EZRA VAN METRE

Ezra Van Metre is president of the American-Canadian Land Company and through the careful systematizing of his business and the selection of a most able corps of assistants he has made the company of which he is the chief executive head one of the most capable in controlling and developing real-estate interests in the western country. Iowa numbers him among her native sons, his birth having occurred in Benton County on the 27th of January, 1859. His parents were Henry C. and Rhoda D. (Winterstein) Van Metre, the latter a representative of one of the old families of Linn County. The father, a life-long farmer, now living in Tipton, Iowa, settled in this part of the country in 1854.

Fairly liberal educational advantages were afforded Ezra Van Metre who supplemented his early public school training by study in the State University of Iowa from which he was graduated as a law student in 1883. He afterward practiced successfully for some time in Nebraska but becoming interested in real estate, he gradually concentrated his efforts more and more largely upon the handling and selling of property. Returning to Iowa he opened a real-estate office at Tipton where he remained for fourteen years. During that period he began handling Canadian lands and early in 1910 he opened his present office under the name of The American-Canadian Land Company, of which he is president. This company operates largely in Canada, in the Pan-Handle of Texas, and in other points in the southwest. They have well-organized excursions on which they take parties of prospective customers to their property. These trips are conducted every two weeks and Mr. Van Metre has associated with him a most able corps of agents and assistants, men whose courtesy always finds favor with the land seekers while their selling ability often promotes advantageous transfers of property. Mr. Van Metre is thoroughly informed concerning the value of the realty which he handles and the possibilities for development in the various sections of the country where his land is located and his labors are the only proving a source of individual success but also a factor in the up building the districts in which the business is carried on. Branch agencies are conducted at Amarillo, Texas, and Outlook, Saskatchewan, Canada. The other officers of the company are Samuel Sherman Wright, who is secretary and surer, and Jacob Willard Wright, manager. Both of those gentlemen are of Nashua, Iowa.

On the 23d of December, 1885, Mr. Van Metre was married to Miss Emma Collins, a daughter of E. G. Collins, a grain dealer of Kankakee, Illinois. They now have three sons: Edward M., twenty-three years of age, who is in the employ of the American-Canadian Land Company; Donald E.; and Gerald C.

Mr. Van Metre is a chapter Mason and also belongs to the Commercial Club. His attention, however, is chiefly given to his real-estate interests and he is preeminently a businessman, alert, determined and resourceful. He never falters in the accomplishment of any task to which he sets himself if the end can be gained by honorable methods. The American-Canadian Land Company has reached a prominent position in real-estate circles and its business is conducted upon most methodical and systematic lines.

Copied from: "History of Linn County" pages 271 - 272.

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