Grandpa Was Shot By A Chicken Thief !

My uncle and dad had both told me about the fact that my paternal grandfather, Ord LeMaster, had a scar around his heart and that it was supposed that he had been shot when he was younger, perhaps when he had served in the National Guard. Thanks to newspaper research, now I have proof of when he was shot.

Grandpa LeMaster was shot by a chicken thief, and fortunately survived.  Had he not, I would not have been here.

"Ord Lemaster of Salamonia," announcement, Huntington Herald, 9 April 1928; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 16 March 2015).

PORTLAND, April 8 - (INS) - Ord Lemaster, of Salamonia, southeast of here, is recovering from a gunshot wound near the heart, inflicted upon him by an unidentified chicken thief.

Young Lemaster returned home late at night and noticed the door of the chicken house standing open.  He stepped toward it to shut it when out of the dark coop came the shot that laid him low.

A sack containing one chicken, evidently dropped by the thief, was found near the scene of the shooting. 

Ord LeMaster would have been 21 years old at the time of the shooting.  Now that I have the exact date of the incident, I will search the local Portland, Indiana newspaper on my next visit to the library there to see what else I can find out.