A Valentine for Indiana

Discovering the Shuffler family, part II

Last week, I left off after making a few basic assumptions:

• Benjamin Franklin Shuffler’s father was Valentine Shuffler, who appeared in the 1840 Census for Marshall County, Indiana.

• Sarah A. Bailey, who swore an affidavit stating Valentine’s widow was Margaret Shuffler, was Benjamin’s sister.

• Based on the 1840 census, there were seven more children to look for.

But I still didn’t have any direct evidence that put Benjamin in Valentine’s household.

A Valentine for Iowa

I kept digging, thinking this would all be easily resolved as soon as I found one key piece of evidence. I found record after record that suggested I was on the right track, but something was missing to tie it all together: the 1850 Census.

If His Daughter was Sarah…

Sarah Ann (Shuffler) Bailey’s biography began to come together, but she was married in 1841; so while I could assert that she was in the 1840 household, she wouldn’t be in Valentine’s household in 1850, anyway. I needed to find more siblings.

I did find a baptism record for “Sarah Anna Schaufler” in Trinity Tuplehocken Reformed Congregation Births, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, 1800-56 on Ancestry. She was baptized in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania on 18 Feb 1821. Her birth date was recorded as 27 Jan 1821, father: Valentine Shaufler, mother: Maria Margaret Schaufler; sponsors: Benjamin and Anna Maria Schiffler. This is consistent with the birth information on her 1860 Census record - when she was listed as Sarah Shinabarger. (Several records confirm that after David Bailey’s death, John Shinabarger was Sarah’s second husband.)

This means that the Valentine Shuffler I’m looking for probably originated in Lebanon County, PA. More on that in a bit.

What About Other Children?

I kept coming up empty with Ancestry searches for the 1850 Census, so I went to FamilySearch.org and turned up marriage records for three other women who were married in Marshall County and were likely siblings of Sarah and Benjamin. With luck, I could identify candidates to search for in the Shuffler household in 1850:

• Secelia Shuffler¹ m. George Sealey 24 Aug 1846

• Mary B Shuffler m. David M. Carpenter 11 Dec 1852

• Elizabeth Shuffler m. Henry Craig 27 May 1854

As I did with Sarah Bailey, I was able to put together a fairly complete biography for Cecelia (Shuffler) Sealey Vancamp (1826-1906), despite the infinite number of ways the county clerks found to spell “Suscilia” or “Schaufler” - but because Cecilia was married in 1846, I knew she would not appear in the household I’m looking for in the 1850 census.

Mary (Shuffler) Carpenter seems to have died before 1860, and not long after her marriage to David. He appears in his parents’ 1860 household as “single” and has no apparent children, so I assume Mary died, probably in childbirth; but there are no records stating when her death was. Elizabeth (Shuffler) Craig was difficult to find because there were too many couples named “Henry and Elizabeth Craig” in 1860 for me to ascertain which one was our couple. This was disappointing, as I had hoped to find their birth info from later records. That information would be in the 1850 record - but I was skeptical that the “Mary” and “Elizabeth” would be unique enough names to find it if “Valentine” wasn’t doing the trick.

Too Many Valentines

I also tried approaching the problem from the other side, looking for more records of Valentine himself, but I kept coming up empty. By now, I knew I was looking for a Valentine (probably) from Pennsylvania, arriving in Indiana by 1836, so I spent a lot of time digging around for more records in Lebanon County, PA.

No Valentines for us, Ralph.

The problem here stemmed from the fact that there is a Revolutionary War soldier named Valentine Shuffler (spelling may vary) who lived in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, and a lot of other researchers consider that veteran to be the same person as our Valentine or the father of our Valentine.

It is possible that my Valentine could have fought in the Revolution, depending on his age in 1855 - which we don’t know yet. Valetine’s age range on the 1840 census was “40-49” (pegging his DOB between 1791 and 1800), and in an 1832 affidavit of veteran Valentine’s testimony, he gave his age as 82 (DOB abt. 1750). Not a match.

Other details don’t quite line up between Veteran Valentine and Indiana Valentine. Benjamin’s obituary stated that he was born in Ohio in 1833, and there was a “Valentine Soufler” in Israel Township, Preble County, Ohio, in the 1830 Census. Veteran Valentine’s affidavit put his then-current home in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania in 1832. This would seem to confirm the two were not the same man. (Unfortunately, Veteran Valentine’s Revolutionary War pension application does not mention any family.)

Census records before 1850 are known for having little concrete information, but the Ancestry scan of the 1830 Israel Township page was unreadable. I hoped that by going to FamilySearch I could get a better version of the page and see how many children were in the household, and maybe narrow down Valentine’s date of birth.

But instead of the 1830 Census, FamilySearch served up an unexpected result:

The 1850 Census

Valentine Shorfler² lived in Plymouth (mistakenly recorded as “My Division”), Marshall County, Indiana, and was enumerated on 15 Oct 1850. He gave his age as 52 (est. DOB 1798) and was born in Pennsylvania. His wife was Mary M. (52, Pennsylvania), and their household included the following children:

• Mary Shorfler - 20

• Elizabeth Shorfler - 18

• Benj Shorfler - 16

• David Shorfler - 14

• Margaret E Shorfler - 12

• Amanda Shorfler - 9

• Louisa Shorfler - 6

So, there we have Mary, Elizabeth, and Benjamin, plus four more previously unknown children - two of whom (David and Margaret) fit in the “Under 5” categories for Valentine’s 1840 household.

There are still a lot of questions and gaps to fill in - but finding this record validates all of the other work I’ve been doing around the edges, trying to establish Benjamin Shuffler’s parentage.

I’m just salty about one thing - the one obstacle that kept me from finding this record days ago when I first started hunting for it. Does this look like “Shorfler” to YOU?

If the transcriber had seen “Shoufler” - like I do - I would have found this immediately!

1. When the County Clerk Can't Spell

2. See previous footnote.