OBIT: Ernest Leroy CROUSE, 1929, Littlestown, Adams County, PA

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YOUNG HUNTER KILLED; TOP OF HEAD SHOT OFF

Ernest Leroy Crouse, of Near Littlestown,
Accidentally Kills Self.

CAUGHT IN FENCE

Ernest Leroy Crouse, 25-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Howard Crouse, near 
Littlestown, had the top of his head blown off when he received the full charge 
of a 12-guage shot gun in his right eye, in a hunting accident late Monday 
afternoon.  The fatal accident occurred on his father's farm.

Crouse with other companions hunted all day Monday, the first day of hunting 
season in Maryland.  In the morning Crouse was with a party of hunters.  At noon 
he returned to his home for dinner.  After the noon-day meal Crouse started out 
alone, in a different direction from the others in the hunting party. In mid-
afternoon he met a party of hunters and said he was returning home.  He told his 
companion hunters that he had shot his limit for the day and was tired.


Son Is Missing

Later in the afternoon Nevin Kump, brother-in-law of the victim, returned to his 
father-in-law's home and inquired of Crouse.  He was told by Crouse's mother 
that her son had not returned from the field.  Kump informed Mrs. Crouse that 
her son had started for the house several hours earlier.

Inquiry at the home of neighbors confirmed Kump's statement, the other hunters 
saying that they had not seen Crouse since he left them to return to the house 
with his limit for the day.

Further efforts to locate someone who had seen the young man later in the 
afternoon brought the information that a shot had been heard near the Crouse 
home late in the afternoon.  A search of the premises revealed Crouse's body 
tumbled against a fence, the top of his head blown off, with his shotgun resting 
a few feet from the body, the muzzle of the piece pointing directly at Crouse's 
head.


Foot Caught in Fence

Further investigation revealed that Crouse's foot was caught in the fence.  A 
careful examiniation of the ground and the body brought the belief, which is 
almost substantially confirmed by the circumstantial evidence at the scene of 
the fatality, that Crouse in attempting to crawl over the fence became caught in 
the cross-pieces.  He is then believed to have attempted to extricate his foot 
from its wedged position in the rail-fence ignoring his shotgun which he carried 
in his hand.

Members of the hunting party are of the belief that Crouse did not pay any 
attention to the position of his gun while he attempted to free his foot from 
the fence and in some unknown manner caused the gun to accidentally discharge.

The full shot of the shotgun entered Crouse's right eye, blowing the top of his 
head off.  He had been dead for some time when the body was found.

He is survived by his grief-stricken parents, three sisters and two brothers:  
Mrs. Nevin Kump and Mrs. Clinton Wintrode, of Littlestown; Carrie, Edwin and 
William, at home.  He was an employee of the Littlestown foundry.

Funeral services Thursday, meeting at the home at 10 o'clock in the morning with 
further services at St. Mary's Reformed church, Silver Run, Maryland, the Rev. 
F. B. Peck, officiating, with burial in the Union cemetery.

Star and Sentinel, November 16, 1929