Young Boy Shot in Accidental Gunfire
A tragic lapse in judgment by a group of boys near Waterville led to a severe injury.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Waterville— While some boys were out at the A. T. Woodward place, two miles from town, Harry Emmons, son of W. T. Emmons, of this place, was accidentally shot. The boy shot was 11 years old. There were several boys in the crowd herding some cattle. They had been in the habit of taking guns and shooting squirrels. One of the boys by the name of Duncan, in fun, pointed the gun at young Emmons, stating that he was going to shoot him. The gun was discharged, the charge entering the lower part of the abdomen, striking the bone, following it around to the back, where it lodged. Drs. Adams and Morse were called and extracted the bullet and dressed the wound, which is severe but not necessarily fatal.
“One of the boys by the name of Duncan, in fun, pointed the gun at young Emmons, stating that he was going to shoot him.”
Accidental shootings involving children remain a somber recurring theme in American life. The 1903 reporting highlights the era's common practice of children carrying firearms, a point of stark contrast with modern sensibilities.
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