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Valentine taply6/27/2023 I knew he had to be related to me somehow, but I couldn't find the connection to the Missouri Tapleys. I have been hearing about Valentine Tapley and his beard from Missouri ever since I started doing genealogy. So he insisted on having his tomb extra strong and secure so no one could open it. Near the end of his life, he began to worry that someone would dig up his body in order to steal his beard. ![]() At his death, his beard was 12 feet, 6 inches long, and it was buried with him. Valentine passed away Apat the age of 80 or 81. Pike County, Missouri, beards were the best on earth. Congressman Clark knew Valentine personally and said a 7-foot beard was no beard at all. 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. It was 7 feet long and Brinkley was charging people 25 cents a piece to see it. Brinkley from North Carolina claimed to have the world's longest beard. However, for obvious reasons, he would not burn brush or work around a fire.Įven though Valentine tried to avoid the spotlight, his beard did come to national attention in 1907 when S. 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. He only unrolled his beard a couple of times a year to show neighbors how much it had grown. He declined with the promise that he would allow the kids to stroke his beard later in the year. Valentine apparently was once asked by Pike County children to serve as the pole for a May Day dance. 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. Having such a long beard required constant care and caution. He used special oils and a special wooden comb to dress his growing beard to keep it soft and silky. It was written at the time that Valentine's beard was soft as silk. Tapley is very proud of his whiskers, and dislikes anyone who questions whether they are the longest in the world." The Newport News Daily Press of Virginia reported that "Mr. 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." 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. When he made his Lincoln election vow, he was age 30. The next step was to wear it around his body beneath his clothes. It continued to grown over the next five years and he began to wear it completely inside his shirt. As a matter of fact, his beard was already 6 feet long when Lincoln was elected.īy 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. Valentine himself admitted that his beard started growing when he was age 13, and he actually never shaved his beard in his entire life. She was only 15 when she gave birth to Valentine. 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. ![]() His father was born in North Carolina, the child of Hosea Green Tapley (1767-1799) and Eleanor McFarland Tapley (1764-1847). Valentine was the oldest of four children born to Joseph Davis Tapley (1799-1846) and Jemimah Cunningham Matson Tapley (1814-1857). However, in doing my research for this post, I found there is more to the story. ![]() It is the same story every time you hear it. It is the story that you hear on the radio. This is the story you find online over and over. Lincoln was elected, and Valentine did not shave. During the 1860 presidential campaign, Valentine swore he would never shave again if Abraham Lincoln was elected. He was a mild-mannered and agreeable farmer. Valentine Tapley was born on Valentine's Day, Februor 1830, in Pike County, Missouri. The Theme for Week 6 (Feb 8-14) is Valentine. 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. I like that she gives us "permission" to interpret the prompt however we wish and share it however we wish. ![]() I'm going to try to participate more fully this year. Amy Johnson Crow from Generations Cafe is again hosting the blog writing prompt this year called 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: 2021.
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