Meyer, Eugene died 1945

MEYER, DUTKA, BORWALD

Posted By: Sharyl Ferrall - IAGenWeb volunteer
Date: 8/6/2013 at 09:01:52

Garber, Ia. - A midnight joy ride during intermession of a wedding dance ended Wednesday in the death of one Guttenberg farm youth and severe head injuries to another, Clayton County Sheriff A.W. Mueller, of Elkader, reported.

Eugene Meyer, 17, was killed on the ride, and Donald Dutka, 15, was injured, the sheriff said. Dutka was hospitalized at Dubuque, where he was in a semi-conscious condition late Wednesday afternoon. Both boys had been attending a dance here in celebration of the marriage of Margaret Meyer and Howard Borwald, both of Guttenberg, Mueller said.

The accident occurred after Harold Groth, 24, Elkport, a recently discharged serviceman, stopped at the dance hall to take two friends, Eugene Hansel, 16, and Gilbert Hansel, 10, cousins living at Garber, riding in his coupe. As the trio started off, the three saw two boys jump into the uncovered trunk compartment of the automobile. Believing they were neighbor boys wanting a ride, Groth continued driving a mile south of Garber on a country road. After turning the auto around and starting back to town, Groth and the Hansels discovered two bodies lying in the road. Investigating, they found the boys gone from the trunk compartment and picked up the bodies, taking them to an Elkport doctor.

The doctor, who called the sheriff to Elkport, expressed the belief that Meyer had died of a broken neck and fractured skull. Dutka, taken to the hospital by the sheriff, had not yet been able to relate his version of the accident. The sheriff added that school boys at Garber reported seeing two boys standing up in the rear of the coupe as it passed through town. Mueller theorized that they probably fell from the car. He said that neither Groth nor the Hansels knew Meyer and Dutka and that no charges were planned.

Meyer's body is at a funeral home in Guttenberg, where funeral arrangements will be announced later.

~Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, Evening Edition, Wednesday, November 7, 1945

~Note: the Guttenberg paper may have had a later obit, but I didn't find one on the microfilm of the Telegraph Herald