W.J. Hammack is Killed on Road
W. J. Hammack was killed early this morning when a log truck tipped over on him, on the South Fork road about two miles south of Lostine. The body was brought to Enterprise at once and no inquest will be held.
Mr. Hammack and his son, Walter, had a contract to deliver logs from the timber up South Fork to the railroad at Evans where they are loaded and shipped to a sawmill and box factory at Milton. They were working double shifts, day and night. Mr. Hammack was driving one of his trucks on the night shift and was making his last trip down with a load, at about 6 a.m.
At a turn, at the top of a short hill by the Holmes place, it seems at least one of the wheels on one side of his truck ran off the road and his load loosened. He stopped and got off to try and to get the logs so they would ride while he drove the truck back into the road. It is supposed he stepped on the machine on the lower side and that it was so delicately balanced that his weight immediately carried it on over, and Mr. Hammack was caught beneath it.
Pearl Cray was driving another loaded truck behind Mr. Hammack and he arrived soon after the car had turned over. He found the cab of the truck on Mr. Hammack’s body, and he ran to the nearest farmhouse, that of G.P. Holmes, for aid. Other men arrived but nothing they could do. Apparently Mr. Hammack was not seriously hurt when the car tipped over with him underneath and he tried to get out but was unable to do so. His clothing was saturated by gasoline and he probably was suffocated by the fumes.
Mr. Hammack had been a resident of the valley for many years. He was born in Kentucky and was a son of Rev. N.E. Hammack of Alder Slope. He had a fine farm on the Slope and ran a sawmill part of every year. His widow and three sons survive him: Oscar, who lives on the Slope, Chester who is in California, and Walter, who was his partner in the logging contract.
Source: Enterprise Record Chieftain, June 21, 1928 Page 3
Contributed by Sue Wells