By LEO RODRIGUEZ
San Benito Historian
Ever driven through San Benito on I69 and wonder who Oscar Williams was when seeing the Oscar Williams Road “exit” sign?
Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Williams were prominent citizens in San Benito. They owned vast amounts of farmland off the expressway, and all the way to the outskirts of Rio Hondo. The road was named after Mr. Williams since the late 1910s. Mr. Williams also owned various businesses in downtown San Benito. He and Mrs. Williams were also engaged in civic matters.
This story regarding Mr. and Mrs. Williams, however, is a tragic one, but a story this writer felt needed to be recorded in order to properly document the history of this small, but tight knit community.
Just days before Christmas in 1936, Oscar Williams, prominent San Benito farmer, underwent an operation for the amputation of his right foot at Valley Baptist Hospital in Harlingen.
Williams accidentally wounded himself with a shotgun loaded with buckshot while hunting four miles north of Sebastian in Willacy County.
Attending physicians stated that Williams’ life was probably saved by the quick action of Lewis Loback, of San Benito, in applying a tourniquet to the wounded leg and speedily driving the injured man to the hospital.
The accident occurred when Williams, Loback and a winter visitor, M. Marshall, were hunting. Williams shot a deer, which, although wounded, began running through the brush. To trail the wounded animal, Marshall started through the thick growth and the other two men got in the auto and drove around to the other side of the patch of brush.
While Williams was hurriedly getting out of the auto, his shotgun discharged and literally tore his foot to shreds from the ankle down. Loback rushed Williams to the hospital in Harlingen. After X-rays determined there was no hope of saving it, his foot was amputated.
The wooden leg that was placed would prove fatal to Oscar Williams, albeit 16 years later.
On an early Sunday morning, February 10, 1952, an employee of Mr. and Mrs. (Lena) Williams for many years, Alfonso Lucio, who lived directly across the road, arrived at the Williams home to milk.
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