Crushed by Logs at a Cheney Sawmill
Benjamin Inman, 26, was killed while unloading timber at Hinchcliff Bros.' mill, a reminder of the human cost of the region's timber boom.
Another terrible accident occurred at Hinchcliff Bros.' saw mill, about seven miles from Cheney, on Wednesday, resulting in the almost instant death of Benjamin Inman, an employee. Mr. Inman was engaged in hauling logs to the mill, and drove in with a load about 12 o'clock. As the men were going to dinner they noticed that he unloaded the truck, but when they returned after dinner they found the unfortunate man on his knees by the side of a log, with his head resting on a log, and another log about eighteen inches through on the head and right arm, with blood and brains oozing from his nose and ears, unconscious. He was immediately extricated, conveyed to the home, and parties were at once sent to Spangle and Cheney for physicians. Dr. Fullenwider, of Spangle, arrived in about an hour, but only in time to see the poor man breathe his last. Deceased was about twenty-six years of age, unmarried, with only one relative, a Mr. Elder of Cheney, in this Territory. He was well spoken of by all who knew him.—Cheney Times.
“Dr. Fullenwider, of Spangle, arrived in about an hour, but only in time to see the poor man breathe his last.”
Timber built Spokane, but the work was brutally dangerous and often fell to young, unmarried men with few protections. Workplace fatalities still concentrate in logging, construction and agriculture, and the question of who bears the risk of dangerous work remains a live one in Washington.
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