BIO:  John A. METZGER, York County, PA

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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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Part II, Biographical Sketches, Hanover Borough and Penn Township, Pg 67

REV. JOHN A. METZGER, A. M., resident pastor of West Manheim charge (composed of 
St. Bartholomew’s, St. David’s and St. Paul’s Churches) was born at Liverpool 
(now Manchester Township), York County, April 5, 1855.  His parents were 
Zachariah and Maria (Feiser) Metzger, of York and Adams Counties, and of German 
and Polish descent respectively.  Rev. John A. is the youngest of three children 
(one son and two daughters, one of the later having died), and until his 
fifteenth year remained on his father’s farm, attending the public schools.  
After that he attended the Millersville normal schools.  When about nineteen 
years of age he entered the York Academy to prepare himself for the Pennsylvania 
College at Gettysburg, which he entered at twenty-one years of age with a view 
of studying for the ministry.  He graduated in 1880, and then entered the 
Theological Seminary, where he remained until 1883.  He came to Hanover in July, 
1883, to take charge of the congregations.  Three months previous to this he had 
already accepted the call, and had been licensed to preach in 1882, but in 
September, 1883, he was ordained as a regular minister of the gospel at 
Carlisle, Penn.  September 25, 1883, he was married at Gettysburg, Penn., to 
March C. Culp, of Gettysburg, of German descent, and like her husband a 
Lutheran.  Rev. Metzger devotes his whole time and attention to the ministry.  
Having to attend three congregations, and to preach in German and English, his 
duties are necessarily many and burdensome, yet with the spirit of a true 
Christian, he attends to all his duties with a cheerful spirit.