The Dickinson press., 1906-04-21
BERG KILLED..
earns, Who Fired Fatal
Shot, Probably Acted
S Defense.

lnaSoH%Defen8o
A shooting setsps OCCURRED 76 miles
north of Taylor the evening" Of the 18th
in which Claus Berg lost his life. w.
A. earns fred the fatal shot, but it
seems to have been an accident, or at
the worst. in self defense. Circum-
stances indicate that Berg was the
aggressor. !
An inquest was begun at the scene Of
the tragedy the following day and con.
tinued Thursday afternoon and Friday
morning in Dickinson when it was adj.
j%ourned to April % to procure the testi-
mony of young Jergensen.,
Coroner Schmidtbauer selected John
van der Las. VIC. Ray and Ed. Jones
to sit as jury in the case.
Following is the substance Of the tes-
timony taken:
On the 9th, earns and Berg left with
two teams for the Bad Lands to get.
posts. One team belonged to earns.
and the other was hired by him from
Ole Kyseth. Berg was to have 10 posts,
ordinary fence length, for each days
work while on the trip. On sApril: Is,
they returned to a point near Ed. Og-
ems place, a. mile or so from w. A..
earns, Will earns father, and two
miles from Berg's claim.
Before reaching this point, Berg had
called to earns, who was with; the team
n;tbe lead, that heswould> unload there,
meaning probably that he would throw
off the top poles, keep his shareson the
wagon and take them on to his shack.
earns said no; the team had been driven
80 miles that day, was very tired and
should be taken home and cared for.
He also told Berg that he cosld stay at
earns home for the night and in the
morning they would take the poles over.
Berg swore. seemed enraged almost 10
the point of insanity. While talking,
Berg loosened the binder stick, a small
post, and threatened to pommel earns.
Direct testimony:
"Berg advanced, struck me on left
cheek with posts. l broke the force of
the blow with left hand; was slightly
dazed: ran ahead to my load; Berg fol-
lowed a little; cursed; went back and
commenced to unload; l shouted to him
to stop; he would not; ragged like a crazy
man; I took rifle from my load and went
back; Berg on opposite side of load; l
hoped to brighten him; attempted to
lead left horse ahead; had rifle in right
hand; it was about 1880 p. N, not very
light, and / did not see that the reins
were tied to the. wheel on opposite side;
Berg came round in front of horses with
raised post, uttered oaths. told me to get
out; jumped back and in doing so gun
was discharged; can't say how; think l
had been holding it with hand the
lock; think reached my lett hand to
barrel when ! released my hold from
the horse; Berg advanced, clinched me;
l tried to push him back fearing that he
would get gun and shoot me; l felt his
grip loosen and l said, Did the shot hit
you. Berg?' He replied, Yes, dn
you, you hit me in my leg l eased him
to the ground and he tainted.
II opened clothes: he was sho, in cen.
ter Of thigh; did my best to bandage
with old table cloth found in; grub box;
did all l could. l took horse out and
drove to fathers with all haste; told him
what had happened. Young mar there
whom found afterward to be Jergensen,
was sent to Ale Kyseth's for help. Fa-
Their and | went to Berg who was still
alive. This may have been 20 minutes
after the accident. At fathers sugges-
ton, l vent a mile to get Bear but he
was afraid and would not come; vent to
Bickler's, next place beyond and on our
return Berg was dead. l at once vent
to Tyler's and sent for coroner"
"At time of trouble l saw some one on
Taylor road;l called loudly for help;
think fellow must have heard the quarrel
and been frightened. He was the man
! found when vent to fathers for
help"
Drs. Perkins and Davis testified that,
in their opinion Berg. with the main
artery of the leg severed, could not
naturally have lived for more than FIVE
minutes after the shooting. Possibly
the bandaging prolonged life; a doctor
with proper appliances could have
saved life if there at time of shot or
within a minute or two.
DR.. A. J. Hennings of Taylor, who