SAMUEL H. METZGER was born December 4, 1875, a son of John C. and Sarah Miller Metzger. John C. Metzger is a son of Samuel and Rebecca (Holtzel) Metzger. Samuel's grandparents, Henry and Catharine (Highland) Metzger, came from Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, and located in Pennsylvania. The earliest known ancestor of the family in the paternal line was Theobald Metzger, of Hesse-Darmstadt. Samuel and Rebecca (Holtzel) Metzger were natives of Union county, Pennsylvania. Samuel's parents were Jacob and Elizabeth (Sheimer) Metzger, born in New Jersey, the father July 22, 1769. They came with others of their family to Pickaway county in 1813. Jacob's first wife, mentioned above, died and he married Sarah Dilion. By his first marriage he had children as follows: Annie, born July 5, 1792 ; Mary, August 28, 1794; Henry, January 8, 1797; John, November 2, 1799; Jacob, May 15, 1802; Catharine, April 3, 1804; Christina, January 15, 1806; Adam, February 14, 1808; Elizabeth, April 9, 1810; Samuel, April 21, 1813. By his second marriage he had two sons, Jonathan R. and George A., The former, born about 1820, was killed in Missouri, the latter died at Holtsdale, Michigan, in 1888. Jacob Metzger and his first wife were English Lutherans and diligent and efficient workers in their church.

Like all old families the early history of the family of Metzger has been found somewhat difficult to trace. Descendants of Theobald Metzger of Hesse-Darmstadt settled in Wurtemberg and from there, as appears, came the first Metzgers to America, landing at New York. Some of the traditions of the family trace it to Holland, where it is said to have borne the name of Von Metzger. It is related that the original Metzger emigrants to the United States came over on a ship on which there was a scourge of smallpox, which took off forty-three of the forty-four children on board, one Jacob Metzger being the only survivor. This child seems, in the plan of providence, to have been spared for terrible death in another form. In his earlier years he was a great hunter, and he amused himself in that way long after his children thought it unsafe for him to do so. In his old age he went to the woods one day against the protest of his friends, a terrific storm came up, he did not return and when sought could not be found. It was not until years afterward that his bones and his gun were found beside a partly subterranean stream whose course he had followed underground from the open country in which he had been hunting. It was thought that he might have been dazed and blinded by the storm.

Samuel Metzger, father of John C. Metzger and grandfather of Samuel H. Metzger, was a man of ability, active in all public affairs, and he made a fine property which included a farm of two hundred and thirty-five acres. Rebecca Holtzel, who became his wife, was born August 19, 1812, in what is now Hardy county, West Virginia, a daughter of Henry and Elizabeth Holtzel, who came to Brown county, Ohio, when she was twelve years old. She married Samuel Metzger April 23, 1836. Of her eleven or twelve brothers and sisters, Jacob, John C., Susan, Charlotte, Christian and Dorothy were all born in Virginia, and all lived to a ripe old age. The others, born in Ohio, all died in infancy or in childhood. Her father left Brown county and later lived in Pickaway county, Ohio, whence he moved to Noble county, Indiana, settling on a farm near Ligonier. His wife died in 1840. She was of the old German-American family of Bersgtresser. About 1860 he married Elizabeth Hull, of Albion, Indiana, who survived him. The sketch of D. L. Miller in this work will assist to a better knowledge of this part of the family history of the Holtzels.

Samuel and Rebecca (Holtzel) Metzger had five children : Henry H., born June 29, 1837; John C., born December 4, 1838, near the geographical center of Adams township; Sarah, born November 5, 1840, who married Christian King and died in April 1877; Jacob, born November 21, 1842; Levina, born November 23, 1849, who is Mrs. Alford Frontz, of Adams township. John C. Metzger was brought up on his father's farm and gained a practical education in the public school near his home. He married Sarah Miller, sister of Jacob J. Miller, March 29, 1860, and they had three children: Alwilda, born December 23, 1860; Gertrude, born August 21, 1872, who married A. J. Weller, of Sandusky county; and Samuel H., whose name is at the head of this article and of whom more will be said further on. Mrs. Metzger died May 21, 1888. Mr. Metzger married Lydia (Lee) Berry on June 2, 1889. By his second marriage he has a daughter, Julia, Mrs. Henry A. Tanner, of Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 1862 he moved to Steuben county, Indiana, where he bought forty acres of land and for seven years farmed and operated a threshing machine. Returning to Adams township, Seneca county, Ohio, he bought the farm of sixty-seven acres, which has since been his home. During the last few years he has been a somewhat extensive traveler, especially in the United States, with special reference to the west, and his different tours have taken him to most of the western states and territories. An observer as well as a traveler, he has widened his outlook and broadened his mind by study and analysis of what he has seen. He is a man of great affability and kindness of heart, a friend to every worthy person he meets, held in the highest regard by all who know him. A Democrat, solicitous for the success of his party locally as well as nationally, he takes a deep interest in all important township and county affairs and has served his fellow citizens ably and with rare integrity and diligence as town clerk and as a member of the school board. His second wife died March 7, 1899. His declining years are cheered by several children and four grandchildren. The latter are Lela Billman, of Scipio township, daughter of his daughter Alwilda; and Milen B., Carno D. and Loretta C. Metzger, children of his son Samuel H. He enjoys such good health that he appears fifteen or twenty years younger than he is and is so thoroughly alive to present day interests that his farm is one of the best kept and most up-to-date in the township. A son of pioneers, he delights in talking of the old times when the country was new and the people were simple and friendly and helpful to one another. He has an interesting old sabre that his grandfather, a captain of Ohio militia, carried in the war of 1812.

Samuel H. Metzger, of Adams township lived with his father and helped him in his farming operations until he married and contemplated setting up a rooftree for himself. His wife was Stella M. Somers, and they were wedded on February 26, 1896. She was born December 1, 1875, a daughter of John and Catharine (Newkirk) Somers, descendants of Germans from Hesse-Darmstadt who came early to this country. Her father, born in 1829, was a farmer in Scipio township. Educated in good district schools and at Republic, Mr. Metzger was well equipped to take up the battle of life as a farmer. After his marriage he began farming on his own account and he has been so successful that he now owns two hundred and one half acres, well stocked, fitted out and cultivated. He bought his first one hundred acres in 1899, fifty-three acres in 1902 and forty-seven and one half acres in 1910. He has bought several tracts of timber land, owning now from one hundred and fifty to one hundred and seventy-five thousand feet of lumber in the tree. For several years he has dealt extensively in lumber and hay. Last year his shipment of lumber was very large and he shipped one hundred and eighty car loads of hay. Taken all in all, he is one of the busiest and most progressive men in his part of the county, one whose future is roseate with promise of big things well accomplished. In his political affiliations he is a Democrat. Toward all local movements promotive of the good interests of his fellow citizen he is helpful beyond some of his abler neighbors. His sons, Milen B. and Carno D. were born April 20, 1897, and April 25, 1899, respectively, and his daughter, Loretta C., April 22, 1903.


Page 614-616
History of Seneca County, Ohio
By A. J. Baughman