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I was 15-years old when my Grandpa Whitehead passed. What I remember most about him was that he was a storyteller. He had the most interesting way of telling stories. Sitting in the living room of their home on Egbert Rd. in Goshen listening to him tell old family stories or just what he did yesterday is what I remember most fondly about Grandpa. His slow, methodical, detailed manner of storytelling was passed on to my dad and, in a less skilled manner, to me. It is Grandpa's storytelling that I credit for my interest in family history.
(The following is condensed from a presentation prepared and presented by Merl's daughter, Lois Kaufman, July 14, 2004, at the Directors and Volunteer Board meeting at the Elkhart County 4-H Fair grounds as part of the 100 year celebration of 4-H.)
Merl Whitehead was born at the farm owned by his father Samuel E. Whitehead, and his father before him, Valentine Whitehead. He was a truck driver, factory worker and chicken farmer. He served as President of the Indiana State Poultry Association in the 1950's. He manufactured and sold half barrel BBQ's and then developed, patented and manufactured the slow rotisserie type BBQ unit which he used at the fairs and sold individually in single or double units.
The State Fair and Centerville Fairs were the biggest, but the family also went to Allegan Co., Valpariso, Mermaid Festival, County Court House lawn, Middlebury Days and other places to sell BBQ chicken. They started out at the Goshen Fair in 1956. When that good smell went wafting around the Goshen fairgrounds, Merl could not BBQ fast enough for the people who wanted to eat. They stood 3 and 4 deep behind the seated people waiting to grab a place to sit down.
Merl prepared the chickens using only salt and poultry seasoning and they basted in their own juices as they turned on the routissere. He disengaged the blades and used his riding mower to get around the grounds; there were no golf carts available yet. There were few phones available so Herb Maust was generous in letting Merl use his phone at the milking parlor when he had to call a quick order in for more chicken or other supplies. When it was hot people ate ice cream instead of BBQ chicken.
When Merl retired in 1968 he sold some of his things to Gongwer's Golden Glo and the Mennonite Relief Sale which was just getting started. Golden Glo uses a different method of preparing the chicken but it was Merl Whitehead who started it all at the Elkhart County 4-H Fair.
He was 73 years old by the time he stopped doing the fair BBQ and Mother (Edna Berkey Whitehead) was 70. Dad died in 1976 at the age of 80 ½ years and Mother died in 1987 at the age of 89. They produced Robert, Eldon (died 1935), Laverle, Roberta and Lois and lived a godly productive life and were a good example to all who knew them.
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1895 - 1976 (80 Jahre)
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