Benson Train Wreak

Submitted by Elizabeth Burns, June 2005

BENSON TRAIN DISASTER

Arizona Republican Newspaper

December 20, 1909

Benson--The Golden State Limited, eastbound, was wrecked a mile west of this place at four o'clock this morning. The engineer and fireman were killed and a number of others were badly hurt and about forty more or less injured. Four cars were demolished, among them the mail car. What is left of the train is now in the yards here. The wrecked cars were thrown from the track and rolled down the grade, a splintered mass. The cause of the wreck is not yet known. Within a few minutes after news of the accident had been received, a relief train was on the way to the scene.

William W. Walker of Tucson, one of the oldest engineers in the service of the Southern Pacific in the southwest was killed as was his fireman, P.W. Bauer, also of Tucson. Thirteen passengers were seriously injured and thirty others cut and bruised.

The most seriously injured are Willard M. Knight, Los Angeles, mail clerk, may die; John Lawrence of Soldiers Home, Los Angeles, a fractured arm; W.R. Walker, mail clerk of Los Angeles, badly bruised; Mrs. L.A. Bellows of Boston, fractured rib; A.H. Foster, mail clerk of Los Angles, scalp wounds; Wm. Collins of Oakland, bruised; James A. Wilson, wounded in the face, Col. William Fife of Cananea, bruised, Helen Horton of Los Angeles, back injured; Miss Nellie Corbett, bruised,; Edward G. Edmunds, mail clerk of Los Angles, scalded, and Edward Tenn of El Paso, ribs broken.

William Walker, the dead engineer was well known in Phoenix. He was a brother of J. Elliott Walker, former sheriff of this county. He had been a resident of Tucson for thirty years and for almost twenty five years he had been in the service of the Southern Pacific, along with his brother, Wood Walker, who lives at Bowie and is also an engineer.

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