Shot with his Own Gun: Robert Weir’s Tragic Death at 14
Robert Barkley Weir: 1851-1865 (Maternal 2nd Cousin 3x Removed)
I ran
across a beautiful headstone in the James Weir cemetery plot in Daviess County
Kentucky, and decided to learn about the young man buried there. I discovered a
truly tragic story—a family disaster for the Weirs.
Robert
Barkley Weir was the fourth child born to James Weir and his wife Susan
Charlotte Green. Robert was born June 9, 1851 at the family home in Owensboro,
Kentucky. There are few records of his brief life. He appears on the 1860
census as R.B. Weir, age 10, who was attending school.
According
to the news article I found in the June 21, 1865 issue of the Owensboro
Monitor, young Robert had gone out hunting, or “gunning” as the newspaper put
it, with his two dogs on the morning of Thursday, June 15. He never returned
home.
A search
was mounted, and friends found his body the following morning, about two miles
from his home. The news article stated that based “on the locality of the
wound, [Robert] is presumed to have been blowing into one barrel of the gun
when the other discharged, tearing away a portion of his under lip, entering
his _____ (portion of article is missing), lodging in or about the brain.”
His
headstone reads:
“Killed
instantly by the accidental discharge of his gun whilst hunting. His two dogs
remained by their dead Master during the night, faithfully guarding his body
until discovered by friends.”
 |
| Photo from Findagrave, CAWatkins photographer |
The stone
features the stump of a tree, symbolizing a life cut short, with a gun and
ammunition bag leaning against the stump, and two mourning dogs sitting
faithfully in front of the stump. It is a beautiful, moving headstone.
The
article noted that Robert’s mother was distraught following his death, and that
his father and youngest sister Belle were absent on an out of state trip when
he died.
I admit to
wondering if this tragedy truly was accidental, or if the poor boy intended to
take his life. After all, he went out alone, and the gunshot apparently entered
in the mouth upward into the brain, which is a common position of a gun in a
suicide. However, I admit that I know nothing about hunting, particularly with
the sort of weapon he would have used in 1865. I tried to do research regarding
blowing down the barrel of a double-barrel gun, and found some references to
it. The newspaper seemed convinced it was an accident, which is persuasive. However,
I am intrigued by his parents choosing to inscribe “accidental discharge of his
gun” on the headstone. It seems as if they were trying to squash any potential
gossip by emphasizing the accidental nature of the death.
We will
never know what really happened that summer day. However, we do know that his
dogs loved young Robert Barkley Weir and loyally stayed by his side even in
death—a touching tribute forever memorialized on his headstone.
 |
| Photo from Findagrave, photographer The Necro Tourist |
According
to Robert’s entry on Findagrave, his headstone and story were featured in the
2011 “Voices of Elmwood” cemetery tour, where local historians and actors enact
the stories of people buried in the Elmwood Cemetery. I would have loved to
have heard Robert’s story brought to life in this way.
Sources:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/63841063/robert-barkley-weir
Photos of
the headstone by The Necro Tourist and CAWatkins, posted on Findagrave.
The
National Archives in Washington D.C.; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of
the Census; Record Group Number: 29; Series Number: M653; Residence Date: 1860;
Home in 1860: District 2, Daviess, Kentucky; Roll: M653_364; Page: 825; Family History
Library
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