11 Year Old Hilda Crawford Accidentally Shot After Skating At Watsontown Canal

On this day in local history, November 21 1903,  the Miltonian reports that 11 year old Hilda Crawford was killed by a playmate.

This was a tragic accident, not a murder.

Hilda Crawford was visiting at the home of a relative, Mr. Joseph Walburn.  Hilda, Cleveland Walburn, and Lloyd Hoffman were among a group of children who went ice skating on the old Watsontown Canal that day.

As the three children ascended the canal bank, Walborn handed his flobert rifle to the Hoffman boy.
The rifle accidentally discharged, with the bullet striking Hilda in the neck.  She was killed instantly.

Justice of the Peace B. Frank Fisher of Watsontown empaneled a jury in the absence of the coroner, and the boys were exonerated, the facts being clear that the accident was purely accidental.

Hildred J. Crawford was born the 30th of November 1891. She was the daughter of William Grant Crawford & Annie Bertha (Confer) Crawford.  She was buried at Muncy Cemetery.  (Her parents are buried at Turbotville)

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Many Floberts were made of very soft steel and designed to sell at the lowest possible price. In 1920, when a box of 100 blackpowder .22 shorts cost 21 cents, the price of a new Flobert rifle was about $2.50. Literally tons of them were imported into the United States between about 1885 and 1910 as single-shot pistols, rifles and small-bore shotguns."