Fred Erickson
Fred Erickson from Oelwein, Iowa, was a first class passenger on the Valencia heading for Seattle. A foreman for the Chicago Great Western Railway, Ericson was travelling with Cornelius Allison, a contractor working for him in the company. Cornelius Allison, a naval veteran, was one of the survivors of the Valencia picked up by the Topeka on the second of two rafts launched just two hours before the Valencia broke up and the remaining survivors drowned. In the Seattle Star newspaper on the 3rd of February, it was reported, “Yesterday the tug Lorne brought two victims to Bamfield, one being Fred Erickson, of St. Paul, the other J.B. Graham of San Francisco. Seven others were left on the shore, there being too much sea to take them onboard the tug.” Fred Erickson’s body was later sent to Minnie Erickson in St. Paul.