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Paul Lynn Gardner
Admin · November 9 2019 at 7:55 AM
FAMILY CONNECTIONS AT THE AMERICAN SILVER TRUSS CO. and CITIZENS SAFE DEPOSIT AND TRUST CO. - COUDERSPORT, PA
OWEN GOODMAN METZGER (1853-1938) was a man who followed his father’s entrepreneurial spirit. His father, William Metzger, moved to Potter County abt 1830 and built the old Goodman Mills and then, the Metzger Mills in Pike Mills, later known as Galeton. In abt 1874, after leaving home and getting married, Owen moved to Coudersport and embarked in the lumber trade. In 1881 he partnered with James White and formed the lumberyards in Galeton, called White & Metzger. In 1894 Owen was elected as a Democrat to the PA House of Representatives, In 1905 he was appointed Commissioner of Potter County. In about 1911, he served as president of the American Silver Trust Company in North Coudersport and from 1916 to 1933 was the third president of the Citizens Safe Deposit and Trust Co. in Coudersport. The town of Coudersport benefitted from his generosity, such as the Potter County Hospital and the land on which the Coudersport Area Junior/Senior High School sits was donated by Owen G. Metzger.
Two generations later, Owen’s grandsons, eventually filled those two presidents positions. Owen Emil Metzger and his younger brother, Edwin Stanley Metzger, sons of Olive Caroline Mosch and George Stanley Metzger, became presidents of the American Silver Trust Co., and the Citizens Safe Deposit and Trust Co., respectively.
OWEN EMIL METZGER (1910-1981) was made president of the American Silver Trust Co. after his grandfather, retired in 1933. Owen G. had to encourage his grandson to take over for him, even though Owen E. was reluctant to give up his successful landscaping business. (As a side note relating to his landscape business: Owen E. was fond of his uncle Walter F Mosch, who also had a major landscaping business in the New York, NY area. This makes me wonder if Walter had a horticultural influence on Owen.)
EDWIN STANLEY “STUB” METZGER (1927-1989) was president of the Citizens Safe Deposit and Trust Co. from 1972-1984, 56 years after his grandfather was made president. A graduate of Bryant and Stratton Institute, Stub began in 1950 as a teller, became assistant treasurer and assistant trust officer in 1957, was named treasurer in 1963 and named to the board of directors in 1965. In 1972 he was elected president and chairman of the board. He served as director to the bank until his death.
Also, another employee at the American Silver Truss was ARTHUR HERBERT SALLADE (1907-1983) married to Mildred Hertha Mosch (1913-2001). Mildred is the daughter of Emil Christian Mosch and Myrtle Edith Landon.
First cousins, Mildred Sallade, Owen and Edwin Metzger, are the grandchildren of Emil Ernest Mosch and Wilhelmina Hedwig Kortz, great grandchildren of Karl Herman Mosch and Caroline Scheider, Jacob Kortz and Katherine Pflugfelder.
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10You, Larry Herbstritt and 8 others
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Brenda Shank
Mildred and Herb were my landlords for a long time. Herb wasn’t well when I moved into the house behind them. Mildred was just like all the Mosch family; warm, compassionate, talented, with a servants heart.
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Larry Herbstritt
Would Bill Sallade be a cousin of Mildred?
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Paul Lynn Gardner
I'm not familiar with the Sallade family, other than Herb (Arthur Herbie) married into the Mosch family. Bill may very well be either a brother or cousin to Herb.
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Larry Herbstritt
There's a new Owen G in the family, Owen G Metzger's 3rd great grandson, Owen J Gurney!
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Larry Herbstritt
This is a very, very nice post Paul Lynn Gardner. I never saw some of these photos.
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Larry Herbstritt
This is my favorite photo of Owen Emil Metzger; it reminds me of the kid that played in the movie, "Young Indiana Jones"
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Paul Lynn Gardner
Larry Herbstritt messaged me with this information: Hey Paul, I thought I'd suggest a correction on the post about Owen G. His father William Hayes Metzger came to Potter County with his father Francis Larue Metzger. This is from the Victor Beebe book, "The History of Potter County" - “The following reminiscences were given to me by Mr. Owen G. Metzger, of the Citizens Safe Deposit and Trust Company. Mr. Metzger's grandfather, Frank L. Metzger, came from Lewisburg, Pa., and settled in what is now the west end of Galeton boro about 1830, where he built a mill on the main branch of Pine Creek. Many rafts of pine lumber were run down Pine, Creek at this time. About 1840, Mr. Metzger's father, William Metzger, then a young man of 24, went to work in a saw mill owned by Owen Goodman, at the site of the old village of Pike Mills, at the mouth of Johnson Brook, about two miles down the stream from what is now Galeton. Mr. Metzger is not sure who built this mill, but it seems quite likely that it was the same that was built by David Kilbourne in 1824, formerly mentioned. About 1844, William Metzger went into the lumbering business on his own account, and bought a steam sawmill that had recently been built in Hebron township, near to where William Hemphill now resides. The pine on the South Branch of the Oswayo was then mostly uncut, and the only road down the South Branch was the one leading past Mr. Metzger's mill, the roads leading from Greenman Hill directly towards Hebron Center not having been opened at that time. At first Mr. Metzger hauled his lumber to Pine Creek and rafted it down stream. Later, after the opening of the canal from Cuba to Olean and Weston's Mills, he shipped his lumber via this route. The post- office at Pike Mills was removed to the present site of Galeton several years before the building of Gale's tannery.
William Metzger afterwards moved to Coudersport, where he built a sawmill on the site of the old tannery on North East Street, where the A. F. Smith residence now stands. Here in 1880 Owen G. Metzger launched a successful business career by cutting 500,000 feet of hemlock lumber for Frank Hammond, who was just then building the tannery at the west end of Coudersport now owned by the Elk Tanning Company. Mr. Hammond was so much pleased with the promptness and efficiency with which Mr. Metzger delivered the first of the order that he furnished the logs for the balance of it from timber he then owned on the hill east of Mr. Metzger's mill, which he had bought chiefly for the bark. From this beginning, Mr. Metzger rose steadily to the position in business and finance that he now holds.”
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