Valentine Family
Away back during the colonial period, back almost a century prior to. the Revolution, back about the year 1680, the Valentines were found among those sturdy Dutch immigrants who sought the hospitality of the western world, which was as yet too young to have reared oppression, tyranny, or persecution. On reaching America they settled in New York, but a little later drilled to New Jersey, where several generations of the family name have passed their lives, and where the descendants of the original stock may still be found. In the course of years the Revolution was fought out, and its close inaugurated a new era of immigration, for the “ star of empire” at this period resumed its westward course.
The Ohio Valley, with the vast expanse of territory north and west, was yet an almost untracked, unknown, and inhospitable wild. Obeying the same irresistible law to which the celestial stars are subject, the “star of empire” of migration moved westward, until it paused for a moment and shed its benignant beams upon the valley of the Ohio, until that valley became the home of teeming thousands.
It was at this period of general agitation and public ferment that Daniel Valentine was born in New Jersey. His natal year was also that of the nation, for he was born in 1776, the year in which the nation sprang into being. His youth was spent amid the excitements incident to the Revolutionary War and the western expeditions of Clarke, of Harmar, of St. Clair, and ere he had attained his majority General Wayne had dictated terms of peace to the Indians of the Northwest. He had heard and read of all these stirring occurrences in the Northwest, and looked upon the admission of Ohio into the sisterhood of States from his distant home in New Jersey; but, in 1805, the tide was too strong, and he was carried with it to the Mad River Valley, of which he had read and dreamed for years. In 1799 he had married Rachel Winans, and six years later they were found within the present limits of Champaign County, where they remained about four years.
In the year 1809 they moved within the present boundaries of Orange Township, near where the old Berry mill was afterward erected. At this time the family consisted of four small children, and this family probably constituted the fourth within the township, the other three, as nearly as can be ascertained, being the Cannon, Berry, and Phillips families, who probably settled here prior to 1809.
Daniel Valentine entered land immediately upon his arrival here, but was only able to make partial payment, and so was under the necessity of borrowing the greater portion of the purchase money. Still he was not dependent upon the farm alone, for he carried with him the skill of a shoemaker, and at the outset found himself in command of this trade for an area greater that which is now comprised within the whole county. In 1820 his wife died, and a few years later he married Isabel Jameson, who survived him several years, his death having occurred in 1849.
From the date of his arrival here in 1809 up to the time of his death he continued a permanent resident of Orange Township, and was one of the leading spirits of the settlement.
One of his sons, Richard W. Valentine, an honored pioneer of this county, is now living a retired life, somewhat enfeebled, but surrounded by the comforts of life, and in the full enjoyment of the respect of the whole community.
He was one of the four children already mentioned as comprising his father’s family in 1809, and was born in Champaign County in 1806. He was thus three years of age when his parents took their second step westward, and settled in a country largely occupied by the red man and animals of different species His education was such as was diffused by virtue of short school terms held in the proverbial log house, so characteristic of the early days of every Western community. When he reached his sixteenth year he was apprenticed by his father to a blacksmith, named Alexander Moreland, with whom he remained until he reached his majority.
In 1828 he opened the first blacksmith shop within the township at the old site of Berry's mill. The following year, or 1829, he married Miss Annaliza, daughter of William and Betsy Cecil. She was born in Virginia. in the year 1811, and was brought to this county by her parents In 1814.
After his marriage Mr. Valentine continued working at his trade, until failing health compelled him to abandon his forge and seek other employment. He had purchased fifty-five acres of timber land, which he cleared, and to which he has since added about two hundred and fifty acres, making about three hundred acres in his home farm, while elsewhere within the county he owns some five hundred acres, making in all about eight hundred acres. Such is the reward of industry, perseverance, and economy, that no man in the enjoyment of health should know such word as fail. Mr. Valentine may be said to have battered and drilled those acres out of his anvil, for at the outset he stood with empty hands. The rewards of industry and honesty are his to-day, as evidenced by his comfortablc home surroundings, and the esteem in which he is held by a whole community. He has reared a family of seven children, five of whom are still living. Their names and dates of birth are as follows: Samuel, born 1832; John, born 1836; Rachael, born 1840; William, born 1843; and Mary, born 1856.
Since writing the above we learn of the death of Richard W. Valentine. He died April 12, 1882, and was buried at Wesley Chapel, April 14th, by the Masonic fraternity, of which he had been a consistent member for many years.
From History of Shelby County, Ohio; R. Sutton & Co, Philadelphia PA, 1883