Margaret (DAVIS) METCALF, born ca. 1842, of Galway, Ireland, daughter of Peter DAVIS and Winifred KANE/KEAN/CAIN of Templetogher, County Galway, Ireland. Her known siblings were: James, Martin Peter, and Samuel. She may have also had a sister named Libby.
According to family lore, Margaret Davis traveled to Lynn, Massachusetts, USA [near Boston] to attend Normal School, [a teacher’s college] when she was a young woman, about 1859 or 1860. [The nearest Normal school to that location would have been Salem Normal School in Salem, Massachusetts]. Her brother, James DAVIS, also born in Ireland, was living in Massachusetts at that time. He married Mary Conaughton/Connerton in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1860 and their first child was born there in Massachusetts.
It is unknown whether Margaret DAVIS returned home to Ireland after completing her schooling. However, about 1863, her maternal aunt, Jane (Kane) Metcalf [Mrs. Edward Metcalf ], living in Shullsburg, Lafayette County, Wisconsin became ill and died. Margaret DAVIS came to Wisconsin to help care for the two Metcalf children, Elizabeth and Peter.
There is a passenger list that includes a “Margt. DAVIS, 25, spinster” and “Sam DAVIS,” age 30, laborer, departing from the port of Galway on the Hibernia on December 21, 1863 enroute to Boston, Massachusetts. It is possible that this was Margaret Davis accompanied by her brother, Samuel.
About 1864, Margaret Davis married Edward METCALF, Sr. , a native of Ballymurtaugh, County Wicklow, Ireland, and they eventually had eleven children together.
Margaret (Davis) Metcalf was a member of St. Matthews Church Catholic church in Shullsburg, Wisconsin while her husband attended the local Congregational church.
Education was very important to the METCALF family and several of the Metcalf children, when grown, attended Universities and became educators. Margaret (DAVIS) METCALF died in March 20, 1915 in Shullsburg, Lafayette County, Wisconsin of pneumonia. She is buried there in Evergreen Cemetery next to her husband.
| Additional Information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Date of Birth | 1st Jan 1842 (circa) | |
| Date of Death | 20th Mar 1915 | |
| Names of Children | Mary Ann, Sabina Priscilla "Illy," Samuel, Sarah Veronica, Edward, Victoria B. "Vic," Maria "Mayme," Henry 'Hank" Margaret "Minnie," William "Bill," and Albert | |
| Place of Death | Shullsburg, Lafayette County, Wisconsin, USA | |
| New Type | Evergreen Cemetery, Lafayette County, Wisconsin | |
