Ethel (Clayton) Meyer (1915)
CLAYTON, MEYER, STORCK
Posted By: Kent Transier
Date: 11/8/2023 at 18:03:13
The Winterset News
Winterset, Iowa
Wednesday, July 28, 1915
Page 1, Column 1FOUND ON FLOOR – BULLET IN BRAIN
MRS. F. W. MEYER, OF JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP, DIES FROM REVOLVER SHOT
ONLY NINETEEN YEARS OLD
Funeral Stopped by County Attorney Until Death is Investigates. Coroner Holds Inquest.
Mrs. Ethel Clayton Myer, of Jefferson township, was found on the floor of her bedroom, Sunday morning at 11 o’clock with a bullet hole over her right eye. She died at 9 o’clock Sunday evening without regaining consciousness. County Attorney Wilkinson has ordered an investigation and a coroner’s inquest is in the progress. There are suspicions of foul play.
Mrs. Myer was married last February. She was nineteen years old and the neighbors say that she was of a happy disposition and not at all inclined to be morose. Myer, who is twenty-two, lives with his mother on part of the old Gerhardt Storck farm.
Mrs. Myer says that her son went to the barn Sunday morning at eleven o’clock. After he had gone a few minutes she twice heard something like the snap of an empty revolver which was shortly followed by a revolver shot. She called to her son to come in to see what was the matter and they went up stairs. Mrs. Myer was lying on the floor with a 38 calibre revolver by her side, with blood oozing from a bullet wound over her right eye. Her husband asked her why she shot herself and she replied she wanted to die.
Dr. Brewer, of DeSoto, reached the house at one o’clock and found the woman yet on the floor. She was unconscious and died at nine o’clock Sunday night. There was blood over the bed clothes and it is said in other parts of the room. Dr. Thompson, who removed the bullet, said that the skin around the bullet wound was powder marked and that the palm of the left hand was badly powder marked.
Myer testified that they got up late Sunday morning and that when he left the room to go down stairs his wife was combing her hair before the glass. He said she was apparently happy and had been laughing. He corroborated his mother’s story in most details. When Sheriff Brock and County Attorney Wilkinson went to the farm Monday they found young Myer had gone to Des Moines on business. After hearing the stories and looking over the premises they came back to town. The bloody bed clothing had been burnt.
Arrangements had been made to hold the funeral Tuesday but it was stopped by the county attorney who had Justice of Peace Cassiday act as coroner and an inquest is now in progress. After taking the testimony at the farm the inquest will adjourn to Winterset and the funeral will occur tomorrow. There are all kinds of rumors as what the verdict will be.
Young Myer is familiarly known as “Pete” Myer. His mother is the daughter of Gerhardt Storck, the wealthy German farmer who died several years ago. She is the widow of Fritz Myer who was found dead in the field a year or two previous to Storck’s death. The dead woman’s father is an old resident of Jefferson township, but now lives in Van Meter.
______________________Transcriber's note: Transcribed as published, surname on husband's gravestone is "Meyer".
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