Loken, E.P. - 1884-1940

LOKEN, LILJA

Posted By: Linda Vander Linden - Volunteer (email)
Date: 2/21/2015 at 14:18:16

Hawarden Independent, August 8, 1940

E. P. Loken, Union County farmer who resided five miles west of Hawarden, was found dead in his alfalfa field about 7 o'clock Monday evening, an apparent victim of a heart attack. In mid-afternoon Mr. Loken went to the field with a mowing machine to cut the alfalfa. The alfalfa field is situated along the Hawarden-Alcester highway. He had made four or five rounds of the field and was noticed at work there as late as 5 o'clock in the afternoon by neighbors who motored past the place. His eldest son, Leonard, had been at Yankton during the day to make arrangements for entering school this fall and returned home shortly before 7 o'clock in the evening. As he drove into the lane which leads from the highway to the farm house he noticed the team with the mower still hitched standing near the east fence of the field and stopped to investigate. Upon entering the field he found his father's lifeless body on the ground, apparently where he had fallen from the mower when seized with a heart attack. Dr. E. I. Conner
was immediately summoned from Alcester but life was found to be extinct. It was believed that he had been dead for at least an hour when found. Mr. Loken had apparently been in robust health and had not complained of feeling ill at any time. The last illness which he suffered was in 1932. His sudden death came as a distinct shock to the members of his family and friends.

Funeral services will be held at 2 o'clock this afternoon at the home and at 2:30 at the Lutheran church in Alcester. Interment will be in the cemetery at Hudson.

Eigil P. Loken was born at Hadesland, Norway, March 4, 1884, so was past 56 years of age at the time of his death. He came to America in 1904, locating first at Argyle, Wis., and coming to Hudson, SD in 1907, where he remained for the next twelve years. He was united in marriage with Margaret Lilja of Hudson on January 14, 1919, and they continued to reside there until the fall of 1919 when they moved to a farm near Bruce, S.D., where they lived for a period of ten years. They then moved back to a farm near Fairview where they lived for three years and then moved again to the Hudson vicinity where they resided until the spring of 1936, when they moved to the farm west of Hawarden where they have since resided. Besides his wife, Mr. Loken is survived by two sons, Leonard, 18, and Kent, 15 years old. He is also survived by a sister, Mrs. Inga Alns(?) of Greenbush, MN, and two other sisters and a brother in Norway. One sister in Norway preceded him in death in 1938, while his parents also died in Norway a number of years ago. He has numerous cousins at Fairview, SD and Argyle, Wis.