Charles Lewis Olney on the farm

Charles Lewis Olney tending to livestock on the farm back in 1919.
There are only a few known photographs of Charles, as he died at the age of 16 years, due to an accidental hunting accident.

It was getting towards evening, and Charles went out to hunt. The three boys had been schooled by the best in the ways of hunting and proper gun handling, but it is imagined that Charles was in a hurry to get to a place in the woods where he had previously had 'luck' taking a huge Adirondack whitetail buck. Being in a hurry was the only reasoning that could be applied to how young Charles lost his life .

He had set his gun down against the barbed wire fencing that so often back then outlined the property and containment lines. It was a freak mishap that his gun managed to fall and discharge by accident on its own, striking and killing him. As darkness approached, Nels Olney (oldest of the surviving Olney three brothers) set out into the night to find his brother. He carried the boy home and the entire community mourned the loss of young Charles.

Today, Charles rests beside his older two brothers and their wives, his mother, and his grandmother and grandfather in the Woodgate Cemetery.