The January Pantagraph of 1908 told the tragic story of the Valentine family. Carrie Valentine, the mother, had been under treatment at a local sanitarium for her "obstinate insomnia." Her husband had been keeping a close watch upon his razors, hinting that they feared she would take her own life. On January 10, James Valentine went to work without a breakfast, as the entire family at 408 E. Mulberry Street was still sleeping when he left. Mrs. Valentine rose and went to a shed in the back yard of their home, where she had hidden a razor and hammer. She cut her throat in the back yard and then returned to the house, bleeding profusely. She went to her six year old son Lyle's bedroom, where she struck him in the head with the hammer, cut his throat and put two gashes upon his face.
The Valentines also had two daughters, Pansy and Hazel, ages 18 and 19. They heard the cries of their brother and came running, only to find their mother and brother in a pool of blood. Both were carried to the hospital, where they were treated and held for recuperation.
The Pantagraph reported that this was obviously a fit of temporary insanity. A later report indicated that Mrs. Valentine went to the Jacksonville Asylum for voluntary treatment in the company of her husband and sister. She was described by the Pantagraph as a woman of culture and intelligence. Daughter Pansy Valentine was a music teacher in Bloomington. While a home on Mulberry Street, in the twenty first century does not carry an implication of wealth or social cachet, in the early twentieth century, many influential families lived there. The street is lined with large Victorian homes, some still retain their ornamentation and porches. The members of the Christian Church of Bloomington even chose Mulberry Street as the location of their Second Christian Church in 1902 and hired Arthur L. Pillsbury to design the church.
By 1910, Mrs. Valentine had returned home and was living with her husband and son. They had moved from the tragic location, but not far, because they were living in the 600 block of East Douglas Street. Her daughters had married in the intervening years and lived in Bloomington as well.
In 1930 the Valentines were living in St. Louis where James and his son Lyle were both working as upholsterers. The family, including the wife and children of Lyle, were all boarders in the same house. Both sisters, Pansy Trumbly and Hazel Montford, also lived in St. Louis, but in separate homes. One year later Carrie Valentine died of a cerebral hemorrhage in St. Louis and was buried at Park Hill in Bloomington.
Despite the tragic morning of January 10, 1908, this family healed and remained together for another twenty years. One wonders at the physical and psychic scars that Lyle bore and the love he bore his mother. We wonder too at the healing power of a mother's love after the events of that cold January morning.