Solomon and Mary (Levinson) Block
I found records at Findagrave.com that Solomon Block and Mary Levinson Block (my great great grandparents) and Lena Grace Block, a younger sister of “Bumpa”, were buried at Jewish Rest Cemetery in Camden, Arkansas. (Also see International Jewish Cemetery Project). I was particularly interested in cemetery burial records, particularly for Mary L. Block who had passed in Chicago, Illinois but was buried in Camden, Arkansas six months later (see this).
July 1912 Letter from Hebrew Union College to Congrgations without Rabbis
Part of the training for American Rabbinical students at all three Hebrew Union College campuses is to travel to under-served Jewish communities to conduct worship services. The Jewish Archives in Cincinnati has letters dated in the 1890s
from the Hebrew Union College Administration to local congregations regarding placement of student Rabbis. When the program began, students only traveled for High Holy Day services. I have a copy of an 11 July 1912 letter sent to congregations with no Rabbi (twenty seven are listed and 5 are crossed off). Camden, Arkansas and Port Gibson, Mississippi are on this list.
Congregations were started in Camden, Arkansas (1870 and named Beth El Emeth “House of God of Truth”) and Pine Bluff Arkansas (in 1866 and named Anshe Emeth “Men of Truth”). These communities flourished but later the Jewish populations declined.
Norden Bombsight
The Norden bomb sight was a tachometric device (which incorporated an analog/mechanical computer and linkage to the airplane’s autopilot) that was used by United States forces to help the crew drop bombs accurately on selected targets from high altitudes in ‘precision’ bombing raids.. It was first used in World War II by the US Army Air Corps and the US Navy. Victor Adding Machine Co. manufactured these during WWII.
Lynton Scharff
Lynton “Pappy” Scharff lived in a Houston, Texas boarding house of Rena and Anne DeGroot (from Holland) at the time of the 1920 US Census. On 27 Oct. 1920, he married Jessie Grace Block. Eduard Lynton Scharff was born in 1923 and the family continued to reside in Houston. Pappy owned a building in downtown Houston but he lost it in the Great Depression. There may have been a miniature golf course on the roof.
Frances Jean (Bloom) Ghertner
Leonard Ghertner 1939
Frances Jean Bloom, whose home was Little Rock, Arkansas, attended school at Nashville’s Ward-Belmont College, a very prestigious ‘finishing school’ for girls, mostly from
Middle Tennessee. It’s likely Leonard Cooper Ghertner was still living at his family’s home at 1702 Ashwood Avenue (after my birth, our family continued to live at that Ashwood Avenue address until I started first grade in the 1950s).
I recall my dad (Leonard Ghertner) told a story that Simon Ghertner’s name had been changed to include the ‘h’ at Ellis Island because ‘it looked better’. Actually it appears Simon Ghertner never entered the United States through Ellis Island. According to this Smithsonian article, the changing of names at Ellis Island is largely a myth.
Great Blizzard 1951
In 1951, my family lived at 1702 Ashwood Avenue in Nashville, Tenenssee, which was the house where my father and his brothers were raised (Simon and Dora Ghertner had lived there since at least 1920). When the storm struck we ran out of milk so my dad Leonard trudged out in the snow for groceries. He came back with milk alright but all the store had was buttermilk my baby brother and I would not drink.
