George Washington DUER

DUER, PIPER, PIEPER, BAWN, ANDERSON

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 10/24/2016 at 23:04:04

June 29, 1835 ---- August 27, 1895

G. W. Duer, a much respected business man and citizen died yesterday at 11:20 a.m. after an illness of about two weeks. The funeral occurs at the family residence on Iowa Avenue tomorrow at 2 p.m., Rev. Southwell conducting it. Mr. Duer came to Eagle Grove about four years ago from Parkersburg and by kind acts won the respect of all with whom he came in contact.

EAGLE GROVE EAGLE ---- Eagle Grove, Iowa
August 28, 1895

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Many of our people were sorrowfully surprised on Tuesday, Aug. 27th, to hear that our respected fellow citizen, Mr. George W. Duer, was dead. He had been sick for a number of days, but it was not generally known that his condition was so critical, and the news of his death came like a sudden shock to the community, filling many hearts with sorrow and sympathy for the afflicted relatives. Quiet and unassuming, the deceased went in and out among us and made a friend of everybody, and he will not only be missed by his family, but by those who knew him as a man of character and true worth. Mr. Duer's age was about 60 years. Funeral services were held at the Baptist church on Thursday afternoon at 2 o'clock, conducted by Rev. Southwell, and the remains were then taken to Rose Hill for burial.

The Times says the deceased was born in Miami Co., Ohio, June 20, 1835 and grew to manhood there. He received such advantages as the common schools of the state then afforded and laid the foundation for the life of honest industry that he afterwards followed. When he was 22 years of age he came to Iowa and settled in Keokuk county. Here, like other industrious and ambitious young men in the history of our state, he engaged in any profitable business that came to his hands, and March 7, 1858, married Miss Sarah J. Anderson at Sigourney, the county seat of Keokuk county.

After his marriage he engaged in farming, which he followed until about 9 years ago when he left the farm and entered the mercantile business, in which he and two of his sons were engaged as partners under the firm name of G. W. Duer & Sons at the time of his death. Eleven children were born from his marriage, ten of whom, three sons and seven daughters with their loving mother, live to mourn the death of a husband and father whose loving kindness and tender care they will never more know this side of the eternal world. Of the eleven children, the eldest, Franklin died in infancy. Of the others, Harvey A. lives in Belmond, Elmer E. and Charley in Eagle Grove and were associated with their father in business, Mrs. Piper [Pieper] lives near Parkersburg, Mrs. Bawn near Eagle Grove, while the other daughters, Isola, Mary, Cora, Susie, and Pearl, are at home.

Though engaged in merchandising, Mr. Duer never lost his interest in land and owned at the time of his death a good farm of 160 acres near Parkersburg. During his life he had held various township offices, from school director to Justice of the Peace, but he had no ambition for office. He was a well informed man on all current topics, and though retiring in disposition and reserved in manner, except to intimate friends, he was a keen observer of all that transpired around him. It is only about five years ago that he brought his family to Eagle Grove and with two of his sons engaged in the grocery and shoe trade, but no man and no firm ever made friends faster or was held in higher esteem. A long acquaintance with him was not necessary to a correct estimation of his character. Industry, sincerity, and honesty were characteristics of his so plainly noticeable that he won his way to the good will of everyone without apparent effort. The firm soon established a good business and Mr. Duer bought property, built him a nice residence, and established a permanent home where he hoped to enjoy for many years the comforts of a well spent life. His children were around him; his wife was beside him, enough of this world's goods were in store to make hard work unnecessary, amid the coming years seemed fraught with added happiness. How changed the prospect now! Home, wife, children, competency, are here, but the father, whose life whose hopes, whose earthly happiness was centered in them, and theirs in him, has answered the summons that awaits us all, and his spirit mingles, we trust, with the just — made perfect in eternal adoration around the throne of God. It is not Geo. W. Duer that lies cold and silent today in a darkened room of the home that was his. The “earthly house of this tabernacle” is there, but he is not. Born into a higher and nobler life, passed on to the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, he awaits the coming of those he loved on earth. To that home on high must they lift their thoughts and turn their eyes when they think of the familiar form that, will walk the earth with them no more. He is not dead —

“There is no death, the stars go down,
To rise upon some fairer shore.
And bright in Heaven's jeweled crown,
They shine forever more.”

BOONE VALLEY GAZETTE --- Eagle Grove, Iowa
Saturday, August 31, 1895