From Carleton Sentinel - Jacksonville, Oregon, 6th June 1862 -" With a sad heart I write you these few lines, to inform you of the death of my dear friend, your cousin, John CURRIE It being his last request that I should write to you and his dearly beloved mother. He shot himself accidentally with his rifle on the eve. 3rd June. About 15 miles from where we were driving some cattle to the mines, and we were also waiting to hear from your parts. We came in the evening and I was cooking supper. I got in ahead of him and had it nearly ready. I told him it would be ready in a few minutes and he went to the barn where we slept. We slept aloft and his rifle was laying in the blankets, the muzzle towards him As he stood on the edge of the boards of some grain bins, about three feet high, the floor we slept on was even with his breast. He took hold of the muzzle and pulled it toward him and it went off and shot him just above the heart. I was about 20 steps from the barn cooking and the report was very flat. I called him "Are you hurt?" He said "Oh, Gus, I am shot!" I ran to the barn and he had got to the middle of the barn floor, and said Oh, Gus, I am killed. I am shot through the heart and will die in a few minutes. Isn't it too bad I should die in this way. Oh, my poor Mother! I would not care if it were not for my poor Mother. It is to bad my mother's poor boy must die in this way." Then he told me to write to his mother and tell her how he died and to write to you. He wished his friend Maxwell were here. He said nothing more about anyone else. I asked him if he wanted me to write to anyone else; he said no. All this time he was leaning on me and walking towards the house, it being about 75 yards from the barn. We got about halfway, and he said everything was turning black and he must lie down. I got some cold water and washed and bathed his head and he came to again. There were two ladies there and an Indian boy and some men about 300 to 400 yards off. We called them and they came, and I sent for the doctor. He did not wish me to send for the doctor, for he said he could live only for a short time. He said everything turned black two or three times and he could not see. For about a quarter of an hour he suffered very much. He asked me what time it was, it wanted of five minutes of 9 o'clock. He said the doctor will not be there before 10. Then everything turned black to him and he bade me goodbye and he said he would die at 9. And he did die, as he said at 9. I buried him on the eve. of the 4th at sundown on a burying ground at Antelope Creek about 15 miles from Jacksonville. It is a safe and lovely place. We dug his grave in solid granite ledge. He was decently interred in a neat coffin and a prayer was offered at his grave and a funeral sermon preached at early candle light. I put a good picket fence about his grave. So God bless his soul, may he rest in peace evermore."