[749] club, ex-president of the Freundschaftsbund, a member of the German artillery, Camp Sumter, U. C. V., and a director of the Merchant's exchange. In Masonry he has held many honorable positions including that of eminent commander of the South Carolina commandery, No. 1, Knights Templar.
Captain William F. Metts, of Greenville
Captain William F. Metts, of Greenville, of the State service during the Confederate era, was born in Newberry county, February 11, 1821, the son of George Metts and his wife, Lucy Strother, a daughter of William Strother, a native of Virginia. Mr. Metts is a grandson of Henry Metts, or, as the name was originally spelled, Meetze, a native of Germany, who became one of the first settlers of Dutch Fork, Newberry county. The family removed to Laurens county when William F. was thirteen years old, and the latter resided there forty-six years, mainly engaged in agriculture, a pursuit in which he has met with notable success and happiness. At the time of the crisis of 1860-61 he had a comfortable home, with a wife and nine children; but impelled by patriotic devotion to his State, he enlisted, previous to the capture of Fort Sumter, in a company organized at Newberry by Capt. James D. Nance, who subsequently was promoted to colonel and was killed in battle. Private Metts enlisted for one year in the State service, and after the fall of Sumter went with his company to Columbia. But at the reorganization for Confederate States service the pressure of younger men for place in the ranks led to his withdrawal, he being the oldest man in the company. In the spring of 1862 he again volunteered under a call for the defense of Charleston, and served one year as first lieutenant of Captain Sloan's company. Again, near the close of the war, when men over military age were called out, he was elected captain of a company, receiving all the votes but one. Since 1886 Captain Metts has been a resident of Greenville, and was postmaster from 1894 to 1898. By his marriage in 1844 to Mary Williams, who died in 1897, he had twelve children, all of whom were reared to maturity. His second son, William D. Metts, now a prominent official of Greenville county, was born in Laurens county, in 1863. In 1893 he was elected clerk of Greenville county, and was re-elected in 1896, and is making a fine record as a capable and courteous officer.
