Military Monday - Killed at Camp Perry

Charles Horneff [sic], Jr., of Wadsworth, a private in Company G, Eight Regiment, Ohio National Guard, was struck in the abdomen by a bullet from a rifle accidentally fired by an unknown member of Company F, Eighth Regiment, of Akron, at Camp Perry last Friday evening and almost instantly killed.

Later it was learned that the shot was from a rifle in the hands of Okey Harless who had borrowed the gun and thought it to be unloaded. The bullet went through five haversacks, a tent pole and heavy supply chest before striking the victim, 30 feet distant. Harless was exonerated by verdicts of the coroner and a military court of inquiry. This was the first fatal accident at Camp Perry since the camp was established.

Killed at Camp Perry, The News-Herald, Hillsboro, Ohio, 5 August 1909, page 4, column 1.

The dead man, Charles Hornoff, Jr., was just 23 years old, the same age as Okey Harless. Charles was born on 13 May 1886 in Guilford, Medina County, Ohio, to Charles Hornoff, Sr. and Emma M. Hartman.

Charles Hornoff, Certificate of Death number 37351 (30 July 1909), Bureau of Vital Statistics, Ohio.

Okey Harless was the son of William Henry Harless and Frances Fernelia Keffer. He was born on 11 June 1886 in Iola, Roane County, West Virginia. Okey died on 7 March 1957 in Vienna, Wood County, West Virginia.