Obituaries

Lydia Elizabeth Metzger
Jan. 18, 1901-April 19, 1963

Niles Daily Star, Friday, April 19, 1963, page 2, col. 1, microfilm Niles District Library

Mrs. Lydia Elizabeth Metzger, 82, of 122 N. 8th St., died at 12:50 a.m., today in her home. She had been ill three years.

Mrs. Metzger was born Jan. 18, 1901 in Richmond, Ind. She came to Niles from that city 44 years ago.

Survivors include her husband, Lawrence; two daughters, Mrs. Robert Petro, Jonesboro, Ark, and Miss Elizabeth Ann Metzger at home; a son, William Pollock, Niles; a sister, Mrs. Harold Carroll, Greenville, SC.; a brother, Frank Metzger, Richmond, and nine grandchildren.

Funeral services will be conducted at 2 p.m. Monday in the Pifer Funeral Home. The Rev. W. G. Rowe, pastor of the Apostolic Temple, South Bend, will officiate. Burial will be in Silverbrook Cemetery.

Friends will be received at the funeral home beginning Saturday.

Lawrence E. Metzger
Oct. 29, 1893-Sept. 9, 1965

Lawrence E. Metzger, 71, 122 N. 8th St., died at 6:15 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 9, 1965 in Berrien General Hospital, Berrien center. He had been ill several months.Mr. Metzger was born here Oct. 29, 1893, and lived his life time in the community. His wife, Lydia, died in 1963.

Survivors include a daughter, Elizabeth Metzger, Mishawaka; a stepdaughter, Mrs. Robert Petro, and a stepson, William Pollock, both of Niles three sisters, Mrs. Marie Pfeil and Florence Metzger, both of Niles and Mrs. Elmer Clark, Buchanan and 10 grandchildren.

Funeral services will be conducted at 3:30 p.m. Saturday in the Pifer funeral Home. The Rev. W.G. Rowe, pastor of the Apostolic Temple., South Bend, will officiate. Burial will be in Silverbrook Cemetery.Friends will be received at the funeral home After 7 p.m. today. 

Submitted by family member; publication details unknown

William H. Messenger
Feb. 4, 1900-April 28, 1952

Niles Daily Star, Monday, April 28, 1952, page 2, col. 5, microfilm Niles District Library

William Hall Messenger, of rural route four, was found dead near the barn on the Messenger farm at about 5 a.m. Sunday, by his brother, Arthur.  Messenger was pronounced dead as the result of self inflicted shot gun wound by coroner Louis Kerlikowske, of St. Joseph. Arthur told state troopers he knew of no reason why his brother should have ended his life as he had been in good spirits.

Surviving are his mother, Mrs. Eva Messenger of Niles; his widow, Julia; three sisters, Mrs. Carrie Sweisberger of South Bend, Mrs. William Champion, of Great Lakes, Ill, and Mrs. Eva H. Messenger of Niles; and two brothers, Arthur of Veteran’s Administration, Fort Custer, Battle Creek, and Charles Simmons Messenger of Niles.

Messenger was born on Feb. 4, 1900 in Niles, and had lived her all his life. He was a veteran of World War I.

Friends may call at the Pifer funeral home, where services will be conducted at 2 p.m. Wednesday by the Rev. T. M. Greenhoe, Presbyterian pastor. Burial will be in Silverbrook Cemetery.

(NB: Gravemarker bears name William H. Messinger, Feb. 5, 1900-April 27, 1952)

Schuyler Messenger SuicideOnly cause is that he suffered from Melancholy Lifelong resident Leave a widow and eight childrenMember of Royal Areanum. Resided in House of his birth.Schuyler Colfax Messenger is a suicide. The deed was deliberate and not the slightest inkling of the affair was suspected by any member of the family; it seemed the furthest from anyone’s mind that such a rash act would be perpetrated.Mr. Messenger retired at the usual early hour last night and arose at 6 o’clock this morning. Going to the barn, evidently to do chores, as was his custom, but instead he placed a small rope about his neck and hung himself in the buggy shed.His sons went to another part of the barn an hour later and performed some duties about the place, then returned for breakfast. After eating they repaired to the barn again, wondering where their father could be, only to find his dead body suspended from the joist in the buggy shed. They cut him down, this at 8:40 o’clock (Dec. 13, 1913)/ The family and neighbors were notified also Dr. Ullery. Melancholy is given as the real motive of the rash act. The Messenger home is four miles southwest of Niles, in Bertrand Township, and there the deceases was born Aug. 16, 1861. The parents were Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Messenger, old time residents of Niles and vicinity. The father having been born in Pennsylvania, coming her when a young man. He died about three years ago.Mr. Messenger was a member of the royal Arcanum of Niles.Besides the widow, eight children remain as follows, Anna Mary, Carrie Louise, Samuel Arthur, Charles Simmons, LaRue Hamilton, William Hall, Genevieve Elizabeth and Eva Helen, all at home.Mrs. Messenger was a thrifty farmer, a good citizen, a man who won the love and respect of all his associates, and above r all, the members of his family.His home life was beautiful, a man not addicted to politics, satisfied with the companionship of his wife, children a few close friends.The neighbors, who have lived beside him for years, are unanimous in their praise of him, saying that he will be greatly missed for the kindnesses and consideration which he always showed. The praise from ones neighbors and the members of the family is the greatest tribute which can be paid to any man. Funeral home house, Tuesday afternoon at 1 o’clock, services to be conducted by Rev. Yonker, Interment at Silverbrook Cemetery.

Samuel Messenger
Dec. 10, 1821-Oct. 28, 1908

 A tribute to the memory of Samuel Messenger.

On December tenth, eighteen twenty-one. Samuel Messenger was born in Easton, Pennsylvania. He died at his home in Niles, Michigan on the morning of October twenty-eighth, nineteen hundred and eight, having rounded out nearly eighty-seven years of life. He was born of German parentage and of the German ancestry he never ceased to be proud. He was one of eight children, five sons and three daughters. When he was a year and half old his fathers family moved near Ithaca, NY, in what was then and long afterwards know as the “Mack settlement.” Here he received a common school education which was supplemented by a somewhat extended course in a select school: in Lewistor. His father died when Samuel was a lad of ten, leaving the care of the family on his oldest brother, Charles. As the brothers, moved into what was then considered the far west,: Michigan, Ohio and Indiana. In 1845 the mother sold the home farm and with Samuel, her youngest son, came to Michigan. They traveled by way of Lake Erie and various stagecoach routes, stopping for dinner the old hotel in Bertrand, a hotel still standing and a town then considered of much more promise than Niles. Soon the farm on Portage Prairie was purchased where Mr. Messenger, continued to reside for many years, the same now owned by his son, Schuyler C. Messenger.

Samuel Messenger was married in 1850 to Miss Ann Mary Wood, four children were born to them. Two of whom, Hetty and Banks, died in infancy, Genevieve Messenger Hammond who died at Arlington, Neb., and Schuyler C. who alone survives. Mrs. Messenger died in 1874.  In 1886 he was married to Mrs. Lavinia Wilitts Kellogg, who with his son, Schuyler, nine grandchildren and a great-grandchild, mourns his loss.

Mr. Messenger held many offices of public trust in his own community, all of which he filled faithfully and acceptably. He was one promoters of the Farmers’ United Fire Insurance co. of Berrien County, and was one of its directors for many years. His character was one of sterling worth, of utmost integrity of loyalty to friends of faithfulness to duty. As one of his lifelong neighbors said, “He was as true a man as ever walked.: in politics he was of the old line of Whigs and, as was natural always stood as a staunch republican. In his church affiliations he was a Presbyterian having attended the First Presbyterian Church of Niles, Mich., for over sixty years, and for more than thirty years of that time acted as one of it trustees. His church life as his civic and family life was remarkable for its trueness, and ostentationally its generosity. The last of his father’s family, he lies in our beautiful Silverbrook cemetery, not alone, but surrounded by many of his own loved ones., his mother, wife, two children, three brothers and a sister resting not many feet away. Nay, his body lies in Silverbrook, he has gone to one of the Many mansions, a man sincerely mourned, by all who knew him. His funeral was held at the home on south fourth Street on Saturday, October 21, attended by Rev. W.R. Yonker, pastor of the Presbyterian church.

 Submitted by family member; publication details unknown

(NB: Gravemarker bears name Samuel Messinger, 1821-1908)

Lavina Messenger
1844-March 26, 1923

 Funeral services for Mrs. Samuel Messenger were conducted this afternoon at the Presbyterian Church by Rev. H. T. Scherr. Mrs. Albert Vetter and Mrs. Rex Leach sang “Abide With me”: and “Lead Kindly Light”. Burial took place in Silver Brook Cemetery.

Mrs. Lavina Messenger was born in Cambria, Hillsdale County, and died in Niles on March 26, 1923. She was a daughter of Moses and Angelino Willitts. She was of Quaker parentage on her father’s side. Her great-grandfather, Mr. Bunn, served in the revolutionary War. She spent her early life in Hillsdale County, attending the public schools and Hillsdale College. After graduating from Hillsdale College she taught for several years. She came to Niles about 40 years ago and had since resided here. She had taken an active part in church and club work, and civic enterprises. She was one of the four Niles women who were on the committee to secure the site for the Niles public library building. The deceased is survived by three sisters and a brother, who are Miss Alice Willits of Niles, Miss Sarah Willitts of Shelby, Mich., and Mrs. Bryon L. Reed of Jersey City and Henry Willitts of Hillsdale. 

Submitted by family member; publication details unknown