John H. Bentley 1870-1925 Finally Back in the Fold

My research time in Gloucester has been extraordinarily fruitful, but this particular find can only be credited to pure Irish luck.  This was so random it's almost scary.

John H. Bentley is the son of Captain Bentley who went down on the Schooner Paul Revere when young John was only about 12; his mother died a mere 3 years later leaving 4 young children including our great grandmother Catherine Bentley and John H. 

I don't know how the children managed after they became orphans, but I feel certain it was not an easy time for them. In 1892, John H. married and began having children--12 all told though some died as infants.  I have pretty good track of him from the time of his marriage to about 1922.  By 1930, his wife reports herself a widow in the census.

I had been able to track all of his siblings but lost John H. and hadn't been able to find him and bring him back into the fold.  I knew he died between 1922-1930 but even thorough Massachusetts records did not cough him up.  None of the many online Bentley family trees had any clues about his death and I finally came to a conclusion that perhaps he did not die in Massachusetts. I was at a loss as to how to proceed and just put him on a back burner again.

I was doing some work at the Sawyer Free Library looking at Gloucester Daily Times microfilm and had a little extra time to kill so I picked a random microfilm covering a 3 month period to review day by day to see if I saw anything interesting.  Happened to be the Jan-Mar 1925 reel.  Low and behold, on Jan 3 1925 (only a couple of days in)--I see this article on the front page and nearly fainted.

John H. had apparently abandoned his family, ending up in Illinois and dying there is some kind of accident.  I have sent away for his death record, which lists him as Jock or Jack (wouldn't have thought to check under anything except John....duh....).  It was pure serendipity that led me to this magical conclusion.  I don't know why he left his family but my imagination suggests that his difficult childhood probably contributed to these decisions later in his life.  For now, I'm happy to report he's back where he belongs in our little Gloucester family.  What a wild ride this is taking me on!  And there's even more to report soon!!