By Linus Joseph Dewald Jr. Editor
Winter 2000 and Revised 5 May 2004
Update of 24 Apr 2001: This article has now been superceded and replaced by the article on Edwin Prentice of NY, NE and NM in our Summer 2001 issue.
We are helping Royal Prentice and Nancy Lanni in tracing their roots. Here is what we have so far:
1. Edwin A. Prentice was b. c. 1831 in NY. He was a butcher by trade.
Edwin apparently was married sometime between 1855 and 1867 to an unconfirmed 1st wife who is likely Ellen Hooker (see article, linked below, about William Prentice of Fly Creek, Otsego Co., NY). There were 1 or more children, including:
- (dau.) Prentice. Married and lived in Otego, Otsego Co., NY.
- William F. Prentice, b. c. 1868, NY (per 1880 Lancaster Co., NE census). He may be the William Floyd Prentice of Fly Creek , Otsego Co., NY, discussed in an article in our Fall 1999 Prentice Newsletter. Fly Creek likes only about 10-11 miles north of Milford.
Royal's email of 14 Nov 2000 relates that an old family Bible shows that Edwin m., apparently 2nd, Flora Bowe on 29 Mar 1876 in Milford, Otsego Co., NY. Flora was b. Jul 1859 in NY They had a son:
- Royal A. Prentice, b. Jul 1877 in NY and d. 1958 in NM. . . . . [2]
Sometime between 1878 and 1880, Edwin, Flora, William and Royal moved from NY to Lancaster County, NE where they appear in the 1880 Lancaster County, NE census. About 1887, Edwin and his family decided to move to California, but, passing through New Mexico, they were so impressed with the beauty and bounty of NM that they stayed. Edwin homesteaded but soon went broke and he took up butchering again. The family moved to Las Vegas, San Miguel Co., NM where Flora and Royal, but not William, appear in the 1900 NM census; Edwin apparently died prior to 1900.
2. Royal A. Prentice, b. Jul 1877 in NY and d. 1958 in NM. He m. Louisa A., b. c. 1885, MO and appears in the 1920 Tecumcari, Quay Co., NM census. Royal attended in NM, became a court reporter and joined the Otero Guard which was a militia formed by the territorial governor Otero to help bring law and order to the area.
In 1898, Royal joined the Rough Riders with T. Roosevelt and served in Cuba and the Phillipines. He returned to NM but had to return to southern latitudes to cope with a feaver he picked up in Cuba. Hence he worked in Mexico as a mechanical engineer for a railroad there. He was critically burned when an engine exploded and retuned to the US.
At some point, Theodore Roosevelt appointed him to the land office in Tucumcari where he worked for a good while. Later he became an attorney, married, and raised a family of three in Tucumcari. He was a writer of travel articles for Trailer Travel magazine. A photographer, his photographs include the Cuban campaign. In his later years, he put together a manuscript with original photos about the Rough Riders in Cuba. Many of his photos are in the NM state archives. At some point, he was employed by C. B. Eddy, who was from Milford or there abouts,while the latter was involved with putting in the railroad from El Paso to Tucumcari & North.
Children of Royal and Louisa:
- Louise Prentice,b. c. 1910, NM.
- Sylvester Prentice,b. c. 1916, NM. He is Royal Prentice's father.
Correspondence: If you have any information about the folks mentioned in this article, please send your information to us at the Prentice Newsletter. Be sure to give the full title and date of this article in the Subject line of the email.
Caution: If you don't use the above email link, your email to us may be deleted as spam by our email filter.
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