Son of Andrew George (AG) Bentz and Catherine Hershey
Joseph was born on the 5th of December, 1869, in
Pennsylvania, not too many years after the Civil War ended in 1865. His parents
had only been married a while, still really considered newlyweds. During the
years between July 1863 and February 1865 Camp William near Philadelphia
Pennsylvania trained many of the volunteers for the Civil War. The Camp was
only a hundred miles away. How did that effect Joseph’s parents?
Coming from a farmer’s family and being the eldest boy,
Joseph probably had a lot of chores to do before and after school. It was quite common for the schools in the
rural areas to be only five months long.
Children needed to harvest the fall crops and to help with the spring
planting. A typical school was only one
room with an outhouse, a wood burning stove, and no electricity. By 1880,
Joseph and three of his siblings were in school. The four younger ones were
home with Catherine, their mother. There were several of Andrew’s cousins
living close by.
Joseph’s family moved from Pennsylvania sometime before
1885 to Clear Creek, Saunders County, Nebraska. He was fifteen. They traveled
approximately 1,135 miles probably by wagon train.
Married life began in 1892 with Mary Jane Lapham. By 1900,
they had two sons, Lester age six and Laven age one. Joseph turned thirty. His
younger brother Allen who was twenty-four, owned the farm and shared the house
with Joseph. They were living next door
to his sister, Gertie and family.
This is how the family farms in Nebraska related to each other in location.
Canada Bound
Joseph moved his family to Red Deer, Alberta Canada in 1906.
The distance from Ashland Nebraska to Red Deer is approximately 1,450 miles.
What an adventure for the children. By this time, they were at ages 15, 10 and
3 years old. Joseph’s eldest son was the same age moving to Canada as Joseph
was when he moved to Nebraska, 20 years earlier. Did Joseph know people in
Canada? Or did he decide to try to make a life far from family in an unknown
area?
The Red Deer area had fertile fields and a strategic
position for a distribution and agricultural center. In 1907 and 1911, several
railways entered the community and provided a large land boom but with the
outbreak of World War I, the boom ended and left the town a small prairie city.
World War II rejuvenated the growth in Red Deer as did the discovery of oil and
natural gas fields. The temperature during the days can get down to -5 and at
night as low as -40. What a change from the Nebraska weather.
His sister, Eliza Bentz Hollingsworth, also moved to Red
Deer by 1920. They too were farmers who owned land. They eventually moved to
Idaho after a few years.
Joseph owned his own farm located on Edmonton Road, of the
Methodist faith and a member of the Elks Lodge. He was a loved and respected
citizen where he had been a farmer and livestock dealer for over forty years.
He died on the morning of February 5, 1945 in his home at the age of
75 years old. His wife Mary died two years later in 1947. They are both buried
in the family plot of the Olds cemetery.
His obituary lists his family:
Son – M.L. Bentz of Eugene, Oregon
Son – E. L. Bentz of Olds
Daughter – Mis Alice Bentz of Olds
Brother – P. J. Bentz of Lincoln, Nebraska
Brother – J. O. Bentz of California
Sister – Mrs. Wm Hollingsworth of Ashland, Oregon
Sister – Mrs. C. C. Cooper of Atwood, Kansas
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