Hi everyone,
I found this tonight on another site and hope that it might be of help
to someone.
Adina
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[p.147] PROGRESSIVE MEN OF IOWA.
Valentine, William, was born May 6, 1843, at West Point, Tippecanoe
county, Ind. His father, J. W. Valentine, was a farmer in easy
circumstances, who was born in 1804 at Scotch Plains, N. J. He moved to
Ohio when it was a very new country, where, on the 29th of February,
1829, he was married to Miss Rebecca Kinkennon. She was the daughter of
James Kinkennon, a minister of the gospel, and a man of fine
intellectual powers, having also an extensive knowledge of both law and
medicine. J. W. Valentine and his family moved to Tippecanoe county,
Ind., in 1836, where they lived until September, 1856, when Mr.
Valentine died. Here the son, William, spent his boyhood days on his
father's farm, acquiring such education only as the public schools
afforded. In April, 1863, he came to Iowa, stopping with his brother who
was keeping a hotel at Fontanelle, Adair county. At this time Adair
county was very sparsely settled, most of the country being a vast
stretch of wild prairie, upon which game was plentiful. He began farming
in 1864, his sister keeping house for him. The next spring he purchased
a four-mule team and ran a freight wagon between Omaha and Denver. The
business was attended with danger from Indians, who sometimes swooped
down on the trains, killing the drivers and running off the stock and
other property. It was no uncommon sight to find dead bodies of Indians
along the route where they had been killed by the freighters in defense
of their lives and property. He afterwards lived on a farm until 1874,
when he moved into Atlantic, Cass county, Iowa. In 1876 he moved to
Casey, Guthrie county, and there engaged in the lumber business. In 1883
he took in a nephew as partner and they opened a hardware and
agricultural implement establishment in connection with the lumber
business. In 1895 they built a fine brick building for the accommodation
of their rapidly growing business, making one of the best establishments
in western Iowa. In 1897 they purchased an implement house in Adair,
Adair county, and are carrying on both establishments.