WI WI - Max Metcalf, 33, Princeton, 7 Oct 1958

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cenazoic said:
Last bits today.

Correction; the couple that bought the farm with the Metcalfs had the name Kohnke.

Attached more readable copy of auction notice details.

Another clipping with a good bit more details on the farm operations and Metcalf family.
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The Portage Daily Register 02 Jun 1960, Thu ·Page 9 states "Sunday guests at the Ross Kohnke home were her mother and sisters, Mrs. Max Rosek and Jolene and Mrs. Kathleen Metcalf and children of Princeton and Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Turner of Wausau." Source: Newspapers.com​

The above article excerpt shows that the Metcalf family and the Ross Kohnke family knew each other and were close friends or relation.

Another article in the Portage Daily Register 05 Aug 1965, Thu ·Page 6 states "Pat Metcalf of Princeton spent a few days last week with Mr. and Mrs. Ross Kohnke and family." Pat Metcalf was one of Max Metcalf's children. Source: Newspapers.com

"Also just before Max's disappearance he had taken in a whole barn load of hay for the winter. The day after Max disappeared it was discovered that nearly all of the hay had been stolen, an entire barn's worth, only the front row was still there to make the barn look like it was full. Again, there was no follow up to this theft." Post #5 above.

The auction ad also states that for sale were 60 ton baled hay, 225 bales of hay and 200 bales of straw. That's a lot of hay for it having all been stolen except for one row.

The Oshkosh Northwestern 06 Feb 1959, Fri ·Page 11 at Newspapers.com states "Charge Former Metcalf Employee with Petty Theft. Clarence Johnson, 23, Baraboo, a former employee of Max Metcalf...Johnson was arrested by the sheriff's department...He is accused of taking small equipment from the Metcalf farm."​

November 1st, 1960 a fire destroyed the Metcalf farm and owned by Dr. R. F. Minken, Milwaukee. It was bought by Robert Williams about 1960 and was then known as the Lazy L Riding Ranch. The Oshkosh Northwestern 14 May 1976, Fri Page 24 shows it was still owned by Williams in 1976.

Metcalf_auction.jpg
Max Edward Metcalf, born 3 Aug 1925, was a Korean War vet and a staff sergeant in the USAF and stationed in MO until Nov 1954.
 
Quoththeraven said:

The Portage Daily Register 02 Jun 1960, Thu ·Page 9 states "Sunday guests at the Ross Kohnke home were her mother and sisters, Mrs. Max Rosek and Jolene and Mrs. Kathleen Metcalf and children of Princeton and Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Turner of Wausau." Source: Newspapers.com​

The above article excerpt shows that the Metcalf family and the Ross Kohnke family knew each other and were close friends or relation.

Another article in the Portage Daily Register 05 Aug 1965, Thu ·Page 6 states "Pat Metcalf of Princeton spent a few days last week with Mr. and Mrs. Ross Kohnke and family." Pat Metcalf was one of Max Metcalf's children. Source: Newspapers.com

"Also just before Max's disappearance he had taken in a whole barn load of hay for the winter. The day after Max disappeared it was discovered that nearly all of the hay had been stolen, an entire barn's worth, only the front row was still there to make the barn look like it was full. Again, there was no follow up to this theft." Post #5 above.

The auction ad also states that for sale were 60 ton baled hay, 225 bales of hay and 200 bales of straw. That's a lot of hay for it having all been stolen except for one row.

The Oshkosh Northwestern 06 Feb 1959, Fri ·Page 11 at Newspapers.com states "Charge Former Metcalf Employee with Petty Theft. Clarence Johnson, 23, Baraboo, a former employee of Max Metcalf...Johnson was arrested by the sheriff's department...He is accused of taking small equipment from the Metcalf farm."​

November 1st, 1960 a fire destroyed the Metcalf farm and owned by Dr. R. F. Minken, Milwaukee. It was bought by Robert Williams about 1960 and was then known as the Lazy L Riding Ranch. The Oshkosh Northwestern 14 May 1976, Fri Page 24 shows it was still owned by Williams in 1976.

View attachment 482645
Max Edward Metcalf, born 3 Aug 1925, was a Korean War vet and a staff sergeant in the USAF and stationed in MO until Nov 1954.
Click to expand...
Is this auction snippet the same year as his disappearance?
 
Keiri said:
Is this auction snippet the same year as his disappearance?
Click to expand...
Max Metcalf (Town of Brooklyn, WI) disappeared 8 pm, 7 Oct 1958 after telling his wife he was going to a nearby tavern about 1/2 mile from his farm. The auction ads in the The Oshkosh Northwestern ran from Tues, Nov 4 1958 thru Mon, Nov 10, 1958. It is odd they auctioned the farm while he was missing, but, the auction could have already been planned. His Dodge 330 truck was found in Oshkosh, Winnebago County, Wisconsin that same night between 11 pm and 12 am and had been parked behind a Main St. storage company building. News reports state he disappeared from Princeton, Green Lake County, WI, 40 miles SW of Oshkosh, WI.

For accuracies sake:
(the Portage Daily Register, Fri, Jan 23, 1959, Page 4, stated Metcalf was from the Town of Brooklyn, near Green Lake, 8 miles east of Princeton)

(the Oshkosh Northwestern, Thu, Nov 06, 1958, Page 31, stated the farm was 6 miles southwest of Green Lake, 6 miles southeast of Princeton on County Trunk T, 1 1/2 miles south of Highway 23)

So, he actually disappeared from his farm in the Town of Brooklyn, which is only 27.9 miles from Oshkosh, 39 minutes away. Now, we just need to know the name of the tavern he was going to. Does anyone know?

The Oshkosh Northwestern Wed, Jan 28, 1959, Page 16 stated that the handbrake was set, which puzzled authorities, as the brake was not in working order and Mrs. Metcalf said her husband never used it.

So the question is, did he ever make it to the nearby tavern? Also, one would assume someone else was involved in his disappearance and had set the handbrake, not knowing that it didn't work nor that Metcalf never used it.

countytrunkt.png

princeton.png
 
I’ll search for the tavern name. I’m still weirded out by the auction timing. The auction says the court was appointed receiver for the absentee owner - which is astonishingly fast. And where was the wife? Had the couple previously abandoned the farm? Usually you need to put notices to the absentee owner for a few weeks before the court would hear anything about a receiver.

And it makes the hay story sound like a lie. What’s going on here?
 
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Just came across this so here are my first thoughts - the farm was only in Max's name. Remember this is the 50s, a time when a lot of women still didn't own property. I would guess if there were marital problems they could have been based on finances and the couple was in debt. Debtors came to collect and there was no choice but to auction the farm. Likely scenario is that the wife and kids lived with her parents after being "deserted".

Again, these are just my thoughts after a very quick read through.
 
There’s a lot more to this than the story posted above. First of all, the ancestry note story said the wife put the farm up for auction. The notice states the court did.

Get this though. The green lake sheriff Leo Bartol reported him missing to the newspaper but “didn’t know the details.”
The Oshkosh police learned of his disappearance through reading the article in the newspaper. Fine, chalk it up to bartol not knowing max’s car was in Oshkosh. The green lake sheriffs get a tip that a part of the farm had been newly dug. But they were “too busy” to get to it. (Seriously, if someone did kill max, they could have moved the body because of this warning). (More in next post)
 

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Here it’s said he already had farmland there, but acquired more. Was this the land he bought with the kohnke family? Or the first lot? He was deeply in debt, and the auction only sells off his interest in the farm, not the kohnkes. I wish I could pull title to the farms. Who was he in debt to? The kohnkes? And in the wife’s obituary, the wife’s sister’s married name was kohnke. She moved off the farm and lived with family.

Now suddenly the tipster doesn’t remember where the disturbed dirt was.
 

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January 16, now husband went in an “errand” not to a bar. And they informed the fbi missing persons! I just noticed in one article they described him as “husky” - no picture I’ve seen shows him as anything but trim.

Finally the last article completely contradicts the auction notice and says the wife sold the farm because she couldn’t run it even with the aid of max’s brothers (what, for three weeks? Then she listed the farm? And why could max do it and not these brothers?) and she moved to montello to be near family. The wife’s father died and her parents lived in Princeton. The kohnkes lived in montello. And wife moved to montello presumably to be near her sister. This article also says max was making all payments on time and had no reason to disappear. What about the debts mentioned in other article? No dogs were brought out to search the spot that was disturbed. Only one hole was dug. Suddenly neighbor forgets. Wife must have either been involved in debt proceedings and asked the judge to sell the farm and appoint a receiver to pay off the associated debts (presumably some to the kohnkes!) or the newspaper articles are wrong. And there’s nothing about the hay. Look, it seems to me this is small town coverup.
 

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The only tavern in operation I could find in Princeton was “the place tavern” located at the junction of Highways 23 and 73
 
Ok, I found a local newspaper notice of the auction saying they defaulted August 27, 1957 on their mortgage to Bluemke and co. There were notices properly put in the paper. So you are right, it was going to be sold anyway. Just odd an article said his wife was selling the farm when in reality, the court ordered it auctioned because they defaulted. Another article stated that the auto was noticed behind the building (warehouse) in Oshkosh on October 7 between 11pm-12am, but nobody said anything because no one knew Max was missing. That would have taken him a little less than an hour to drive to Oshkosh.

October 9, the sheriff and one of Metcalf's brothers returned the car to the farm. Now another bit of wrong turn, an "acquaintance had passed him [max] driving in an opposite direction on Friday (that would be the 11th, after they returned the car) in Columbia County". The sheriffs didn't act on the tip because the timing was off. On this I agree with them. By the way, I think Brooklyn is completely wrong as a current residence, he might have been originally from there, but the farm and where they lived was definitely in between Princeton and Green Lake.
(sorry about spam, I'm working on this as I find things)

The "grave" was about a mile NW of the home, and interestingly, it had stones laid on top of it. It was by the roadside. As I said before, they found nothing under it. Again, they claim Max was making payments on the farms and thus wasn't in trouble financially, except Max had defaulted the year before so that's demonstrably untrue. I found another article that said the grave was between highway T and county highway 23 in the TOWNSHIP of *Brooklyn* - not the one in Dane county. The township is in Green lake county: Town of Brooklyn, Green Lake County, Wisconsin – Official Website of the Town of Brooklyn
 
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Keiri said:
There’s a lot more to this than the story posted above. First of all, the ancestry note story said the wife put the farm up for auction. The notice states the court did.

Get this though. The green lake sheriff Leo Bartol reported him missing to the newspaper but “didn’t know the details.”
The Oshkosh police learned of his disappearance through reading the article in the newspaper. Fine, chalk it up to bartol not knowing max’s car was in Oshkosh. The green lake sheriffs get a tip that a part of the farm had been newly dug. But they were “too busy” to get to it. (Seriously, if someone did kill max, they could have moved the body because of this warning). (More in next post)
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Wow. Incredible. It sounds like bumbling police work.
 
Regarding the towns being in different counties, is this per today's boundaries? Could the towns have been located in the counties at the time Max went missing?

Edited to add:
In the auction notices, it's titled the Max Metcalf farm. At what point were the Kohnke's no longer involved?
 
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Molly's Mom said:
Regarding the towns being in different counties, is this per today's boundaries? Could the towns have been located in the counties at the time Max went missing?
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boy did you hit the nail on the head. The owner of the case in NamUs is “Berlin police dept” - which would sound almost correct if they had the phone number for the town of Berlin, in green lake county, but they don’t. The phone number is for the police in city of Berlin, in marathon county, nowhere near! Plus, looks like the town doesn’t even have police, just an elected sheriff!

This would be in the Princeton or green lake city jurisdictions, in green lake county. Princeton lists one policeman. The police chief. My best guess is only the city of green lake could handle it. Police – City of Green Lake, Wisconsin – Home to the deepest natural inland lake in Wisconsin!

man how do I even explain this to NamUs. They won’t even listen. well, I tried.

“For MP15603, you have “Berlin police dept” listed for contact. Berlin is a township in green lake county and only has a sheriff. The phone number you listed is actually for the city of Berlin, in marathon county, nowhere nearby. This is a very old case, but the proper dept should be determined and then i have information for them. The original dept handling the case was the green lake county sheriff with the assistance of green lake city’s police department. Please help me straighten this out with the proper agency. In addition, two news articles stated that this case was referred to the fbi missing persons dept.”

As for your kohnke question, wish I knew. The auction is selling three lots, a gravel pit, a saddle farm, and the dairy farm. Did they give him their interest as a gift? Did he owe them as creditors? Did he buy them out? Only a title search could tell us. :(
 
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This case has really piqued my interest. I'm going to be digging further. You've done a lot of research. I'd like to find out more about the Kohnke's and the man who stole from the farm. Of course, they could have zero to do with the disappearance or everything to do with it.
 
Molly's Mom said:
Kohnke is the married name of Katherine Metcalf's sister.
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I looked into them, but not the thief. I really want to know if the wife set this up as a way to get out of the marriage and have her sister and brother in law repaid.
 
If Max was defaulting on the farm, is it possible he either took his own life or staged it in order to leave his family in a more secure financial situation? Or if watching his property being sold off too much to bear? The amount of hay supposedly stolen out of the barn would be quite physically strenuous to load and move. Then to move that amount off the farm without anyone noticing would be quite difficult unless it was moved to a neighboring farm, perhaps the neighbor that recanted his story? With the idea that he was in a financial crisis, could he have arranged a sale of the hay prior to his disappearance that only a select few knew about? Interesting that the part of the farm being sold was the parts that should have held animals. Animals need hay. What an odd case
 
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