Notes
Note N00001
Index
Copy of Marriage Certificate--Appendix 1
Original Marriage Certificate in possession of Wayne McNeil
Cemetery located south of Wichita Falls on Hwy 70 in Archer County. Continue south to Lakeside City and turn right on Lakeside Drive; continue to dead end and turn right. Cemetery straight ahead.
Frank Jenson Block's given name in German was Friederich. According to my aunt, Mena Babcock, he was from Westfries, Germany. His wife, according to family history was from Prussia, but was in fact born in Livingston County, Illinois. Her parents were both German immigrants. One census listing has Hessen Cassel, a district due north of Hessen Darmstadt, as the place of origin. Her father's naturalization papers indicate Prussia, however.
According to Wayne McNeil, my cousin, Grandpa Block came to this country as a small boy. He has a copy of the marriage certificate in German (place of marriage--Long Point, Illinois). Frank Jenson Block came to the United States with his family at a young age from Northern Germany in a sail boat across the Atlantic. He had several older brothers who needed to get out of Germany fast in order to escape conscription in the army. It took them four weeks to cross the Atlantic, and they sailed around Florida to enter the Gulf of Mexico where they landed in New Orleans.
After arriving in New Orleans, the family spent two weeks going up the Mississippi River via boat or barge. They sailed for Illinois, where they settled.
Frank's father died and the mother remarried (name of step-father was Leinus or something like that.)
No record of the Blocks can be found in any of the Illinois censuses nor can any be found for the step-
father.
According to Wayne, Frank's stepfather put him to work at the age of ten years pulling oxen. He believes that his brothers may have fought in the Civil War.
Frank was naturalized as an American citizen in 1876. His naturalization records are on file with the Livingston County Circuit Court, Volume C, page 97. The witnesses were F. W. Bauman and J. W. Hoover. The date of naturalization was given as October 23, 1876.
My great-great grandfather, Frank J. Block, had three names in three different languages. His birth name as written on the church records in Akelsbarg, Ostfriesland, Germany, is Frerck Jansen Block. This record was written in platt duitch or Low German, the language spoken in the region. When he married his wife, my great-great grandmother Auguste, the records were kept in hoch deutsch or High German which was the official language of Prussia.
Frank and Auguste spoke German (High German) with one another when they needed privacy. They also taught this language to their two oldest children, John Lewis and Benjamin Franklin. The other children understood words here and there but spoke only English since the parents wished to assimilate as quickly as possible. Auguste was, in fact, a first-generation American. Only her parents and aunts and uncles were from Prussia.
When my great-great grandparents married, my grandfather's name was written as Friederich Jansen Block, which followed the High German spelling conventions for translating names or words from platt duitch into hoch deutsch.
In his naturalization records and all legal documents, including the census records for the time, he went by Frank.
Frank and all of his brothers and sisters lived in the township of Nebraska, which is due north of Long Point, where the Emms lived. He worshipped primarily at St. Petri's Evangelical Lutheran Church and was confirmed there. The Emms (or Imms) worshipped in Long Point.
Frank and Auguste began their family in Livingston County, Illinois. Their first three children were born there, including my great-grandmother, Marie Gesche Block (Mary Block Johnson)
The family of Frank Jansen Block and Auguste Emm moved to Archer County, Texas, either before or after the birth of their daughter, Allie Augusta Block. The census listings list Allie's birthplace as being both Texas and Illinois. They were certainly in Archer County before the birth of the Twins, Fannie and Lena Anora.
They came to Archer County with a number of other German immigrant families from Illinois. My great-grandmother, Marie Gesche Block Johnson, recalled that the family was very anxious to be as American as possible and so the children, with the exception of the first two, could not speak German. When Frank and Auguste wished to discuss something in private, they used German. Marie also recalled having heard the leader of the community mutter something in German that sounded like "got mittens." Because she neither spoke nor understood German, she did not realize that the man was saying "Gott mit uns", which means "God be with us".
Life in Archer County evidently was happy, but rough, rough, rough. Family history states that Frank lost
all of his belongings in the Mississippi River when he sailed down to Texas with the others. They, therefore, showed up with nothing but clothes on their backs.
Auguste died before her husband in Wichita County, Texas, on January 14, 1932 and is buried in Archer County as is her husband and two of their children, Henry William and Ida. They are all buried in Bowman Cemetery, Archer County, Texas.
Frank lived with his daughters, Marie Gesche Block Johnson, and Allie Augusta Block McNeill, before he
died. He enjoyed a little jigger of whiskey every day according to his daughter Marie, whose husband Earl, had to buy it.
Frank is remembered affectionately by all of his descendants.
by: Lars Kristiansen