably correct story is the children were playing with the guns, a rifle and shot gun. Lee says he had the rifle and his brother the shot gun; that he went into the other room to put the rifle away and told Otis to set the shot gun in its place behind the safe in the kitchen. Before he got back he heard the shot and running in he found his brother dead with the gun lying across his breast. He picked the weapon up and set it in its place and then rang the bell. The facts seem to be that the boy had the gun cocked and holding it by the muzzle was walking backward when the hammer struck the table, firing it. The gun was a breech loader, the right barrel was fired and the hammer of the left was raised. It is a sad affair and the sympathy of the community goes out to the family. The mother is almost prostrated while the little boy is on the verge of insanity. The lesson, like all of its kind will probably be forgotten in a short itme and carelessness will again reign. The Coroner brought in a verdict of accidental killing in accordance with the above facts. - kbz