Notizen |
- Findagrave.com:
findagrave.com/memorial/20319597/valentine-whitehead
Source:
Four Generations of the Immigrant Christian Rodabaugh by Kem Luther:
Valentine was the eldest son of Valentine, Sr. and Mary (Ruff) Whitehead (Weisskopf). He was born and grew up in western Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, where his father had joined Gen. Forbes and Col. Washington in their campaign to recapture Ft. Duquesne (Ft. Pitt) from the French in 1758.
The younger Valentine married Mary Kemrie (or Kemmerer), probably in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, on April 26, 1800. Mary's father may have been Johann Ludwig Cammerer.
In 1801 Valentine, Jr. and his new wife moved from Westmoreland County to Butler County, Pennsylvania. In 1812 he followed other family members pushing west into the Old Northwest Territory, settling in Montgomery County, Ohio near Dayton.
Nine of Valentine's twelve children moved to Elkhart County, Indiana in the 1840's. Although some of the land patents are dated as early as 1833, the 1840 census finds the Whiteheads still in Montgomery County. This would suggest that the Elkhart County land was purchased several years prior to the Whitehead migration to Indiana which actually occurred in the 1840's. This would have allowed time to prepare the land for farming and to build cabins.
The Whiteheads were instrumental in developing the Church of the Brethren in southeastern Elkhart County. One of the earliest Dunkard churches in the county was built in 1854 with timbers donated by Valentine, Jr.'s son Samuel on land donated by Samuel's brothers. Long known as The Whitehead Church, the original building still stands as the Maple Grove Church across from the Whitehead Cemetery. Many additions and remodeling has made the original timber frame no longer visible, but it is there nonetheless.
Whether Valentine, Jr. actually moved onto and worked his land in Elkhart County seems unlikely. The evidence is that, although he made mutliple trips to Elkhart County in the 1830's and 1840's, he did not move there until sometime between 1855 and 1860. We also know that by 1855 he was nearly blind. He doesn't show up on the Elkhart County census until 1860.
Valentine, Jr. died in 1865 at the age of 85. Coincidentally, Valentine, Sr. also lived to be 85. That is, of course a ripe old age, but particularly so for American pioneers.
|