DOYEN, George J. 1884-1929

DOYEN

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 4/23/2020 at 07:15:40

Companions Leave Wellsburg Man On The Road to Die

George Doyen Comes To Sudden End Near Van Cleve Thursday Night

Death Resulted From Edema In Lungs

Was Born and Raised in Wellsburg; Engaged in Flour and Feed Business

George Doyen was found dead in his car at an early hour Friday morning. His Chevrolet coupe was parked alongside of the road about a mile and a half from Van Cleve in Marshall county. The stalled car and the body were found by a farmer who had taken his children to school. It is believed that death came some ten or twelve hours before the body was found.

Mr. Doyen was not found at the wheel, but was on the other side of the front seat, his body in a fairly comfortable position. The switch had been turned off and the doors and windows of the car were closed.

At the coroner's inquest held in Marshalltown Monday, William Thompson, of Van Cleve, admitted that he and Fred Billman, also of Van Cleve, were with George Doyen during the afternoon preceding his death and that they had been drinking and left Van Cleve together in a car and that they left Doyen in the car by the side of the road when they believed that he was too intoxicated to drive.

The coroner's jury found that Doyen came to his death as the result of acute edema in his lungs brought on by the excessive use of alcoholic stimulants and that death was induced by the criminal negligence of his two companions, Thompson and Hillman.

Mr. Doyen operated the Doyen Flour and Feed Store at Marshalltown. His business required him to do a good deal of driving within his trade territory. He was away on one of these business trips from which he didn't return. He telephoned to his wife a short time before he left Van Cleve which is about fifteen miles from Marshalltown that he was about ready to start for home and that he would soon be there.

George Doyen was born at Wellsburg, December 3rd, 1884, and grew up there. He engaged in business at Wellsburg when he was a boy. Nineteen years ago he opened a flour store in Marshalltown. Ten years later his business had grown to the extent where the owner felt justified to enter the wholesale produce field and in this he was doing well. He is survived by his wife and one fifteen-year-old son, by two brothers, H. H. and John Doyen, of Wellsburg, and by five sisters, Mrs. W. E. Reed of Fort Dodge, Mrs. Pete Peters of Worthington, Minn., Mrs. Andrew Meyer of Marshalltown, Mrs. John Heilman of Waterloo, and Miss Bertha Doyen of Wellsburg.

Funeral services were held in the Marshalltown funeral parlor at Marshalltown Tuesday afternoon.

Over 200 relatives, friends and business associates attended the funeral. The Elks lodge, of which Mr. Doyen was a member, had charge of the services at the grave. Members of the Elks and the Eagle lodges of Marshalltown attended the services in a body.

Among the near relatives attending from a distance were Heiko Doyen, Wellsburg; Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Reed and family, Fort Dodge; Mr. and Mrs. Peter Peters, Worthington, Minn.; Miss Bertha Doyen, Wellsburg; Mr. and Mrs. John Doyen and daughter, Florence Viola, and Mr. and Mrs. Jay Hileman, Waterloo; Dr. George F. Mach, Chicago; and Mr. and Mrs. Harold Peters, Omaha, besides many others from Wellsburg, Mr. Doyen's former home, Holland, Ackley, Waterloo, Rockford and Little Rock.

--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 24 January 1929, pg 1