Morris Willis Metcalf

METCALF WHITNEY HATCH SNYDER

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 9/6/2010 at 23:08:49

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Morris Willis Metcalf
By Loraine R Washburn

Morris Willis Metcalf was born about 1832 in New York or Pennsylvania, the first son of Mendall and Elizabeth (Whitney) Metcalf. He came to Woodbury County in 1854 from Steuben County, New York. He was a farmer and stock raiser according to the 1904 Woodbury County Directory. The first marriage that occurred in Little Sioux Township was that of Morris Metcalf and Melinda Hatch on 4 July 1855. The first white child born in Grange Township was Morris, the son of Morris. The fate of Melinda and the baby, Morris, is unknown, but Morris married a second time in 1863 at Boone, Iowa, to Freelove Betsy Snyder.

When West Fork Township was organized in 1868, M W Metcalf was a township clerk. On the 1870 Federal Census of Woodbury County, he was listed as age 37, born in Pennsylvania. Yet another reference state he was a farmer of Section 25, West Fork Township, born in Tioga County, Pennsylvania, but the 1880 census gave his birthplace as New York.

Some time after 1889 the family moved to near Flasher, North Dakota, and here Morris died in 1910.

Freelove Betsy Snyder was born about 1840-1843. She was probably the daughter of early settlers James and Freelove Snyder who was born in Pennsylvania and New York. Freelove Betsy was born in Pennsylvania, and died in 1927 in Timmer, North Dakota, at the age of 87 years.

Morris and Freelove were parents of five children, and still have descendants in Woodbury County. Willis Walter was born 4 September 1864 or 1865 at Boone, Iowa. He was married 14 March 1893 at Dakota City, Nebraska, to a distant cousin, Bertha Luella Metcalf. He died 20 January 1915 at Flasher, North Dakota. Bertha was born in October 1874 at Mondamin, Iowa, the daughter of Walter P Metcalf and Nancy J Richardson. She died 20 May 1924 near Climbing Hill, Iowa, after being married the second time to Charles Sluyte. She is buried at Climbing Hill. Willis and Bertha had five children, all born near Holly Springs, Iowa: Martha Ellen, 1893-1936, married Eban Russell; Earl DeWitt, 1895-1925, single; Faye Agnes, 1897-1977, buried Holly Springs, married Alva C Whiteman and second, to Earl Welch; Carl Luther, 1899-1900, buried at Holly Springs; Grace Evangeline, 1901-1901, buried at Holly Springs; and Warren Asa, born 6 September 1908.