SAMUEL E. METCALF - Samuel E. Metcalf, living on section 27, Mechanicsburg township, is the owner of a farm within the boundaries of which are comprised one hundred and fifty-three acres, the productive soil of which yields splendid harvests. He was born in this county, March 11, 1853, and is a son of Adam Metcalf, represented elsewhere in this volume. Under the parental roof he was reared, in the common school was educated and in his father's fields he early became familiar with farm work. He was married, August 5, 1872, at the age of nineteen years, to Miss Mary Ray, a native of Island Grove township, Sangamon county, and a daughter of William Rah, whose birth occurred in Dublin, Ireland. He became an early settler of Illinois. He was married in Jacksonville, this state, and in 1859 took up his abode in Lanesville township, Sangamon county, where his death occurred. His wife survived him for thirty years.

After his marriage Mr. Metcalf engaged in farming on the Ray homestead for a year, and then rented land elsewhere and operated it for several years. He next purchased one hundred and seventy-two and a half acres east of Lanesville, which he cultivated for some time, and also made a number of substantial additions to the buildings and other improvements upon the place. At length he sold that property and in March, 1885, purchased where he now resides-a tract of land of one hundred and fifty-three acres, well improved. He at once began to farm it and has so carried on his work that he now has a very good property, devoted to the production of grain and to the raising and feeding of good grades of stock.

Unto Mr. and Mrs. Metcalf were born the following named: William, a resident farmer of this county, who married Lou Campbell, and has a daughter, Grace, who is the life of their home in Springfield; Howard L., who for four years was a student in Rush Medical College of Chicago, and graduated in 1904; Cora; Eliza Letitia; Albert F.; Thomas, who died in infancy; Virginia Iva; Lena M., who died at the age of seventeen months; and Russel Ray.

Politically Mr. Metcalf has been a lifelong Democrat, supporting the men and measures of the party, yet never desiring political preferment for himself. He is a stockholder in the Assembly Association and belongs to the Odd Fellows Lodge of Mechanicsburg, in which he has filled the chairs and is now a past grand and also one of the trustees of the lodge. He and his wife have spent their entire lives in the county and have witnessed much of its growth and development. He has seen the prairies broke and fenced, and it is within his memory when deer and wolves were seen upon the unsettled prairies and when many kinds of small game were to be found in abundance; but the wild animals have been replaced by the domestic ones of the farmyard, the pioneer home has been supplanted by the commodious residence of the prosperous farmer, and where once grew the hazel brush are now seen productive fields. Mr. Metcalf, as one of the early settlers and as one who has ever manifested a helpful interest in the work of public progress, well deserves mention in the history of Sangamon county.