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- Findagrave.com:
findagrave.com/memorial/55273605/valentine-frantz-whitehead
Valentine Frantz Whitehead was one of eight children of Samuel and Sarah [Frantz] Whitehead. He grew up in Elkhart County and married Christina Smith whose parents had moved to Indiana from Canada. Valentine taught school briefly in Syracuse, IN in 1861, then married and committed himself to farming. He and Tena had eight children of their own, one of whom was Samuel Elmer Whitehead, my great-grandfather. Valentine and Tena bought 80 acres of the Ott farm west of New Paris, Indiana in 1885 when their son, Samuel E., was fifteen years old. Christina's brother Samuel purchased the adjoining 80 acres which he later sold to his brother-in-law Valentine. These two 80 acre plats formed what is now the 160 acre quarter-section owned by Dick Whitehead, one of Valentine's great-grandsons.
Valentine F. died in 1898 and Samuel E. and his wife, Doshia [Peters] Whitehead, raised four children on the family farm, Merl, Cecil, Harold, and Russell. All three boys farmed the land for a few years while their father was ill and for a short time thereafter. Seeing that the farm would not be able to support three familes, Merl sold his share to his brothers and purchased a milk route. Russell and Harold farmed together for a while, but Harold eventually sold out to Russell, who passed it on to his son, Dick.
The original barn burned in 1927 and Doshia replaced it in 1929 with lumber from the woods on the property. The 1929 barn was dismantled and sold in 2002. The beautiful white farmhouse burned on February 6, 2007. Dick and Doris Whitehead have since built a new house on the site of the old. Their sons and grandsons continue to work the farm.
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