Minerd.com Biography of Elizabeth (May) Tipton Metzger and Husbands of Bedford County, PA

Elizabeth (May) Tipton Metzger
(1829-1883)

Elizabeth (May) Tipton Metzger was born on Aug. 25, 1829 in Somerset County, or in Schellsburg, Bedford County, PA, the daughter of Leonard and Maria "Catherine" (Younkin) May.

On Oct. 1, 1848, she was joined in holy wedlock with Noah Tipton (1824?-1865), son of Thomas and Catherine (Burkett) Tipton of Buffalo Mills, Bedford County. Joseph Dull officiated at the ceremony held in Bedford County.

Noah was the namesake of his ancestor Noah Tipton, who had come to America from England in 1760, arriving in Baltimore, MD. He is not to be confused with Thomas "Noah" Tipton, also of Allegheny Township, Somerset County, who was a Civil War deserter.

The couple produced 10 children -- the known names were John W. Tipton, James J. Tipton, Samuel S. Tipton, Charles Tipton, George Tipton, Elizabeth Tipton, Leonard Tipton, Mary "Ellen" May, Emma Leach and Lydia Beals.

Circa 1862, when their son Leonard was born, they made their home in Bedford County, PA.

During the Civil War, Noah was drafted into the Union Army. On Sept. 26, 1864, he reported to his unit, the 61st Pennsylvania Infantry, Company G. He and the 61st Pennsylvania sreved in several campaigns in Virginia, and at one point he contracted malaria while in the southern part of the state. He mustered out of the army of June 20, 1865.

Within six months of arriving home, and still debilitated from the effects of malaria, Noah died at home in 1865. Burial was on the Grentz farm in Fairhope Township, Bedford County. Today, the site is owned by the Pittsburgh Zoo as a wildlife preserve for breeding elephants.

Elizabeth survived her husband by many years. In 1870, her 13-year-old son George lived with her aged parents in Juniata Township, Bedford County.

Elizabeth later wedded Daniel Metzger ( ? - ? ). They were the parents of Elizabeth S. Sheirer.

On July 14, 1883, Elizabeth passed away in Bedford County at the age of 53. She is said to be buried in Hyndman.

Noah is named in a roster of Civil War soldiers in the 1911 book, History, Sixty-First Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, authored by Abraham Titus Brewer.

The Tiptons are spelled out by name and birth/death dates on page 60 of online research authored by Dr. Mary Lou Cook, Descendants of Edward Tipton, published at http://collectornuts.com.

In about 1869, when he would have been age 21, he was joined in wedlock with Elizabeth Geine (Jan. 11, 1842-1926), daughter of John and Sarah (Bowman) Geine, the father an immigrant from Germany.

The couple produced these offpspring -- Sarah Heinbaugh, Alice Mary Pyle, Annie Tipton, Harvey Harrison Tipton, Milton Henry Tipton and William Harrison Tipton.

Over the years, they lived in or near Salisbury, Elk Lick Township, where John initially earned a living as a farm laborer and but spent most of his working life as a coal miner.

Burdened with organic heart disease, he died in Elk Lick Township, at the age of 64, on March 3, 1913. Interment was in the International Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery in Salisbury. William Tipton of Meyersdale signed the official Pennsylvania certificate of death.

Elizabeth outlived him by a baker's dozen years. In late December 1925, she was stricken with a cerebral hemorrhage which physician Peter L. Swank wrote was "causing complete paralysis of right arm and both legs and partial paralysis of the throat and tongue." After suffering for 20 days, and just four days after her 84th birthday, she passed into the great beyond on Jan. 15, 1926. Charles Reckner of Elk Lick was the informant for the death certificate.

Son Samuel S. Tipton (1853- ? ) was born in about 1853. He was but a boy when his father died.

At about the age of 12 or 13, he went to live with his uncle and aunt, James and Mary Ann "Annie" (May) Kellerman, at their home two miles north of Buffalo Mills, Bedford County.

When the uncle and aunt moved to Maryland, Samuel stayed behind. Circa 1872, he earned a living in Bedford County.

Circa 1908, when interviewed by government investigators in the Civil War pension case of his uncle's second wife, Caroline (Riehl) Kellerman, he was living near Siebert, Allegany County, MD.

He was united in matrimony with Elizabeth Burkett (1868-1968), daughter of Adam and Christina (Emerick) Burkett.

These children were born -- Melvin Kennell, Minnie Kennell, Sidna Troutman and Beulah Shaffer.

Charles was deceased by 1939, and possibly before 1906 as no death certificate has been located.

Elizabeth passed away at the age of 100, in Memorial Hospital in Cumberland, Allegany County, MD in June 1968. Her remains were placed into eternal repose in Hillcrest Burial Park. An obituary in the Cumberland News reported that she was survived by 11 grandchildren, 34 great-grandchildren and 19 great-great grandchildren.

At the age of 13, in 1870, he lived with his grandfather and grandmother May in Juniata Township, Bedford County.

His second spouse was Margaret G. "Nettie" Leach (Feb. 1861- ? ), a native of Maryland. Evidence hints that they were married in about 1879 in Bedford County.

They produced 10 known children -- John W. Tipton, Charles Walter tipton, Joseph Elsworth Tipton, George Washington Tipton, Samuel Oscar Tipton, Harry D. Tipton, Annie Myrtle Thrasher, Carrie Tipton, Nettie Tipton and Perry T. Tipton.

Research clues suggest that he may have died in West Virginia, but no death record has been found in a search of the website of the Department of West Virginia Arts, Culture and History.

Did she later wed Charles Brant ( ? - ? )? Their home in the mid-1930s was in Boswell, Somerset County.

He grew up in Elk Lick Township and Salisbury, Somerset County. Reported the Meyersdale Republican, "he was well liked and esteemed as an honest and industrious young man."

He married Alice McCloskey ( ? - ? ), a daughter of Jacob McCloskey. Her father operated a small farm and fulling mill on Tubmill Run, where in 1936 a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp was located during the Great Depression. They made their home in Lincoln Township, Somerset County.

They produced six children -- Nancy Brant, Mrs. John Hay, Mrs. Edward Fritz, Samuel Irvin Tipton and Jacob Tipton.

Stricken with stomach cancer at the age of 74, Leonard died at home on Oct. 1, 1936. A distant cousin, Rev. William Mullen Minerd, preached the funeral sermon in Grace United Evangelical Church in Somerset, followed by burial in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Salisbury. An obituary in the Republican noted that his survivors included 15 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Daughter Nancy M. Tipton (1887- ? ) was born in about 1887. On April 11, 1909, at the age 22, she was joined in holy wedlock with 23-year-old farmer Charles Herman Brant ( ? - ? ), son of John Wesley and Anna "Annie" (Wahl) Brant of Brothersvalley Township, Somerset County. The ceremony was held in Frintz Lutheran Church in Garrett, Somerset County, by the hand of Rev. W.H.B. Carney. They produced children, among them Roy Evans Brant, Sr., Florence Irene Rentzel, Edna Llewellyn and James Russell Brant plus one who died in infancy.

Son Samuel Irvin Tipton (1885-1908) was born on July 22, 1885. He never married. As a young man, he became a surveyor. But tragically, during a cholera outbreak in 1908, he contracted typhoid fever and died on March 5, 1908. His brother Jacob signed the death certificate. Burial was in Salisbury.

Son Jacob H. Tipton (1883-1936) was born on July 1, 1883. He wedded Mary Wilson ( ? - ? ). He served as a coal mine superintendent at Hooversville, Somerset County. While in an automobile driven by his pastor on the fateful day of Oct. 26, 1936, he was badly injured when the vehicle slammed into a train stopped at the Hooversville crossing. He was rushed to Somerset Community Hospital, where doctors found a broken neck and fracture at the base of the skull. He died that evening. Hattie Hay provided vital information for the death certificate.

Daughter Emma Louise Tipton (1866-1943) was born on May 2, 1866 in Buffalo Mills, Bedford County.

In about 1887, she was wedded to Melville Hart Leach (Jan. 21, 1860-1922), said to have been a native of Torrington, CT.

Their offspring were Lizzie H. Leach, Nettie M. Leach, Harry T. Leach, Hattie A. Leach, Emma Julia Davies (or "Davis") and George Leach.

Sadly, Melville died on Sept. 25, 1922. One source places the site of his passing in Morgantown, Monongalia County, WV, but this is not confirmed.

The widowed Emma resided in Nemacolin, Greene County, PA circa 1936. By 1943, she was in the Westover neighborhood of Morgantown at 143 Holland Avenue.

Burdened with lesions on her heart valve, Emma died in the Sabraton outskirts of Morgantown, Monongalia County, WV on July 18, 1943, with interment in Maplewood Cemetery in Kingwood, Preston County, WV. She is said to have been the grandmother of Col. Thomas Melville Davis.

Daughter Mary "Ellen" Tipton (1863-1937) was born on May 18, 1863 in Mann's Choice, Bedford County.

She suffered from hardening of the arteries and chronic kidney and heart disease. She suffered a stroke in late January 1937 and only lingered a few days before entering eternity at the age of 77, in Boswell, on Feb. 1, 1937. Her remains were lowered into repose in Mt. Olive Cemetery in Mann's Choice.

Daughter Rebecca May (1888-1955) was born on Nov. 26, 1888. In about 1904, she married Phillip James Gettings (Jan. 17, 1882-1966), a native of Leisenring, Fayette County, PA. They made a home in Fairmont, Marion County, WV. Rebecca died in Fairmont on Sept. 16, 1955. Phillip survived her by 11 years and succumbed on April 22, 1966.

They were the parents of Oscar Beal, Laura E. Beal, Sara Elizabeth Wahl, Cora Ellen Baer and Harriet Elmira Grew.

Lydia was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in or about March 1914. She endured for four years but could not rally. Sadly, at the age of 52, she succumbed on Jan. 2, 1918. Burial was in St. Paul Cemetery.

She was united in matrimony with George Washington "Wash" Shirey, also spelled "Sheirer" (July 24, 1862-1933). He was the son of George and Sarah (Trautman) Shirey of Bedford County. Their wedding nuptials were held at the home of her uncle Marcus May the day after Christmas 1886 by the hand of justice of the peace John W. Housel.

The Shireys relocated to Ohio and resided in Canton, Stark County. Their address in the early 1930s was on Warner Road Extension.

On July 31, 1933, suffering from acute bronchitis and chronic heart disease, George died in Canton one week after his 71st birthday. Burial was in Forest Hill Cemetery.

Elizabeth survived her husband by more than four decades. She joined him in eternity at the age of about 96 in 1967. [Find-a-Grave]

Research for this page graciously shared by John Wesley Brant, Dr. Mary Lou Cook, the late Olive (Rowan) Duff and the late Donna (Younkin) Logan.