King-Lewis County WA Archives Biographies.....Metsker, Glen R. 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com June 27, 2010, 9:15 pm

Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages
Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     GLEN R. METSKER.  One of St. Helen's most useful citizens is Glen R. 
Metsker, who has attained recognition as an able and reliable lawyer, a 
successful business man and public-spirited citizen. He is a strong booster 
for St. Helens and has backed his faith with his money, being a large 
stockholder in the St. Helens Wood Product Company, one of the most prosperous 
and important industries of this locality. This concern was incorporated in 
June, 1924, with a capital stock of twenty-five thousand dollars, which, in 
1927, was increased to fifty thousand dollars. Its officers are, H. F. 
McCormick, president; Glen R. Metsker, vice president; Mrs. N. B. McCormick, 
secretary and treasurer; and A. H. Bramer, manager. The company makes all 
kinds of broom and mop handles from native Douglas fir, of which only the 
finest selected timber is used. The main factory building is two hundred by 
fifty feet in size, with a storage warehouse, sixty by one hundred and fifty 
feet. The plant is modern and admirably equipped for its purpose, and gives 
steady employment to forty-five persons. Electric power operates the four 
lathing machines, on which the handles are turned and checked, after which 
they are put through the dryer. When in proper condition they are sandpapered 
and graded, after which they go to the paint rooms. About a third of the 
output is finished in lacquer, a part of the remainder goes on the market in 
the native wood and the rest are finished in enamel in many beautiful colors. 
The finished product is tied in bundles of one hundred and wrapped in several 
thicknesses of new burlap, after which it is ready for shipment. The handles 
are shipped to practically all parts of the western hemisphere and the high 
quality of these handles has created such a demand for them that the company 
has orders ahead equal to a full year's production of the factory. In the 
month of March, 1928, the company shipped ten carloads, of seventy thousand 
handles each, besides those disposed of to the local trade.

     Glen R. Metsker was born in Butler county, Kansas, and is a son of Lewis 
A. and Ada May (Schmeltzer) Metsker, the former born in Indiana and the latter 
in Iowa. In the maternal line Mr. Metsker is descended from sterling old Dutch 
stock, his great-grandfather, John Schmeltzer, having come from Holland to 
this country in 1789, settling in Pennsylvania. His paternal grandfather, 
Christian F. Metsker, was the first white child born in his native county, in 
Ohio, while his father's mother, whose family name was Wolfe, was also born in 
Ohio in a very early day. His maternal grandmother, Mary (Kellow) Brockway, 
was born in Tennessee, of Huguenot extraction and was a member of one of the 
oldest families of the south.

     Lewis A. Metsker accompanied his parents on their migration from Indiana 
to Kansas in the early '70s when they took up a homestead on the frontier of 
that state. There he was reared and educated and engaged in teaching school. 
He also clerked in a drug store. Later he engaged in farming, which he 
followed until 1884, when he sold out and came to Oregon, locating first on a 
farm near Newberg. There he constructed the first building for Pacific 
College, where a few years later Herbert Hoover went to school. Later he spent 
a few years in Portland, after which he bought a farm on Chehalem mountain, in 
Yamhill county, Oregon, where he engaged in stock raising and also had a large 
orchard. In 1891 he disposed of his interests there and went to Winlock, Lewis 
county, Washington, where he engaged in the lumber business, running a sawmill 
for several years. In 1901 he sold out there and went to Lake Kapowsin, Pierce 
county, Washington, there building the first sawmill, which he ran 
successfully for a few years and then sold. He next moved to Sedro Wooley, 
Skagit county, Washington, where he engaged in the lumber business, building a 
sawmill and shinglemill, both of which he operated until 1910, when he sold 
out and retired from active business pursuits. He and his wife are now 
residing in Tacoma, Washington. They became the parents of three children: 
Charles F., who was born in Butler county, Kansas, and now lives in Tacoma, is 
known all over the Northwest as "the map man," being a very fine draftsman. 
His maps are standard and are used by the leading firms throughout this 
section of the Country. Glen R. is the next of the family; Dorothy, who was 
born in Winlock, Washington, graduated with honors from the Stadium high 
school in Tacoma and graduated from the Oregon Agricultural College, at 
Corvallis, being one of the four honor students in her class. She is a member 
of the Phi Beta Kappa sorority and is now teaching school at West Linn, Oregon 
City.

     Glen R. Metsker received his early education in the public and high 
schools at Winlock, Washington, after which he attended Portland University, 
Bellingham State Normal School, George Washington University and the law 
school of the University of Washington, from which he was graduated with the 
degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1908. During his college years he took an active 
part in athletics and at George Washington University played left end on the 
varsity football team with such success that he was selected by Walter Camp 
and the post-season conference for this position on the mythical all-South 
Atlantic football team of the year. In college he became a member of the Sigma 
Nu fraternity and the Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity.

     Since leaving college Mr. Metsker has been admitted to practice law in 
all the courts of the states of California, Oregon and Washington, the United 
States district courts and the supreme court of the United States. On leaving 
college he entered the employ of the United States government, being engaged 
in the land department for three and a half years. A part of this time he 
spent in the United States general land office in Washington, D. C., and the 
remainder in the field service in Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Washington, 
Oregon, California, and Alaska, where for one year he was in charge of the 
public lands of that territory. On leaving the government service, he was 
engaged in the practice of law in Seattle, Washington, for two years, and on 
August 20, 1913, came to St. Helens, where he has been engaged in the practice 
of his profession to the present time. For four years, 1917 to 1921, he served 
as district attorney, rendering able and appreciated service. Well grounded in 
the basic principles of jurisprudence, a constant student of his profession, 
determined and resourceful as a trial lawyer and sound and safe as an office 
counselor, he has met with well merited success.

     In 1911 Mr. Metsker was united in marriage to Miss Katharyn Shannon, who 
was born in Pennsylvania and is a daughter of James T. and Elizabeth Shannon, 
the former now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Metsker are the parents of two children, 
Katharyn, born November 26, 1913, and now attending St. Mary's Academy in 
Portland, and Glen R., Jr., born March 4, 1918, who is in grammar school, 
where he is emulating his father's example and is taking a great interest in 
athletic sports. Mr. Metsker is a member of St. Helens Lodge, No. 32, A. F. & 
A. M.; Oregon Consistory, No. 1, A. A. S. R.; Al Kader Temple, A. A. O. N. M. 
S.; St. Helens Lodge, No. 117, I. O. O. F.; Golden Rule Encampment, No. 28, I. 
O. O. F., at Portland; the St. Helens Kiwanis Club, of which he is president; 
the St. Helens Chamber of Commerce and the Columbia River Shrine Club, and is 
an ex-member of the Arctic Club of Seattle and the Arctic Brotherhood, of 
Fairbanks, Alaska. During the World war Mr. Metsker served as appeal agent, 
chairman of the legal advisory board and chairman of the Four-Minute men of 
Columbia county. He is true and loyal in every relation of life, is a man of 
substantial character and wherever known commands the uniform respect and 
esteem of his fellow citizens.

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