Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2013, All Rights Reserved U.S. Data Repository Please read U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the US Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================= U.S. Data Repository NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ========================================================================= Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== Biographical History of Cherokee County, Iowa W. S. Dunbar & Co., Chigago - 1889 [page 587-588] JOHN A. METCALFE, one of the representative and leading men of the legal profession of Cherokee, Iowa, was born in Clark County, Kentucky, on April 19, 1853, and was the second child and oldest son of a family of seven. THOMAS METCALFE, his father, was born in the same county, in 1799, and died in 1873; he was a butcher and storekeeper most of his life, living on the farm during the last fifteen years of his life. the METCALFE family are of English origin and came to Virginia in an early day from Berkshire, England. The father of our subject was the oldest son of JOHN METCALFE, the grandfather of our subject, and came to Kentucky, from Fauquier County, Virginia, in early youth, with five brothers and a widowed mother. He was a brother to THOMAS METCALFE, the stonemason, who became a political orator in 1809, and fought under General HARRISON at Fort Meigs and the battle of Tippecanoe, where he greatly distinguished himself. After 1813 he was much in public life; was in the Legislature from 1810 to about 1820; in Congress from 1820 to 1829; Governor of Kentucky from 1828 to 1832; State Senator in 1834; president of the Board of Internal Improvement in 1840; United States Senator in 1848. Died in Nicholas County, Kentucky, in 1855. He was a Clay Whig and had great ability in public affairs. THOMAS, the father of our subject, was also a soldier in 1816, though he was only sixteen years old. All the METCALFE family were Whigs before the war and most of them Republicans since the war. Colonel LON METCALFE, son of the Governor, killed two rebels in duels in Kentucky about the time and during the war, and fought through the Civil War with General NELSON, with great bravery. On account of the war our subject was de- prived of the public schools, only learning the common rules of arith- metic and grammar by the time he was twenty-one years old. In 1875 he came to Warren County, Illinois, and worked on a farm for five years, attending school in the winter months. In the winter of 1878 he en- tered Abingdon College and finished a three years' course in 1881. In the same year he entered the law office of Stewart, Phelps & Grier, at Monmouth, Illinois, and read law until fall, when he taught school five months and then during the summer of 1882 attended the Wesleyan Universitaty [sic] Bloomington, Illinois; in the fall of 1882 he again returned to Monmouth, Illinois, and taught school; in 1883, March 1, he entered the Law Department of the State University at Iowa City, and graduated March 5, 1884. He immediately began the practice at Charles City, Iowa, but in the fall returned to Knoxville, Illinois, and practiced with Judge R. L. HANNAMAN until 1886, when he came west to Plymouth County, Iowa, where he remained until 1888, when he moved to Cherokee and became the successor to Hon. A. F. MESERVEY, in practice. Mr. METCALFE is perhaps an equal to any young attorney in Northwestern Iowa; he is careful in giving advice, is fearless in the court-room, is a sound speaker to the jury, and is a hard student in his office; keeps the same clean and always ready for business; is a Republican, but says but little on politics. In fact, he is a good lawyer. He was married in 1888 to Mrs. M. K. DINES, of Blandinsville, Illinois, a most accomplished and charming lady. She was the daughter of WILLIAM LAND, of Blandinsville, Illinois, who was a merchant all his life, and died in 1878. Mrs. METCALFE was born in New Jersey and came to Illinois with her parents when a child. The mother of Mrs. METCALFE is still living and was a HAMPTON, all of the Democratic persuasion, and a cousin of Hon. WADE HAMPTON. Returning to our sketch, JOHN A., his mother was a PARKER, of distant relative of Captain JOHN PARKER, of Revolutionary fame, who lost his life at the battle of Concord. Since Mr. METCALFE has been in practice in this State he has had some very close escapes. In the spring of 1887, as he, in company with Mr. and Mrs. PORTER, were going from Kingsley to Le Mars, on March 1, there being at that time a general thaw, they crossed many streams, and four miles south of Le Mars they attempted to cross Plymouth Creek at what is known as the Sibley Bridge; in the attempt Mr. PORTER lost his team, and would have lost his wife had not himself and our subject made a bold and desperate struggle and swam sixty feet with the lady, thereby saving her life, but the team, a fine span of horses, was lost. Mr. METCALFE is now doing a fairly good business in Cherokee, and we bespeak for him a successful career. His office is at present over the First National Bank, Cherokee, Iowa, where he can be found for anything in the way of law, real estate or loans. ===========================================================================