Amy Johnson Crow from Generations Cafe is again hosting the blog writing prompt this year called 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: 2021. I'm going to try to participate more fully this year. I like that she gives us "permission" to interpret the prompt however we wish and share it however we wish. It doesn't have to be a blog post; it could be a family video, a letter to a child or grandchild, an e-mail, etc.
The Theme for Week 6 (Feb 8-14) is Valentine.
Valentine Tapley was born on Valentine's Day, February 14, 1829 or 1830, in Pike County, Missouri. He was a mild-mannered and agreeable farmer. He was also a die hard Democrat. During the 1860 presidential campaign, Valentine swore he would never shave again if Abraham Lincoln was elected. Lincoln was elected, and Valentine did not shave.
This is the story you find online over and over. It is the story that you hear on the radio. It is the same story every time you hear it. However, in doing my research for this post, I found there is more to the story.
Valentine was the oldest of four children born to Joseph Davis Tapley (1799-1846) and Jemimah Cunningham Matson Tapley (1814-1857). His father was born in North Carolina, the child of Hosea Green Tapley (1767-1799) and Eleanor McFarland Tapley (1764-1847). In 1818, when Joe was 18 to 19 years old, along with his three brothers, for reasons unknown, he moved west to Missouri, settling in Rauls County. There Joe met his very young wife. She was only 15 when she gave birth to Valentine.
Valentine himself admitted that his beard started growing when he was age 13, and he actually never shaved his beard in his entire life. As a matter of fact, his beard was already 6 feet long when Lincoln was elected.
By the time Valentine was 20 years old, he had to braid his beard and tuck it inside his shirt when he worked on the farm. It continued to grown over the next five years and he began to wear it completely inside his shirt. The next step was to wear it around his body beneath his clothes.
When he made his Lincoln election vow, he was age 30.
Valentine claimed he had done little after the Civil War but "pay taxes and vote the Democratic ticket." He got offers of as much as $5,000 - about $125,000 today - to display his beard as far away as England, but he refused to be a side show freak. A local newspaper wrote, "He cares very little for money and display, preferring his quiet farm life to that of the gaze of the curious."
The Newport News Daily Press of Virginia reported that "Mr. Tapley is very proud of his whiskers, and dislikes anyone who questions whether they are the longest in the world."
It was written at the time that Valentine's beard was soft as silk. He used special oils and a special wooden comb to dress his growing beard to keep it soft and silky. Having such a long beard required constant care and caution. He couldn't wear his beard down all the time, so most days he tied it in a knot and stuffed it into a silk bag that he wore beneath his vest.
Valentine apparently was once asked by Pike County children to serve as the pole for a May Day dance. He declined with the promise that he would allow the kids to stroke his beard later in the year. He only unrolled his beard a couple of times a year to show neighbors how much it had grown.
When The Newport News did their report on Valentine and his beard in 1904, he was 74 years old and was "hale and hearty." He continued to work on his farm. However, for obvious reasons, he would not burn brush or work around a fire.
Even though Valentine tried to avoid the spotlight, his beard did come to national attention in 1907 when S. G. Brinkley from North Carolina claimed to have the world's longest beard. It was 7 feet long and Brinkley was charging people 25 cents a piece to see it. When Missouri congressman Champ Clark heard about it, he wrote to the Washington Post and did an interview with the New York Times to set the record straight. Congressman Clark knew Valentine personally and said a 7-foot beard was no beard at all. Pike County, Missouri, beards were the best on earth.
Valentine passed away April 3, 1910 at the age of 80 or 81. At his death, his beard was 12 feet, 6 inches long, and it was buried with him. Near the end of his life, he began to worry that someone would dig up his body in order to steal his beard. So he insisted on having his tomb extra strong and secure so no one could open it.
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| Valentine Tapley and his beard |
I have been hearing about Valentine Tapley and his beard from Missouri ever since I started doing genealogy. I knew he had to be related to me somehow, but I couldn't find the connection to the Missouri Tapleys. Writing this article enabled me to find out! Valentine is my 4th cousin, 3x removed! His 2nd great-grandfather, Hosea Tapley Jr (bet 1708-1710 - 1770) and my 5th great-grandfather, Joel Tapley (abt 1720 - 1790-91) were brothers.
Sources:
"Beard of Defeat," The Weekly Holler Newsletter #30, published by Luke Bauserman, published November 13, 2016, https://www.getrevue.co/profile/theweeklyholler/issues/beard-of-defeat-the-weekly-holler-30-35593.
"Great Lengths: Pike County men had the market cornered on beards," Hannibal (Missouri) Courier- Post, Quincy Media Inc., February 12, 2021, https://www.hannibal.net/archive/article/great-lengths-pike-county-men-had-the-market-cornered-on-beards/article_f89b3ed4-14dd-5e6a-b0ab-03fa84a321aa.html.
"Historically Yours: Valentine Tapley's 50-year protest of Lincoln," by Elizabeth Davis, December 4, 2018, published by the News Tribune, Jefferson City, Missouri.
"Valentine Tapley - The Man who Grew a 12ft Beard to Protest Abraham Lincoln," The Vintage News, Timera Media, February 8, 2018, https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/02/08/valentine-tapley/.
We do have some interesting relatives.
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