John Neff & Laura Jane Baker Metcalf

METCALF BAKER MUNKS WEST

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 9/6/2010 at 23:06:37

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

John Neff and Laura Jane (Baker) Metcalf
By Loraine E Washburn

John Neff Metcalf was born 2 January 1848 or 1849 in New York or Pennsylvania, the son of Mendall Metcall and Rachel (Munks West) Metcalf. He came with his parents by covered wagon to Woodbury County form Steuben County, New York in 1854 or 1855. He lived for a time in Buena Vista County, Iowa, as he appears there on the 1860 census as age 12, born Pennsylvania. He was working on his father’s farm in 1870, and married first on May 5, 1871 in Woodbury County to Laura Jane Baker. He then farmed in Moville Township in Sections 27 and 28. It is said that his father died at John’s home in Moville Township. After the death of Laura Jane, he married her widowed sister, Winnie Blanch (Baker) Marler. John Neff died 12 June 1939 and is buried at Climbing Hill, Iowa.

Laura Jane Baker was born 5 May 1851 in New York. She was the daughter of Rev Peter Baker and Maria C Metcalf. Rev Baker was born 1823 in New York and was a cousin to the Metcalf family. He was very prominent in the settlement of Petersburg Township (named after him, in Jackson County, Minnesota. Rev Baker died 5 June 1890 and is buried at climbing Hill, Iowa. Marie C Metcalf was a sister to John’s father, Mendall Metcalf. Laura died 27 December 1908 in Woodbury County of tuberculosis. She is also buried at Climbing Hill. Her mother, Maria, died 22 October 1900 in Minnesota and is also buried at Climbing Hill.

John Neff and Maria were parents of seven children. Berton G, born 4 July 1873, in Woodbury County, died 17 April 1882 in Moville Township of the kick of an ox. He is buried at Climbing Hill.

Clementine Estelle was born 22 September 1876. Married 12 March 1895 in Woodbury County to Charles Herbert Gifford, they farmed in Moville Township. He was born 17 November 1871, and died by a stroke of lightning in 1907. ‘Clemmie’ died in 1959 and both are buried in Climbing Hill. They had three children: Earl, 1895-1978, who married Maude Simons and farmed by Moville; Ethel who died 27 September 1898 soon after birth; and Vesta N, born 1907, who resides in Moville, Iowa.

Myrta A Metcalf, born 1 Oct 1879, married Roy L Risser and had four children: Harold, Cecil, Rolland, and a stillborn son.

Eva Celestia Metcalf, born 21 April 1895, Moville Township, married Rev Jesse VanCleave of Oklahoma. He has been deceased a number of years. Eva died 11 June 1983 at Pheonix, Arizona. She had four children: James N, Rolland L, Joyce E, and Alvin Lee.