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About Abraham Block
Arrived at New Orleans on May 29, 1848 from Bremen. Last residence Bohemia. Arrived on the ship Louisiana with his mother Sarie Wedelles Block and his sister Ferronica Wedelles Block and his brother Jacob Wedelles Block. Abraham was noted as being age 10. (This record was located on the New York City Castle Garden site but the landing manifest is for New Orleans, Louisiana. )
Abraham (Abram) Block (1838-1899)
Born July 19, 1838 Svihov, Bohemia, Died September 20, 1899 St. Louis.
Abraham was the son of Daniel Block and Sarah Wedeles. He was born in House Number 42 in Svihov, Bohemia on July 19, 1838, ten years before he and his parents came to the US.
Records of his arrival at New Orleans are located. He arrived on the vessel Louisiana on May 29, 1848. He came on that ship with his brothers Jacob and his sister Ferronica and mother Sarie Wedelles. They all used the last name Wedelles on this manifest. He was 10 years old. Daniel Block and son Heinrich were not on this ship at New Orleans on this date.
They are listed in the 1850 census in St. Louis. His father was listed as a butcher. He had a brother Heinrich age 18, a sister Dora age 14 and Jacob, age 16 as siblings. All born in Germany. Daniel was acknowledged as the saudek of Abraham according to Julius Mueller's research in the Bohemian/Czech archives.
Abraham is not in the Kennedy 1860 St. Louis City Directory, whereas his brothers Henry and Jacob were listed as butchers. Evidently Abraham had moved to rural Missouri to run a profitable store. His brothers later moved to the town and ran the store.
Kitty Oman, a Block family researcher, provided some preliminary information on Abraham from her observation of his will. He died 20 September 1899.
Abraham married Sophia Schwartz on February 5, 1868. She died January 23, 1915. He was married at Bnai-El by the somewhat well known Rabbi Kuttner. One witness was S. E. Mandlebaum, the other was possibly Anton Refumr (an unreadable name).
The Block family, headed by Abram with wife Sophia are in the 1870 Census in Missouri, Washington County, Breton Township, Osage Post Office as recorded on 27 July 1870. The age of Abram is 32 and his wife is 28. They ran a store. They have real estate property of $4000 and personal property of $4000. Birthplace is Austria. This is Daniel Block's son Abraham who came over with his father probably in 1848. His mother Sarah Wedelles and brothers Heinrich and Jacob and sister Ferronica aka Dora came over in 1848 to New Orleans and then St. Louis. Dora married Louis Schwarzkopf in 1853 and he died in December 1863. Then Dora Block Schwarzkopf married civil war veteran Samuel Berwin in May 1866. One can guess that Adolph Fischer was introduced to the Schwarzkopf family by Abram Block and that he knew of Celia Schwarzkopf starting when she was a child. She was born in May 1861.
In the 1880 census for the same location in Breton Township are recorded both brothers, Abram and Jacob. They were running the store.
Adolph married Celia in very late 1880. Max Michael Berwin, Dan Brockman's grandfather, was 8 years old at the time of the marriage and was probably a member of the audience. His sister Sarah Berwin was 11 and his brother Harry Berwin was 5 and his sister Carrie Berwin was 12. On the Schwarzkopf side were Frank Schwarzkopf age 22, Leo Schwarzkopf age 18 and Rosa Schwarzkopf age 25.
Sophia had a brother Simon Schwartz who married Mary Klein, and a sister, Pauline (1848-13 July 1926), who married Simon Freund (April 1847-14 Dec 1931). Sophia also had a sister named Augusta. Pauline, Sophia and Simon were the children of Samuel Schwartz and Caroline Katz. This information came from Andrew Norman Schwartz, a Freund family researcher in St. Louis in 2002.
Simon Freund was mentioned in Zion in the Valley as a prominent St. Louis Jewish businessman involved in Bakeries. The Freund Bakery was founded by his father Moritz (Moses) Freund. 1807, d. 13 Dec 1872, in the Soulard district of St. Louis. He supported B'nai El and B'nai B'rith synagogues. Sophia's sisters and brother, and Simon Freund were alive at the time of Sophia's death in 1915. The funeral was from Simon Freund's home at 3011 Longfellow Blvd. She is buried at Mr. Sinai. No spouse or children were mentioned in her obituary.
His brother Henry married a Sophia also, perhaps a Sternberg.
His mother Sarah died August 26, 1870 aged 67 years. His father had died on September 2, 1853, age 50.
Abraham used the name Abram in later life, and his obituary speaks to that name. He died at 1722 Missouri Avenue in the city of St. Louis. His estate was settled in 1901. Simon Freund and Joseph Wachtel signed off on one document of the estate process. Joe Block was one of the attorneys in the process.
Ten years before his death he and Hyman E. Block were sued for damages in St. Louis Circuit court by a Mr. McNulty. McNulty won a judgment of about $250.
He also was involved in some way with the Alms Manufacturing Company of Hamilton County Ohio as reported by a judgment with the Alms family.
He was involved in an importing company called Bacrow, Block and Bigley at 904 North Pine Street. One of the other owners, Robert J. Lucas sued the estate for about $400.
His will leaves personal property to several heirs. He left his sister Dora Berwin $250 in cash. He left his sister in law Sophia Block, wife of Henry Block $250 also. He left his watch and chain to Louis Fisher who lived in Blue Mound Kansas at the date of the will, 1894. He gave his scarf pin to his nephew Royal Glicklich of La Cygne Kansas. The Fischer's were related to his sister Dora's children by her first marriage to Louis Schwarzkopf. The remainder of his estate was left to his wife Sophia Block. She was the executrix also.
What does his obituary say?
The cemetery record says he was buried in Block 42 at New Mt. Sinai.
Dan Brockman Barrington IL Updated with the information from the Kansas burial records JOWBR.
Rechecked, November 24, 2009, no new data available at this time. Went to Missouri Digital Heritage where I found his will and estate records, November 28, 2009.
Copyright Dan Brockman 2009, exception for personal use granted. danbrockman@comcast.net March 10, 2011
Castle Garden April 14, 2011 search find.
Ship Louisiana/Abraham Wedelles. His arrival was actually at New Orleans. There is now some doubt about using Castle Garden records because they fail to describe where the landing took place. I have a copy of the manifest with his name on it, and his family, from Ancestry.com. New Orleans is correct. Ship Louisiana came often to New Orleans. August 31, 2011.
Extensive Freund online genealogy site, with updates to 2011 and links to certain family members who are on Facebook is at : http://home.earthlink.net/~anschwartz/personal/genealogy/freund/fre...
Extensive telephone conversation with Andy Freund on December 21, 2011. He will be sending along some data from his mother about the Block family.
Information received. Files in Block Genealogy
From Freund work online Andy's mother
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Abraham Block's Timeline
| 1838 |
July 19, 1838
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Švihov, Klatovy District, Plzeň Region, Czech Republic
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| 1899 |
October 20, 1899
Age 61
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St Louis, MO, United States
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| ???? |
New Mount Sinai Cemetery, 8367 Weber Trail Dr., St Louis, MO 63123, United States
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