Worthy A. Prentice joined the Osceola Home Guards on May 23, 1863. This was a Wisconsin State Militia company organized to protect Osceola and surrounding areas from possible Indian attack while many of the area’s men were gone serving in the Civil War. On March 13, 1865, he volunteered for the 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry and served in Company D. Company D of the 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry contained soldiers primarily from La Crosse and surrounding villages, and from Hudson, with a few from Osceola. Most of them had enlisted in October-November-December of 1861; Prentice was one of the many replacements for soldiers who had died or were discharged.
The following information about Prentice was submitted by Helen Stoltz-Wood.
“Mr. Prentice enrolled at La Crosse, Wisconsin on the 16th day of March 1865 as a Private in Company D, Second Wisconsin Cavalry Volunteers in the service of the United States, in the war of the rebellion and served at least ninety days and was honorably discharged at Austin City, Texas on the 15th day of November 1865. ”1
“Mr. Prentice was born 4 April 1847 in (Susquehanna County) Pennsylvania and when he was seven years old he and his family came to Wisconsin and settled near Osceola, Wisconsin (then known as LeRoy, Wisconsin). He enlisted from Osceola at La Crosse, Wisconsin, with Company B., Second Wisconsin Cavalry Volunteers and with this outfit served during the Civil War.”2
Worthy A. Prentice pioneered in Clayton, Wisconsin, and contributed to founding the town of Clayton in Polk County, Wisconsin. Uncle Worthy Prentice was an early land surveyor in Polk County, Wisconsin.
Worthy Prentice is always referred to as “Uncle Worthy Prentice” by family members as he was an uncle to Alice Hale Wood, and therefore her children used the term ‘uncle’ and then so did her children’s children and so on down the line of family members.
His Polk County and St. Croix County, Wisconsin relatives include:
Aaron Patrick Wood
Patrick Stoltz Wood
Lyle Vernon Wood
Daniel Wood
Alice Hale Wood
Eunice Prentice Hale – Worthy A. Prentice (brother and sister)
Isaac Ward Hale I (father-in-law to Eunice Prentice Hale)
Isaac Ward Hale and Emma Hale Smith—first wife of Prophet Joseph Smith II, founder of the Latter Day Saints church—are brother and sister.
1. Source: Art of February 6th 1907, Declaration for Invalid Pension/U.S. Pension Office.
2. Helen Stoltz-Wood, We Gather Together: Hale Family History, 1630-1937; Wood Family History 1850-1986 (Self-published, 1986), pg 31/B.
The Civil War and Northwest Wisconsin 