Read Joseph (“Bumpa”) F. Block’s letter to Mae (PDF)
In the letter to Mae (now identified below) Uncle Joe says the Block family moved from Camden to old Mexico for a year or two during the Civil War and that his father (who was Solomon Block) owned ‘many Negro slaves’. According to the 1860 Slave Census (PDF) , Solomon Block owned 3 adult slaves and 5 children.
Following Uncle Joe’s salutation are two paragraphs possibly by Mae. In one, the writer says that Solomon Block (Uncle Joe’s father) traveled to this country with his first cousin Wise whose son became Rabbi (Isaac Mayer) Wise in Cincinnati. Actually, Solomon Block and Rabbi Wise sailed on the same ship (the Marie) from Bremen to New York in 1846 (p 17. A Corner Of The Tapestry, by Carolyn Gray LeMaster, University of Arkasas Press, 1994). In 1884, Rabbi Wise had married Theresa Bloch who was the first cousin of Solomon Block.(Dr) Stanley Block was the eldest son of Dr Isadore Block of Waco, Texas who was a brother of Uncle Joe.
Charles Henry Block, 1921 passport photo
Joseph F Block’s youngest brother Charles Henry Block had a daughter Mae (or May on her birth record) Rockwood Block, who was the likely recipient of this 1942 letter. Joe mentions Mae having sent a letter from Los Angeles which could have been during a
Mae Rockwood Block, 1921 passport photo
trip because Mae was born in
St Louis and lived her married life in Atlanta, Georgia. See this post.
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