ROLLA H. VALENTINE.     Rolla H. Valentine, one of the prominent merchants of the village of Belle Center, is a native of Bloomville, Seneca county, Ohio, born Dec. 19, 1844.  There he resided until seventeen years of age and in the district schools of the locality obtained his education.  His parents were Henry and Hannah (Munsell) Valentine.  His father was born in Perry county, Ohio, about 1812, and when about seventeen years of age accompanied his parents on their removal to Seneca county, Ohio, where his father engaged in farming, Henry rendering him assistance commensurate with his age and strength.  He afterward began farming on his own account and remained in that county until 1869, when he removed to Barry county, Michigan, where he was engaged in farming and fruit-raising for some years.  He resided upon one farm until 1895, when he passed away at the age of eighty-two years.  He was a progressive and prosperous man of this day - a worthy representative of the agricultural interests of the community in which he resided.  In his political views in early life he was a Whig and later he became a Republican.  Sixty years he held membership with the Methodist Episcopal church, shaping his life by its teachings, and at different times he served as an officer in the church.  He never sought or desired political honors, however, preferring to perform his duties as a private citizen.  His wife survived him three years and was also eighty-two years of age at the time of her demise.  She was born in St. Albans, Vermont, and when twenty years of age came to Ohio and prior to her marriage engaged in teaching school in Seneca county.  She was also a member of the Methodist church and was president of the Women's Christian Temperance Union of her locality.  A devoted and loving wife and mother, her loss was deeply regretted by her tree children, all of whom survive her.  These are Rolla; John Roswell, who is a painter by trade and resides in Woodland, Michigan; and Sarah Josephine, the wife of John Kidd, an attorney residing in Owasso, Michigan.
     The paternal grandfather of our subject was John Valentine, who was born in Maryland and came to Ohio at an early day.  He served in the war of 1812 and was stationed at Defiance, Ohio, being there at the time of the capture of the fort.  He died in Seneca county, Ohio.  His father, George Valentine, a native of Germany, came to this country prior to the Revolutionary war and settled in Frederick City, Maryland, where the grandfather of our subject was born.  The great-grandfather served for four years and six months in the Revolutionary war and afterward came to Ohio, his remains being interred in the cemetery at Bloomville, this state.  He died at the age of eighty-seven years.
     Rolla H. Valentine remained upon the home farm and at school until after the breaking out of the Civil war.  He enlisted in 1863, as a member of Company G, Fifty-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry and served until the close of hostilities,  taking part in some of the important battles which contributed to the triumph of the Union arms, including the engagements of Resaca, Kennesaw Mountain and the Atlanta campaign and the campaign through the Carolinas up to the close of the war.  He yet maintains pleasant relations with his old army comrades through his membership in W. W. Simpson Post G. A. R.
     At the close of the war Mr. Valentine returned home, but after a short time went to Michigan and Illinois and in 1869 he accepted a clerkship in a drug store in La Grange, Indiana.  He has continued in the drug business ever since, having been for some time in Orleans, Nebraska.  In the fall of 1882 he came to Belle Center and opened the drug store, which he has since conducted.  He has a well appointed establishment, neat and attractive, and supplied with a large line of drugs and other commodities, and the fact that his trade is continually increasing is proof of his reliable and creditable business methods.
     In March, 1875, Mr. Valentine was married in LaGrange, Indiana, to Miss Cora J. Drake, who went to the south in the Civil war as captain of Company H, Twenty-ninth Ohio Volunteers.  He was born Oct. 31, 1817, in Holmes county, Ohio, a son of David and Rachel Drake, natives of Maryland and Virginia.  In 1839 he married Susan Hayward a native of Cattaraugus county, New York, born Feb. 17, 1818.  At the age of eighteen she accompanied her parents to Holmes county, Ohio, where she was married.  In 1849 Colonel Drake, with a party of twelve, made an overland trip to the gold fields of California, being en route one hundred and five days.   For a time he engaged in mining but soon established a trading post and in three months cleared eight thousand dollars.  In the winter of 1850 he started home by way of Panama and eventually reached Holmes county, Ohio, and purchased the old homestead.  Soon after the repeal of the Missouri Compromise he became an out-spoke and fearless Republican and on the 1st of June, 1861, enlisted as a defender of the Union cause.  He organized the first company of three years volunteers and was commissioned captain.  Captain Drake remained with the regiment and participated in all of its battles until after the battle of Antietam, where he was wounded, his left side being partially paralyzed with a piece of shell.  Being thus disabled he resigned, Sept. 24, 1862, and received an honorable discharge.  He continued his labors in behalf of the Union cause by helping to suppress insurrection at home and was appointed provost marshal of the fourteenth congressional district of Ohio, with headquarters at Wooster and thus served until the close of the war.   On the 26th of September, 1863, he was appointed and commissioned colonel of the  Fifty-second Regiment of the Ohio Infantry for a period of five years, by Governor Tod.  On the 22d of May, 1867, he was brevetted major of United States Volunteers by President Johnson, to rank as such from the 13th of March, 1865, for meritorious service during the war.  Colonel James L. Drake had a brother Levi, who was commander of the Forty-ninth Ohio Regiment and was killed in the battle of Stone River.  Francis M. Drake, a brother of Mrs. Valentine, served with his father in the Twenty-third Ohio Regiment, and after three years and three months was discharged.  After a year he became a member of the Fifty-fifth Ohio Infantry and was wounded in North Carolina.  Levi drake, another brother of Mrs. Valentine, was in the cavalry service and was captured and died at Annapolis.  Altogether there were twelve children in the family of Colonel and Mrs. Drake.  The others are:  James S., an attorney of Goshen, Indiana, who has served as state senator; Fremont B., a farmer residing near Bellefontaine; Jackson C., a traveling sales man living in Denver, Colorado; Ellen, the wife of Lewis D. Hughes, of Lagrange, Indiana; Emma, the widow of Clark Bennett, who was a lieutenant in the Thirtieth Indiana Infantry; Mary, the wife of David A. Trimble, a commission merchant of Kansas City.  The mother of these children died Apr. 23, 1877.  In 1866 the family had removed to LaGrange, Indian, where the parents spent their remaining days.  In October, 1879, Colonel Drake married Mrs. Harriet A. Filson, who survives him.  His death occurred Mar. 10, 1886, when he was sixty-eight years of age.  He was a man held in the highest regard and his record as a man, a soldier, citizen, friend, husband and father is one well worthy of emulation.
     Unto Mr. and Mrs. Valentine have been born two children.  Jessie L. is now the wife of James Pergin, a hardware merchant of Columbus, Ohio, by whom she has two children - Cora Alice and Max Valentine.  Francis Roswell, the son, is engaged in the drug business at Lake View, Logan county.  He is a graduate of the Ada College of Pharmacy and is registered in Ohio.  He married Florence Gale Townsend, of Rushsylvania, Dec. 12, 1900, and they had one son that died unnamed.
     Mr. Valentine votes with the Republican party and is connected through membership relations with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Masonic fraternity.  His business interests have been capably controlled, his duties of citizenship promptly performed and his allegiance to the general good is at all times recognized.  For twenty-one years he has been a resident of Belle Center and is justly regarded as one of its representative men.
Source:  The Historical Review of Logan Co., Ohio, Publ. Chicago, by S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1903 - Page 585