Johann (John, Jan) Stierler is my great-great grandfather. Born in Germany on January 21, 1837, he lived most of his life in Ostfriesland, where he was raised. We know very little about his early life, except that he married a girl named Jorma Dorman (aka Jennie Dannan, Jennie Dermere—names seemed to be very fluid in those days). This marriage produced six children: Buss (1/13/1866), Janna (9/29/1868), Tom (8/29/1871), Martje (Martha – 8/12/1874), John (8/4/1877) and Claus (11/10/1880).
At some point after Claus was born, Jorma died in Germany. In contrast to the far-more-frequent practice of marrying soon after the death of a spouse, Johann remained unmarried for 15-20 years. In other words, he faced the challenge of raising teenagers and younger children by himself.
I’m not sure if it is a testimony to how well he did in raising them, or how poorly, but it wasn’t long before Johann was dealing with only four children instead of six. In 1884 his oldest son Buss on his own boarded a ship and migrated to the United States, at 18 years of age.He started out living in Germany Valley, Illinois.
In 1886, son Tom decided to follow his older brother, and at about 15 years of age boarded a ship unaccompanied to make his way to the USA. Tom joined Bus in Germany Valley, Illinois, where the brothers stayed for about a year before heading to the Little Rock, Iowa, area.
Three years later, perhaps after hearing from Bus and Tom that the Little Rock area was just where the family wanted to be, Johann decided to come to America with the rest of his family. So in February of 1889, he and his four youngest children left their home in Bunde, Ostfriesland, Germany, and traveled to Bremen, where they boarded the S.S. Neckar, captained by Heinrich Supmer.
The S.S. Neckar was a 3,120 gross ton ship, 350 feet in length. It had one funnel, two masts, an iron hull and a single screw with a speed of 13 knots. The ship had undergone a major renovation just three years previously, in which it was enabled to accommodate 50 first-class, 21 second-class and 574 steerage passengers.
584 passengers joined the Stierler family aboard the ship. Six of those passengers were in the cabin (1st class), and those six brought with them 7 pieces of luggage. It is telling to realize that the 583 steerage passengers carried only 189 luggage items. Of interest in imagining what life was like for the 2-3 weeks afloat is the breakdown of ages among the passengers: 437 adults, 116 children and 36 infants.
My guess is that Janna and Martje may have had some special excitement during the voyage, if they were aware that a newborn baby was born at 4:15 a.m. on February 27, while the ship was about halfway across the Atlantic Ocean. So one additional passenger was registered when the ship came into port.
The S.S. Neckar arrived at the harbor in Baltimore, Maryland, on March 5, 1889, where the scribe filling out the list of ship’s passengers that day must have been on his first day of the job. The list for the Neckar is filled with corrections, as well as errors which were never corrected.
For example, 52-year-old Johann’s oldest daughter Janna (Johanne) is listed as his 26-year-old wife. One can imagine what the scribe was thinking as he wrote that down! Martje was written down as Sonutstze and listed as having no relationship to Johann. It is intriguing to ponder why the scribe wrote all the passengers from Germany as being from Prussia, which is unusual to see on ships’ lists.
Johann and his family made their way to the Little Rock, Iowa, area soon after arriving in the United States. It was not long before they experienced another sorrowful loss, when Martje died.
That first year in America must have been quite the time for Janna Stierler. Less than 12 months after arriving, April 23, 1890, she gave birth to her first son, John. Less than 2 weeks later, on May 3, 1890, she married John’s father, Henry Block, Sr. At least Henry’s name is on John’s birth certificate, sworn by John before a deputy clerk of court on May 21, 1956. Four years later, on August 14, 1894, their third child was born, whom they named Jennie. Jennie is Opa’s mother and, therefore, my grandmother.
Those are the details as they have been recorded, and while the facts are quite settled, they do raise some interesting questions, because there are many details behind those facts which are quite unknown. It is easy to make assumptions about the situation, but assumptions can be dangerous.
For example, it is possible to assume that Henry Block, Sr. was an irresponsible 24-year-old man who fathered a child out of wedlock and then wouldn’t even marry the 21-year-old mother of his child until after she had given birth. Such an assumption seems reasonable, and it may even be correct. However, the more I consider it, the more I doubt that it is correct. That’s because there are other, known details which need to be pondered and give rise to the possibility of very different, possible scenarios.
We still don’t know for sure when Henry Block emigrated to the United States from Bunderhammrich, Ostfriesland, Germany. One source tells me it was in circa 1877, while another source suggests around 1886 or 1887. Many hours of research have yet to determine when and on what ship Henry and his family arrived. If it was in c. 1877, he would have become quite familiar with life in America by the time he met Janna Stierler. I happen to think this was by far the more likely situation.
That being the case, Henry would have been in Iowa for about 10 years before Janna arrived. He would have become well known by the community, and he would have gotten to know people in the community well.
When Henry Block, Sr. died as the result of an automobile collision in 1938, the Little Rock Free Lance newspaper account of his life states that he was a charter member of the Salem Reformed Church in Little Rock, and goes on to report that he served as a deacon in that church from the time of its founding until he became an elder of the church. Here is how the Free Lance stated it: “When the local Salem Reformed church was organized, July 29, 1894, Mr. Block was one of the charter members, and served as deacon until January 7, 1912. From that time until his death he served as an elder. During all of those years, he was a faithful attendant and liberal contributor to the church.”
Considering the culture of Little Rock, the culture of the day, and the beliefs of the Christian Reformed Church at that time, it would be somewhat shocking to think that the church would place into office a 29-year old man who just four years previously had fathered a child out of wedlock and not married the child’s mother until after the child was born!
The Free Lance article reported that at Henry’s funeral, about 1000 people crowded into the auditorium to honor his memory, while hundreds more who could not get into the building listened outside. To quote the Free Lance again: “Attesting to his wide acquaintenceship (sic) and the high esteem in which Mr. Block was held, an estimated 1,000 persons filled the large Salem church, with hundreds being obliged to remain on the church grounds, where the services were brought to them by means of a public address system. Relatives from several states were here to attend the services.”
The newspaper account describes Henry’s community service, declaring, “Shortly after his retirement from the farm, Mr. Block purchased a number of shares of stock in the local First National Bank, became a member of the board of directors, and for a number of years was president of the board. He also became a director the the Farmers Elevator company which operated here for a number of years,…”
The same issue of the newspaper carried a note of thanks from Henry’s wife Janna, stating, “We wish to thank our neighbors, friends and relatives for their acts of love and sympathy, and also the quartette for its comforting words in song, at the time of the recent loss of our beloved husband and father.”
In other words, Henry was considered an upstanding, honorable member of the community, rather than an irresponsible, reckless man. This leads one to favor other conclusions than that which paints him (and Janna) in a bad light. One could even envision Henry voluntarily marrying Janna and claiming her son for his own, even though she had been assaulted and raped by someone else taking advantage of her naiveté about life in America, then raising that son as his own.
We may never in this life know what really happened, nor do we need to know. However the facts of this situation in the lives of our ancestors serve well to remind us to be careful in rushing to judgment about people, events and situations in our own day.