Glendale, California Biographies

Edmond J. Valentine, who passed from this life on May 25, 1903, was born in Warren county, Pennsylvania, August 5, 1841, a son of Edmund and Hannah (DeLong) Valentine. His parents were of French-Scotch ancestry. His grandmother on his mother’s side, whose maiden name was Juliana Scott, was a cousin of Gen. Winfield Scott. The Valentine family in America antedates the Revolutionary War.

Mr. Valentine attended the public schools of Warren County, Pennsylvania, and at the age of fourteen went to Geneseo, Illinois where he worked on a farm and grew to manhood. In 1863 he went to Mitchellville, Polk County, Iowa, where he had a general store and was postmaster until 1882, when he went to Mitchell County, Kansas, and ranched for four years. Hard times caused him to sell out at a loss, and he came to Los Angeles and dealt in real estate until 1889. He bought forty acres of land on Kenneth Road where his widow now resides. Here he was a pioneer farmer and took an important part in the development of North Glendale, especially so in the development of water for irrigation. He became an expert agriculturist and horticulturist, firmly believed in the future of the country, and never tired of doing all within his power for its improvement and development. Fraternally, he was a Master Mason and a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and in politics was a Republican.

At Mitchellville, Iowa, January 1, 1967, Mr. Valentine married Mary Z. DeLong, a native of Crawford County, Pennsylvania. Her grandmother, Elizabeth Aughey, was a descendant of the Augheys, French Huguenots, who came to America in the seventeenth century, and who served in the Revolutionary War. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Valentine are: William: Edna, who is the wife of Gilbert D. McCann; John, a civil engineer, who served in France with the 603d Engineer’s Corps in the late war; and Minnie, who is the wife of Professor W. T. Merrill of the University of Chicago.

Mr. and Mrs. Valentine labored unceasingly in the development of their ranch, the result of which is in evidence today. The substantial stone house which was built in 1900 and the spacious grounds are shaded with many kinds of trees, shrubs and vines which give it an attractive and luring setting. Since Mr. Valentine’s death, Mrs. Valentine has directed the care of the ranch which now contains twenty acres. The family is Episcopalian.