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Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott
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Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott
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The Illinois State Journal
Thursday, 19 February 1880

         [From the Quincy Herald of Thursday]
         
         A distressing tragedy, in which a young man accidentally
       killed two men, both his friends, one of whom was his uncle,
       occurred in Brown county last Saturday afternoon. The parti-
       culars of the terrible affair were detailed to the Herald
       yesterday by E. C. Brockman, of the Mt. Sterling Message.
       The scene of the homicide was near the Illinois river bottoms,
       about two miles east of Cooperstown, and some twelve miles
       east of Mt. Sterling. The victims were JOHN LEARS, 28 years
       of age, a married man, the father of two children, and BERRY
       HARDING, a young man, an orphan, who has no relatives living.
       The unfortunate young man who was the cause of their death
       is JOHN BARKER, a young man only 18 years of age, son of
       HIRAM BARKER, an old citizen of the county. From the testi-
       mony taken at the preliminary examination, it appeared that
       five men, including the two victims and young BARKER, all
       friends, spent Saturday afternoon at the house of DAVID LEARS,
       where they drank considerable cider, and were amusing them-
       selves by shooting at a target with a rifle, and drinking.
       The evidence showed that all were more or less under the
       influence of the cider. While the sport was in progress and
       all were in the best of humor, a man named JAP WELLS, an
       acquaintance of the party, was seen approaching on horseback.
       Young BARKER was standing forward of his companions, and
       facing WELLS, who was coming up. Some one of the crowd pro-
       posed that a salute be fired in honor of WELLS. Young BARKER
       had a revolver and, acting upon the suggestion, drew it,
       and raising his hand, as he states, to fire up in the air,
       pulled the trigger. Instead of firing upward, however, he
       threw his hand over his shoulder and fired backward, the
       ball striking JOHN LEARS in the right temple. BARKER, with-
       out looking, fired a second time. That ball struck BERRY
       HARDING in the right temple, almost in the same spot that
       LEARS was hit. LEARS fell and died immediately. HARDING
       lived for about 30 minutes. Before he died he recognized
       BARKER, and said, "Johnny, you did it, but you didn't mean
       to."
         The remainder of the party did not realize what had
       occurred until after the two men fell. The fatal termination
       of the afternoon's sport created the greatest excitement in
       the neighborhood. The entire community was shocked by the
       awful tragedy, and general sympathy was expressed for young
       BARKER, who was believed to be innocent, of any intention
       to kill. The opinion formed was that the parties were all
       partially intoxicated, and that BARKER fired backward with-
       out knowing it. That he should fire two backward shots and
       kill two men, the balls striking both in almost the same
       spot on the head, was regarded as a most remarkable occur-
       rence. The news of the tragedy reached Mt. Sterling Sunday
       night, and on Monday Sheriff H. D. RITTER went to the scene
       of the homicide and arrested BARKER.
         The preliminary examination took place on Tuesday before
       Police Magistrate Loveitt. The testimony of the witnesses
       to the affair was substantially as above stated. There was
       nothing in the evidence to show that BARKER shot intention-
       ally, or that he had any idea of firing upon his friends.
       
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