Richard Edwin PENTZ was born on 23 Aug 1828 in Windsor Rd., Nova
Scotia. He was buried in 1898 in Riverbank Cemetery, Hantsport. He
died on 26 Oct 1898 in Hantsport, Nova Scotia. Richard was the
seventh child of ten of Jacob Ernst and Ann Pence, nee Corkum.In 1860 he married Agnes Sophia Corkum, who was ten years younger than he and his first cousin..The marriage licence was made out to Richard E. Pence of Dartmouth, but he signed his name "Pentz". A copy of his signature will be scanned into this document in the near future. His surety was Frederick Bacon of Dartmouth, coach maker, and marriage witnesses were James ?? and Nelson H. Corkum.
At the time of his marriage, Richard was a "keeper" at the Insane Asylum at Dartmouth. There is an amusing record at PANS of a Richard Pence applying for a fishing licence in Dartmouth from the governor of the asylum, maybe so he'd have something to do on his breaks!
Later on, Richard became a ship's carpenter. After his first child Fred was born in 1862, Richard apparently moved the family down to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, an obvious place to go for a man of his trade. They supposedly moved back to Nova Scotia when Fred was about eight, but that would mean that his daughters Ida May and Eudora Anne were born in the States, whereas their descendants are fairly sure they were born in Halifax..
In the Halifax City directory, Richard first appears in 1876 and then in the 1878 and 1879 ones as a carpenter living at 158 North. In the latter one it lists his son, Fred Pentz, drug clerk, as boarding with him. North Street at that time was at the far end of town, and 158 would have been down near the piers.
Richard died in 1898 aged 70 of heart disease and is buried in the Riverview Cemetery, Hantsport. His death was noted in the Hantsport newspaper. Agnes Sophia, who died in 1903 while living with her daughter Eudora Ann Elvey in Hantsport, died aged 65 of paralysis and is buried beside her husband. Parents: Jacob Ernst PENCE and Ann CORKUM.