Valentine George Schaaf (1868-1940) - Find a Grave Memorial

Valentine George Schaaf

Birth

28 Jan 1868

Victoria, Carver County, Minnesota, USA

Death

30 May 1940 (aged 72)

Hennepin County, Minnesota, USA

Burial

St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery

Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota, USA Add to Map

Memorial ID

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Born in 1867 (or 1868), Valentine George Schaaf (Val) was a first-generation American, son of parents born in Alsace, France. His father, Joseph Michael Schaaf (1828-1911) immigrated as a young man about 16 and his mother, Franciska Cecilia Stimmler (1835-1912) arrived at age 4. Val was one of 11 children, the first several born in Pennsylvania before the family moved in 1855 to Minnesota, where Val was born. The family homesteaded in Carver County on a "tree claim," 160 acres granted for planting. At about 18, Val moved to St. Paul, MN with his brother John Michael (1872-1948) and worked as "helper" to well-known master plumber W. J. Freaney. His skills brought him in 1891 to Red Wing, MN, as master plumber himself for the construction of the state reformatory there. Boarding at the home of Ellen Jordan Thomas, he met her niece Caroline Elisabeth (Carrie) Jordan, on part of whose grandfather Jordan's farm the school was being built. As Carrie described it (at age 89), "Val and I went together from the time I was 16 and lo and behold by the time I was 17 we were engaged and got married a few months later. It wasn't puppy love either, because it lasted until I believe I was 71 years old when God called him home and left me with 11 children at that time." The couple lived in Red Wing until 1901; their first 2 children were born there. In Fall 1900, Val purchased treeless farmland (160 acres) 3.5 miles south of Murdock, MN. They planted trees, built their home, and started their long farm life together. The 1920's were hard years when huge storms set back the farm work and they moved temporarily to the Twin Cities, where Val worked again as a plumber. Their daughter Valentina and husband Otto Schwenk took over the farm during their absence, but in spring 1930, Carrie and the four youngest children moved back there; Val had gone down to Texas to work. In 1934, Valentina and Otto returned to take over the farm again. Val, Carrie, and the younger children moved back to the Cities and Val and sons went to work on the dam construction in Hastings, MN. After that, Val worked for a time in Geneva, WI. In 1938, they were back on the farm. In fall 1939 Val contracted pneumonia, was diagnosed with "heart trouble," and was never fully well again. He died in May 1940, but not before he had the treat of his life: a plane flight from Minneapolis to Detroit to visit daughter Emily Schaaf Hodgdon and her family there. The visit lasted until May when Val asked to go back to Minnesota to die. He is buried in St. Mary's Cemetery in Minneapolis.