From Richard's bio: The school house in which he went to schools in Kentucky in his boyhood days were built of logs, a crack along the sides of the building of more than ordinary magnitude letting in sufficient light to answer for a window; the fireplace occupied an entire end of the building; the benches were made of poplar logs split open, with the flat side hewd, and the writing dest along the wall of the room was made in the same manner. After coming to Illinois he attended school two or three months at Fayette, in Greene county. He was between seventeen and eighteen when the family moved to Illinois. Two of his brother-in-law had traveled over Illinois in the fall of 1834, and for advantages of location and cheapness of land detrmined on Macoupin county as the best place in which to settle. His father at first bought two hundred acres, and entered one hundred and sixty in section thirty-one in Barr township, and afterward bought additional land. He lived with his father till his marriage which occurred 6 Sep 1838. His wife was Miss Mary J. Buchanan, who was born within five miles of Paris, in Bourbon County, KY, in 1819. Her mother was Charlotte C. Burbage, who was born within 10 miles of Snow Hill, on the eastern shore of Maryland, and came to Bourbon County in 1817. Her grandfather on her father's side was John Buchanan, from Lancaster Co., PA; he married a young woman belonging to a Quaker family in PA and moved to Virginia, and died there; his second wife was a Miss Rector. (I already had her Grandfather in my data base. He first married Margaret Patton. He had two other children as well as the son who married Charlotte Burbage... Margaret Buchanan who married John Charles Holder, b 1744. John Holder's second wife was Frances "Fanny" Callaway. Another dau was Anna Buchanan).
In the spring of 1839 Richard began farming for himself on the place which has since been his home. At that date there were but few settlements in Barr township; his post office address was Carrollton, and he has now lived in that other resident. The house in which he now lives was partly built in 1836 and has been the home of himself and wife from the time they were married. Some additions have since been made to the originial structure. He owns 450 acres of land, all of which lie in section thirty-one in Barr twnshp, with the exception of forty acres in Greene County.
In his politics, like his father before him, was a member of the old Whig party, and his first vote for President was cast for General Harrison in 1840. Although raised in a slave-holding state, he was opposed to the extension of slavery into the territories, and when the Whig party went to pieces, and the republican party was formed, he had no hesitation in joining the latter organization as the party of freedom, intelligence, and good government, and has since been one of the leading republicans of his part of the country. His father gave him the opportunity of going to college, but he preferred the pursuit of agriculture to a professional career. He had no desire to fill public office or occupy political station, but in 1872 and again in 1874 was chosen a member of the Board of Supervisors from Barr twnship. Mrs Metcalf found time to devote considerable attention to fancy work, in which, though self-taught, she excelled and had shown her handiwork at several fairs and exhibitions, where almost invariably it was awarded a premium.
Richard and Sarah Jane Buchanan Metcalf had ten children:
v.viii.i. Josephine A. m Louis M. Peebles of 'Chesterfield
v.viii.ii. Narcissa C. m E. A. Belknap, who owned a dry goods store in Greenfield
v.viii.iii. Livonia E. died as a young child
v.viii.iv. James B. died as a infant
v.viii.v. George B. owned a grocery and provision store in Greenfield
v.viii.vi. John M. died in 1869 at the age of nineteen
v.viii.vii. Eleanora m A. C. Ellis, a farmer in Greene Co
v.viii.viii Richard L. farmer
v.viii.ix. Elbert K. was in partnership with George B. in the grocery and provision business in Greenfield
v.viii.x. Ralph
