Bio: Boruff, Hilda (Accidentally Shot in Leg - 1916)

Contact: Ann Stevens
Email: ann@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Boruff

----Source: Neillsville Times (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) 2/24/1916

Boruff, Hilda (Accidentally Shot in Leg – 20 Feb 1916)

Sunday Hilda Boruff, a little ten-year-old girl, was shot in the leg by her sister, the shooting being entirely accidental. The Boruffs live north of town and the elder of the two girls took a .22 caliber rifle and in some manner shot her smaller sister, the bullet lodging in the fleshy part of her leg. The wounded girl was brought to town, but the bullet could not be located and she was taken to Marshfield for an x-ray examination. The little girl who did the shooting displayed unusual heroism and forethought for as soon as she had wounded her sister, knowing that the danger of the wound would be in the infection spreading, she placed her mouth to the wound and kept drawing the blood from the wound so that the poison could not spread throughout her little victim’s body. Mrs. Boruff and another daughter attempted to help her in this effort, but did not have the stamina sufficient to keep it up and the small girl stuck to her self-appointed task until the arrival of the doctor.