General Charles Augustus Doyen: 1st Navy DSM + Grandmother Ruth Alice Doyen Austin

General Charles Augustus Doyen (1859-1918)

I am indebted to military historian, Mark Dutton, for his research on my paternal great grandfather, Brigadier General Charles Augustus Doyen - the recipient of the first distinguished service medal awarded by the Navy.

As officially reported in 1919: "The first distinguished-service medal to be awarded by the Navy Department was to-day posthumously conferred upon Brig. Gen. Charles A. Doyen, of the United States Marine Corps, the man credited with having "built" the Fourth Brigade of Marines, which acquitted itself so valorously in the Chateau-Thierry sector." General Doyen commanded the Fourth Brigade, 2nd Division in France until he was struck by influenza during the Pandemic of 1918 and died October 6, 1918 at Quantico.

Mark Dutton has done an enormous amount of research on General Doyen's military career and the history of the Navy DSM (Distinguished Service Medal). Much of Dutton's work is posted at Ancestry.com for anyone to consult. He contacted me to see if our family might still have General Doyen's medal, since the initial design was later changed and there are no known examples of this first version. I was sorry to tell him that I didn't know where the medal might be, but perhaps some other relative can answer this for him.

Here is Mark Dutton's image of what the first Navy DSM medal probably looked like:

As a social historian, I am able to add a few new photographs of General Doyen, and more information about his daughter, Ruth Alice Doyen Austin (1894-1954). I will be adding to this section over the next week.

Charles Augustus Doyen was born in New Hampshire in 1859 and attended the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland in the Class of 1881.  In 1892, Doyen married Claude Fay (1871-1943). Miss Fay's  father was William Wirt Fay, a Professor at the Naval Academy for 36 years, and her mother  was Julia Griswold Phillips from Newport, Rhode Island.  (Another one of their daughters, Mary Fay, married USMC Major General Joseph Henry Pendleton - for whom Camp Pendleton is named.)

The Doyen's had two daughters. My father's mother is Ruth Alice Doyen Austin (1894-1954) and then later Mrs. Doyen gave birth to my Great Aunt Fay Doyen Johnson (1901-1984), whom I visited growing up, at their home known as Jubilee, in Leonardtown, Maryland on the Potomac.

My Grandmother Austin was born in Brooklyn, NY on May 19, 1984 and is referred to twice in records as an adopted daughter.  Ruth Alice is not listed in the 1900 census with Claude Fay, who is designated as having no children. My first records of my grandmother are from family photos saved by her children and labeled: Mama at 5, and Mama at 6. These two photos are reproduced below and show the distinctive family feature of very very pale blue eyes. The second photo, from 1900, is from a studio in NY, suggesting she might still have been living in NY until the age of 6?

Ruth Alice Doyen, c. 1899-1900, age 5 here and age 6 below

In the 1910 census, 15 year-old Ruth Alice Doyen is listed as an adopted daughter, born in New York, of a NY mother and a German father. I have no more information about this.

Three years later, Ruth marries my Grandfather Austin at a huge wedding in Bremerton, Washington.

My father, Jason McVay Austin, Jr. is born in 1915 while the family is stationed in the Philipines.

Here, my dad is described by his proud father:
 "He is a whale. Has blue eyes, dark hair. Eyes are so blue they look artificial."

My father, Jason McVay Austin, in 1917 with his mother, Ruth Alice Doyen Austin.
On the steps of her father's house n the Bremerton Washington Navy Yard.
Note the sign on the column: "Colonel Doyen".

The family grew to include four children by 1920: Jason McVay (b. 1915), Claude Fay (b. 1917), Ruth Raymonde (b. 1919), and Alice Doyen (b. 1920).  Four more children were born between 1921-1927.

Woman's Employment, 1882 by Mary Pickering McVay

Woman’s Employment, 1882

By Mary Pickering McVay [Austin] (1859-1950)

A graduation oration written and read by my great grandmother, Mary Pickering McVay, at her college graduation from Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU), June 1882. She was 23. 

Woman! What is she? What has she been? What are the possibilities in her future?

She has been a tender harmless individual, a little narrowed in her conception of life by her dutiful deference to the opinions of the other sex, but on the whole she has served them well. A commendation, which ought to be glory enough; a testament, which it should be her highest ambition to obtain.

But “pity as it is, ‘tis true” that the women of today have begun to pause in the midst of their duties and to wonder if there may not be some mistake; if it be not possible that the Lord has some higher standard for women. The burdens of her home are dear, but she questions if to bear them cheerfully be all her mission.

She observes that in tastes, inclinations, capabilities she is like her neighbors. She knows that among her brethren different endowments point to different spheres, and she questions if, after all, she and her sisters be not wrong in attempting to restrain all the differing talents God has given them, so that these may now lead over the barriers which man, not God, has erected.

The woman that is, is an interrogation point; the woman that is to be, the answer.

That she is to be the same affectionate wife, mother, and sister, none ought to dispute; but as their father and husband provide for his family in the manner best pleasing to himself, and which gives him the most freedom to the talents he possesses, so she has begun to find her way into broader fields.

What a few women are has demonstrated what many can be, and has aroused the popular mind to the realization of the fact that some of the old theories are done away. In this day of advanced thought, it is not sufficient that a custom was sanctioned by our fathers. But everything is examined in the light of reason and justice that we may know whether it seems right and best for those now concerned.

In this question of woman’s work, the ancient Solomon was in advance of many of our sages.

His wise woman “buildeth her house” while the foolish “plucketh it down”; his Model Woman does indeed delight the heart of her husband, which “doth safely trust in her”. “She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life”. “She riseth while it is yet night and giveth meat to her household”. “She is not afraid of the snow, for all her household are clothed with scarlet.” Like a true daughter of Eve, “she maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple.” She is all this and more.

She is not only a skillful housekeeper and a superior seamstress, but we find her a business woman. “She considereth a field and buyeth it, with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard”. She is a manufacturer. “She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hand hold the distaff.” “She maketh fine linen and selleth it, and delivers girdles unto the merchants.” [See Proverbs 31)

She is an importer. She is like the merchant’s ships: “She bringeth her food from afar.” She is a philanthropist: “She stretcheth out her hand to the poor.” She is not dependent upon her husband for position but brings him into prominence. “Her husband is known in the gates.” She is not the weaker, but “strength and honor are her clothing.” She is not the open-eyed, innocent non-entity some would have her, but a teacher. “She openeth her mouth with wisdom.” “Her children rise up and call her blessed, her husband also.” And Solomon does not limit her reward with commendations, but says: “Give her the fruits of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.”

In this illustrious description of a many-sided woman, we have the keynote of her place in the Christian dispensation. She is the high priestess of her home, loved and cherished, but when necessity or inclination call her, she is not excluded from social or business life.

Woman is not to blame that the perplexing question of the age is: “What shall we do with her?” and “From what shall we exclude her?” These are not questions of her own asking.

President Garfield well understood her needs when he said, “At present, the most valuable gift which can be bestowed upon woman is something which she can do well and worthily and thereby maintain herself.” What that “something” is, is thrust upon each conscientious inquirer to answer, for the welfare of the race.

To many, our educational enterprises offer special inducements. Women are needed who, inspired by an enthusiasm, half of heart and half of intellect, will devote to the vocation of teaching a strong will, a loving heart, a mind of the highest culture, and a piety of the most earnest tone.

But our educational institutions cannot give employment to all. Literature furnishes unbounded delight to those who are provided daily bread, but even the most gifted can hardly hope to be successful in a financial point of view. Music and Art require a long course of training and then only a few attain success, and that because of their extraordinary genius, which of itself commands attention.

For years men have been cooperating and systematizing their labors. Why could not woman’s work be divided and systematized? Why could we not have cooperative cooking houses, laundries, and sewing establishments? Such institutions, by giving opportunity for promotion and self-improvement would do away with the idea that household work is degrading, and would furnish employment.

For years men have been systematizing their labors. The ablest brains of centuries have given their thoughts to plans of cooperation and every branch of business has been divided. Intricate machines have been invented until man’s work has assumed comparatively easy proportions and every branch of labor is filled with competent workers.

But while men have thus advanced, women have been working in the same weary routine, each one trying to harmonize the most dissimilar kinds of work, doing some parts well and others poorly. Why should not her work be divided and systematized? Why not find furnish opportunity for employment for the myriads of women who, possessing all the craving tastes and sensibilities of a true womanly nature, are yet poor and self-dependent?

Woman’s business capacity has been shown among French women where many large business houses are conducted by widows of their former proprietors, and reference has recently been made in one of our own daily journals to a young lady, who for several years has had the care of a large business for a Baltimore millionaire.

In many parts of Europe women are taking positions in the Government employ, and are proving efficient workers in all respects, losing none of the dignity, delicacy and reserve that are essential to woman’s character.

Branches of work are being opened in every direction, that are available and do not involve undesirable publicity. Schools have been organized giving instruction in the arts of making original designs of wallpaper, dry goods, draperies, frescoing and molding, and the whole field of Decorative Art will soon be considered the work of women.

Woman is proving herself capable of holding positions which society and the business world have long denied her. She is making progress that is steady and unceasing, and which demands tact and skill of the most varied character.

Now more than ever her hands are learning to work and her brains to invent and imagine. Without stepping over the boundary, which pronounces her unwomanly, she is becoming braver, stronger, and more undaunted, and her intellectual force is recognized as of the highest order.

Dare to be a woman!

1882 Oration address at Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU) by Mary Pickering McVay, age 23.

Mary Pickering McVay married OWU math professor Cyrus Brooks Austin (1851-1924) on August 28, 1884 and they had three children: Jason McVay Austin (1886-1966), Raymond Brooks Austin (1889–1918 WWI) Cyrus Bashford Austin (1896-1989). Only my grandfather, Jason, had descendents; my father, Jason Jr. was the oldest of eight.

Notes on source by Nancy A. Austin (b.1954): My father, Jason McVay Austin (1915-1996), gave me this text as a typed manuscript in August 1993.  He said that (his grandmother) Mary Pickering McVay’s Graduation Oration “surfaced again in the summer of 1950 when it was found among her papers after her death by my father [Jason McVay Austin 1886-1966], my Uncle Cyrus [Cyrus Bashford Austin 1896-1989], and myself. It was loaned to Gwendolyn Marriott Denison, OWU-1923, who used it in writing a tribute to Mary Pickering McVay Austin which was published in the October 1950 Oho Wesleyan Magazine.” My father tried to locate it again for forty years until his brother, Robert M. Austin (1925-2007), found it in 1993 in his attic along with other papers collected from their father, Jason McVay Austin’s house in Baltimore at his death in January 1966, which occurred while my father was out of the country traveling on business. 

Above: Mary Pickering McVay Austin in 1937

 In 1884,  Mary Pickering McVay (1859-1950) married Cyrus Brooks Austin (1851-1924).
Dr. Austin graduated from Ohio Wesleyan with a B.A. in 1879 and an M. A. in 1882 - 
the year of her graduation oration - and later received a D. D. (doctor of divinity).  
He was a math professor and Dean of Women at OWU from 1883-1920.

Mary Pickering McVay and Cyrus Brooks Austin had three children, shown here in 1899.
(r): my paternal grandfather Jason McVay Austin (1886-1966); (center): Raymond Brooks Austin (1889 - Oct 6, 1918 killed in action in Felville, France weeks just before the Nov 1918 end of World War I); and (l): Cyrus Bashford Austin (1896-1989), a NYC lawyer who had no children.

In 1937, my father, Jason McVay Austin (1915-1996) 

and his paternal grandmother, Mary Pickering McVay Austin (1859 - 1950) 

Mary Pickering McVay Austin's son and grandson, c.1950: 

(r) Jason McVay Austin (1886-1966) and (l) Jason McVay Austin, Jr. (1915-1996)

Mary Pickering McVay Austin's grandson, Jason McVay Austin, Jr. (1915-Dec 13, 1996), 
and great grand-daughter Nancy Alice Austin (b. 1954). Taken in Florida August 16, 1996.

My children, Caroline Austin Woolard (b. 1984) & Cyrus Orion Austin Woolard  (b. 1985) 
celebrating my Brown Ph.D., May 2009.

Cyrus Woolard studies  the bust of his grandfather, Jason McVay Austin, 1990. 

Caroline Woolard's senior show at Cooper Union, 2006.