One House’s Story: The Metzger Family

This New Philadelphia home is difficult to see from the street, almost like its hiding from you behind the trees on its quiet back street. Nonetheless, the home’s history is connected with a family who, at the time, were respected members of the city’s community.

A note about addresses: House numbers and street names often change over time.

Jacob Metzger (1829-1879) was a Lancaster County, Pennsylvania blacksmith when he met and married Susan Wetzell (1829-1896) in 1852. Shortly after their marriage Susan gave birth to a son and, around 1858, the family migrated into Stark County, Ohio. Jacob worked as a blacksmith at first before he was able to acquire a farm outside of Canton, Ohio by 1870. There the Metzgers raised their seven children before Jacob’s death in 1879 from a stroke. The oldest son, John Metzger (1854-1926), took over the farm with his siblings and their mother.

John had married Melissa Kurtz (1860-1939) three years before his father’s death and the couple and their two children lived on the Metzger farm with the rest of the Metzger family. John eventually acquired his own farm in Tuscarawas Township, Stark County where he lived at the time of his mother’s death in 1896. John and Melissa’s family by 1900 included two sons, the youngest was named Ralph Metzger (1882-1924). Ralph was attending school when the 1900 census was taken while his slightly older sibling worked on the farm.

After Ralph completed school he went to work as a stenographer, or typist, with a firm in Pitcairn, Pennsylvania just outside of Pittsburgh. Perhaps he met his future wife and Massillon-native, also a stenographer, there or perhaps knew her even before his move to Pitcairn. Regardless, the couple married in Stark County, Ohio in the fall of 1903 and stayed in Ohio afterwards. Ralph was hired as the general manager of New Philadelphia’s Ohio Stove Pipe & Manufacturing Company and the couple purchased a lot on East North Street and began to build a house. The couple rented a house on North Seventh Street prior to their home being completed and there they welcomed their first and only child in 1908.

The house that the Metzgers built was in the very popular style of Colonial Revival Foursquare commonly built after 1895. The features of that style, and found on the Metzger house, are a two-story square-shaped structure with a hipped roof, full-length front porch, offset front door placement, and wide eaves. The home included some features not typical to the style though, including a bay window on the west side of the home and an asymmetrical hip layout to the roof. While additions have been made over time and the house today is hidden by large trees, the style of the home is unmistakable.

While working for the Ohio Stove Pipe & Manufacturing Company, Ralph Metzger received a patent on a new type of joint for stovepipes. His success at the stove pipe company led to other business endeavors as well including being a cofounder of the Hensel Coal Company and eventually working for the Reeves Manufacturing Company. Ralph was also very active with the Masons and other fraternal organizations in the county. Elizabeth Metzger was active in local politics, had worked for a time as private secretary to future Ohio Governor Frank B. Willis, and worked in the county recorder’s office. Both were well known and respected members of the New Philadelphia community.

Ralph became sick in February 1924, diagnosed with typhoid fever, and died three weeks later from a brain lesion at the age of 41. While the newspaper obituary incorrectly identified his wife (confusing her with the wife of another local Metzger) it did list the many organizations and accomplishments of his brief life. Elizabeth, her son, and his wife continued to live in the house together until he suffered a heart attack in 1941 and died at the age of 33. Elizabeth lived alone in the home on North Avenue NE for 16 more years before her death, while staying with her sister, in the spring of 1957. Ralph and Elizabeth Metzger are buried in East Avenue Cemetery in New Philadelphia.

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© Noel B. Poirier, 2023.