Surnames: Clow, Bergemann

----Sources: Colby Phonograph (Colby, Clark County, Wis.) 05/31/1951

Clow, George (1935? - 26 May 1951)

A 16-year-old Clark county boy, living in the town of Beaver, (Clark Co., Wis.) was accidentally killed Saturday night - a victim of his younger brother’s eighth grade graduation present.

Shot through the face and taken to the Greenwood Clinic where he died a half hour later at about 8:00 o’clock was George Clow, son of Mr. and Mrs. George Clow Sr., who reside on route 1, Greenwood, about eight miles north of here.

The slain youth had been a sophomore at the Loyal High School during the school term recently ended.

Clark County Coroner John Bergemann, Neillsville, said there would be no inquest.

According to the coroner, Jack Clow, 14, was graduated from the Maple Center Grade School Saturday morning and received a new .22 caliber single-shot rifle as a present. That night, after taking the gun along with him when he went after the cows, the boy cleaned the rifle in his bedroom while his brother was showing him how to operate the weapon.

George and Jack had been accustomed to "playing soldier" with .22s, the coroner stated, and before supper they came downstairs into the living room where they were looking the gun over and experimenting with the weapon to see how far the ejector would throw a shell.

The youths had often pointed empty rifles at each other and pulled the trigger while "playing soldier" it was revealed.

After the older boy had shown his brother how the ejector worked, Jack said to his brother, who was still in a kneeling position on the living room floor, "Look here, George," and he pulled the trigger.

The youth didn’t remember when he had put the shell into the chamber of the gun. The slug entered the victim’s face to the right and below the nose lodging behind his left ear just beneath the skin.

After contacting a physician at Greenwood and learning that he was not in but would be sent when he could be reached, the parents rushed the injured boy to Greenwood. On the way they met the doctor who was on his way to the Clow home. Together they took the youth to the clinic where he died shortly afterward.

The Clows, who are former residents of Chicago, had been living on the Clark County farm for the past three years.

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Re: Obit: Clow, George (1935? - 1951)

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