John Roland Harris Prentice
#20, John Roland Harris Prentice is the son of Nathaniel Prentice and Susannah Harris.
John Roland Harris Prentice was born, 17 Feb 1815, in Mexico, Oswego, NY. Died, 23 Apr 1896, in Pueblo, Pueblo, CO. Burial: Apr 1896, in Mt. View Cem., Pueblo, CO. Census: 1850, in Pleasant Grove, Marion, IA.
John is identified as "Roland or John Roland Harris Prentice" by Binney. However, a grandson, Joseph Rollin Prentice of Alexandria, VA says that John has perhaps used the names John Rollin Prentice, John Rollan Prentice, and Roland J. Prentice. John's newspaper obituary identifies his name as Rollan Prentice, omitting the given name John completely. His card in cemetery records identify him as Roland Prentice, again omitting the given name John. The 1896 Pueblo, CO City Directory lists him as Roland H. Prentice. The Eyanson Family Bible belonging to the family of his first wife identifies him as Rolan H. Prentice.
Born in the town of Mexico, New York, at the age of 2 he moved with his family to Meigs County, Ohio near the West Virginia border. When 9, his family moved a few miles north to Athens, Ohio. About the time of his 1837 marriage at 22 to Martha Eyanson, John lived a few miles to the northwest at Lancaster, Fairfield County, Ohio where his oldest son, Joseph, was born. By 1840 at 25 he was in Decatur, Indiana, just south of Fort Wayne in the northeast corner of Indiana, where he had three more children: Elizabeth, George and Margaret.
By about 1844, the stress of a family and 4 children was too much; he disappeared, reappearing again about 1845 in Marion County, Iowa. There, John married, as his second wife, Maria Louisa Stoops, but without telling her he was already married. John and Maria started a new family: Marilla, Nathaniel, Thomas, William, Delinda, Mary and Lily. John and his family appear in the Census of 1850 for Pleasant Grove Twp., Marion, IA. His name is given as "Ralland H. Prentice".
About 1853 John moved his 2nd family to Union Co., IA. The History of Union County says that he settled in Union Co. in the summer of 1854, one of the earliest settlers. They lived in Platt Township-Kent where an "election was held at the log cabin of R. Prentice the first Monday in August, 1854, fourteen votes being cast." If his log cabin was like others described, it had one room, bark roof and door, dirt floor, sod chimney, and no windows. In 1864 John abandoned his second family.
John apparently remained in Iowa; it was in Tippecanoe, Henry County, IA that he married Adeline Culver Dabelbower, a widow with 3 daughters: Ellen, Lucy and Mary. John's Wedding Certificate shows he married under the alias, Daniel Harris; John did not mention his 2 earlier wives. John and Adeline had 4 children: Mary, Dewitt, Leonard, and Hanora.
It is not yet known where Mary and Hanora were born, but Dewitt and Leonard were born in Oakland Mills, IA about 100 miles east of Marion, IA where had deserted his second family.
As he approached old age, John confessed all to his 3 families. It might be assumed he asked his 3 wives and 15 children for forgiveness and understanding. Whether he received either is unclear.
In his later years, John was a traveling salesman, selling patent medicine to women for women's ailments. About John's final year, Joseph R. Prentice, a grandson, wrote on 8 Feb 1969: "in April of 1896 (my father) heard that his father was near death in Pueblo, Colo. He went there. John Roland is buried in the Mountain View Cemetery in Pueblo.
Interestingly, his occupation is listed on the death certificate as a 'Broommaker.' My grandfather told my father that he had recently resided in a bawdy house." His grandson may have misunderstood what his father said about his grandfather's residence; his grandmother ran a boarding house where John probably lived also. John died in his eighty-first year of "hemorrhagic nephritis.".
He married, first, Martha Elizabeth Eyanson on 16 Nov 1837, in Lancaster, Fairfield, OH545. Born, 18 Apr 1818, in Des Moines, Polk, IA. Died, 1873, in Missouri, (home of dau.). Burial: 1873, in Decatur, Adams, IN. Children:
- i. Joseph Rollin Prentice.
- ii. Eliza "Liza" Ann Prentice.
- iii. George Eyanson Prentice.
- iv. Margaret Elizabeth Prentice.
He married, second, Maria Louisa Stoops, circa 1844.Children:
- v. Marrilla "Lilly" Prentice.
- vi. Nathaniel "Nat" C. Prentice.
- vii. Thomas Wade "Tom" Prentice.
- viii. William Harris "Will" Prentice.
- ix. Delinda Prentice.
- x. Mary Prentice. Born, 1859, in Unk., Union, IA. She married H. J. Hall, circa 1900, in Adair Co., MO. She is said to have lived in Macon County, Mo.
- xi. Lilly/Lila Prentice.
- xii. Mary Prentice. Born, circa 1863 (?).
- xiii. Dewitt Clinton Prentice.
- xiv. Leonard Prentice. Born, 13 Apr 1867, in Oakland Mills, Henry, IA. Died, 8 Jul 1907, in Manzanola, CO. He married Mary F. Garrett, 16 Aug 1891.
- xv. Honora Prentice. Born, circa 1867. Died, before 1875 (?).
We invite the submission of any additional information you may have so as to make this website ever more helpful to others. Please email your ideas to Linus Joseph Dewald Jr. at dewald@prenticenet.com.
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