Friday, 1 Mar 1900
Submitted by Annie Whiteman

While hunting ground hogs in company with a companion, Hugh Hughes, Jr., a son of Hugh Hughes, Sr., of Cambria township, Clifford Roberts, the fifteen year old son of Timothy Roberts, who resides on a farm about four miles south of Ebensburg, was accidentally shot through the head with a flobert rifle in the hands of his comrade.

About 1:30 o'clock that afternoon the two boys had started with dog and gun to hunt for groundhogs near the homes of their parents, and sometime later about four o'clock, the dog chased a woodchuck into a hole in the ground. While Roberts dug after the animal, Young Hughes stood guard at another hole, watching for an opportunity to shoot the groundhog if it should appear. Whether or not the hammer on the gun was down the Hughes boy does not remember, but in some manner the weapon was discharged, the bullet penetrating the Roberts boy's ear and ploughing its way into the brain.

Seeing his companion fall wounded, young Hughes hurriedly summoned assistance and the wounded boy was carried to an adjoining farm house and Dr. F. C. Jones of Ebensburg was sent for. The wounded lad died at eleven o'clock that night without regaining consciousness. He is survived by his parents and several brothers and sisters. The funeral took place Monday afternoon in charge of the Rev. James Jenkins, Pastor of the Congregational Church at south Ebensburg, assisted by the Rev. J. Twyson Jones, of this place and the Rev. Lewis, of Johnstown. Interment was made in the Lloyd cemetery, this place.