If you're a PrenticeNet member you can add obituaries to the database when you're logged in to the website. We encourage you to help us add to the collection; all Prentice-related obituaries are allowed.
[ back to obits ]
James H. Prentice
b.1817-01-29; d.1891-04-24; Englewood, NJ; nj.com
(contributed by Scott Prentice on 2016-09-28)
Mystery of missing 200-year-old man endures in North Jersey town
ENGLEWOOD -- "Absent from the Body, Present with the Lord."
That's the inscription on a 19th Century tombstone, absent from a body, found in a culvert near the Englewood police station.
Englewood officials have spent more than a decade trying to find the final resting place of the body that belongs to the stone, the body of James H. Prentice.
They've searched through records, reached out to distant relatives and even had the prosecutor's office scan the ground with radar, but the mystery remains.
"We don't know where he is," said Assistant City Manager Wendy Weibalk, who spent time this year trying to solve the mystery.
James H. Prentice was born on January 29, 1817 and died on April 24, 1891.
Department of Public Works employees found his tombstone in 2005, when a lot near the police station was cleared, according to a police report.
Searches for Prentice at the nearby Brookside and Mt. Caramel cemeteries turned up nothing. With no relatives found and no other leads, the stone was left as is -- in the culvert.
When a new fire station opened this year, near the police station and in front of where the tombstone lay, the case of the missing body received new attention.
"It was not an honorable or appropriate spot for a tombstone," Deputy Fire Chief Erik Enersen said. "I do wonder where he is, we were all left scratching our heads where the body could be."
Through the internet, Weibalk, the assistant city manager, was able to put one of the first cracks in the case when she found a quilt, made by Prentice's mother, Jemima Parmalee Prentice, that had been donated to the Colonial Williamsburg Museum by distant relatives. [http://emuseum.history.org/view/objects/asitem/Exhibitions@39/4/title-desc]
Later, Wiebalk determined Prentice had lived in Brooklyn, where he invested millions into the fur, hat and paper businesses, according to the an obituary posted in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on April 26, 1891. [https://www.newspapers.com/image/50471262/]
The obit fails to mention where he was buried, but some think he might be buried in Brooklyn, somewhere.
Weibalk contacted the relatives, scattered across the nation, and found out more information on James Prentice, but not where his body might be.
"I was surprised, it was unusual," said Jonathan Lusk, Prentice's great-great grandson. "It's clear that something went wrong somewhere and who knows when it happened."
Lusk, a Maryland resident, said he and his siblings checked old family books for clues on where Prentice could be buried, but came up unsuccessful.
Searching through town history Wiebalk learned that one of Prentice's nine kids, James Howard, moved to Englewood. He opened a lumberyard and was prominent in local politics. He died in 1931 and was buried at Brookside Cemetery, as mentioned in the "The Book of Englewood," which documents city history.
The lumberyard owned by James Howard was located near where the tombstone was found, a possible explanation for how the tombstone wound up where it did.
Weibalk worked with Brookside Cemetery to finally move the tombstone near his son's grave earlier this month.
"It's the wildest thing," said Stephen Huber, Superintendent at Brookside, "Could be a million different things that happened."
With the stone moved and no more leads to probe, the city put the issue to bed, but the mystery remains.
"I think the end result that the stone ended up with family is a great idea and I'm happy for the solution," said Lusk.
Fausto Giovanny Pinto may be reached at fpinto@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @FGPreporting. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
ENGLEWOOD -- "Absent from the Body, Present with the Lord."
That's the inscription on a 19th Century tombstone, absent from a body, found in a culvert near the Englewood police station.
Englewood officials have spent more than a decade trying to find the final resting place of the body that belongs to the stone, the body of James H. Prentice.
They've searched through records, reached out to distant relatives and even had the prosecutor's office scan the ground with radar, but the mystery remains.
"We don't know where he is," said Assistant City Manager Wendy Weibalk, who spent time this year trying to solve the mystery.
James H. Prentice was born on January 29, 1817 and died on April 24, 1891.
Department of Public Works employees found his tombstone in 2005, when a lot near the police station was cleared, according to a police report.
Searches for Prentice at the nearby Brookside and Mt. Caramel cemeteries turned up nothing. With no relatives found and no other leads, the stone was left as is -- in the culvert.
When a new fire station opened this year, near the police station and in front of where the tombstone lay, the case of the missing body received new attention.
"It was not an honorable or appropriate spot for a tombstone," Deputy Fire Chief Erik Enersen said. "I do wonder where he is, we were all left scratching our heads where the body could be."
Through the internet, Weibalk, the assistant city manager, was able to put one of the first cracks in the case when she found a quilt, made by Prentice's mother, Jemima Parmalee Prentice, that had been donated to the Colonial Williamsburg Museum by distant relatives. [http://emuseum.history.org/view/objects/asitem/Exhibitions@39/4/title-desc]
Later, Wiebalk determined Prentice had lived in Brooklyn, where he invested millions into the fur, hat and paper businesses, according to the an obituary posted in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on April 26, 1891. [https://www.newspapers.com/image/50471262/]
The obit fails to mention where he was buried, but some think he might be buried in Brooklyn, somewhere.
Weibalk contacted the relatives, scattered across the nation, and found out more information on James Prentice, but not where his body might be.
"I was surprised, it was unusual," said Jonathan Lusk, Prentice's great-great grandson. "It's clear that something went wrong somewhere and who knows when it happened."
Lusk, a Maryland resident, said he and his siblings checked old family books for clues on where Prentice could be buried, but came up unsuccessful.
Searching through town history Wiebalk learned that one of Prentice's nine kids, James Howard, moved to Englewood. He opened a lumberyard and was prominent in local politics. He died in 1931 and was buried at Brookside Cemetery, as mentioned in the "The Book of Englewood," which documents city history.
The lumberyard owned by James Howard was located near where the tombstone was found, a possible explanation for how the tombstone wound up where it did.
Weibalk worked with Brookside Cemetery to finally move the tombstone near his son's grave earlier this month.
"It's the wildest thing," said Stephen Huber, Superintendent at Brookside, "Could be a million different things that happened."
With the stone moved and no more leads to probe, the city put the issue to bed, but the mystery remains.
"I think the end result that the stone ended up with family is a great idea and I'm happy for the solution," said Lusk.
Fausto Giovanny Pinto may be reached at fpinto@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @FGPreporting. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
» Corrections or additions to this obituary? Log in and use the Comments feature below.
No comments