Lynton & Grace Scharff lived here

The Houston, Tx. home of Lynton “Pappy” (my step grandfather) and Grace Scharff (my grand aunt) was 1717 California St. (here).

Shackin’ up, Em & Pappy style

Pappy

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.

Given (first) names

Eduard Lynton & Lynton Scharff

In Jewish families, it was customary to name children after their ancestors and we have continued that tradition. In our family tree we have deceased Solomon’s (4), Eduard’s (2), Avraham’s (2), Emile’s (3), Emma’s (2), Samuel’s (2), John’s (2), Lynton’s (2), Frank  Rickey’s (2) and more. For more see this Blog page.

Among Ashkenazim–that is, Jews of Central and Eastern European origin–the custom is to name the child after someone, usually a family member, >who has recently died. In most cases this is a grandparent or great-grandparent.

Xmas break at Club Ozark

Block clan 1950

Little Rock, Arkansas was ground zero for the Block family in the 1950s as all the children of Joseph & Fay Block (Raymond, Samuel, Emma, Lewis and Grace) lived there. During Christmas break, the great grandchildren, the Block family Baby Boomers, would flock to Little Rock.

Block’s jobs, some not so widely known

Many  family members know that Joseph F “Bumpa” Block and Raymond and Sam Block started Block Realty. Few of us have any clue as to Pappy’s jobs.

1. Lynton Lazarus ‘Pappy’ Scharff (husband of Grace & later Emma Block)
   

   Lynton Scharff (in the CCC)

   • Office Clerk – Wholesale dry goods (1920 Census in Harris County Texas)
   • Real Estate dealer (1930 Census in Little Rock)
   • Civilian Conservation Corps, the CCC (part of FDR’s New Deal, a public relief work program for unemployed family men between 1933-1942)
2. Solomon Block(Great grandfather of Jean Bloom)
   • Tobacco & liquor wholesaler-distributor with several stores (US Tax records)

Pappy’s maternal grandparents

See Samuel & Rosa Marx Surname page based on information from the 1880 US Census.

Pappy’s pop: Did you know?

Eduard Scharff, residing in Welsh, Louisiana, USA applied for a United States Passport on 7 May 1894. Eduard stated his birth date was 11 January, 1857 and his place of birth was Rhein Pfalz, Germany; which appears to have been a reference to the Rhineland.

Eduard Scharff

On June 8, 1909 in Matagorda County (quite probably in First National City Bank in Bay City), Texas.  Eduard Scharff applied for another passport (application posted here) and he was traveling with twelve year old Lynton, Eduard stated that his birthplace was the town of was Kleinfischlingen (find it here) in the Rhineland-Palainate state of Germany. (Many thanks to the German Consulate in Chicago for deciphering the handwriting of that town  and locating it’s website, in German of course). And Pappy’s father swore that he had emigrated to the United States on or about October, 1973 aboard the Koln Frankfort which sailed from Bremen, Germany.

Eduard asked the passport to be mailed ‘c/o Sig Brown, Markham. Matagorda Co., Texas’. In an earlier post. I mentioned that Eduard and Pappy were rooming in the Sigmund and Mabel Brown household.

Lynton Scharff and Eduard Scharff

From that trip, Eduard Scharff returned to the United States aboard the Deutschland of the Hambug-Amerika Linie’ ,which sailed  ‘7 Oct 1909’ from Bremen to New York (after stopping in Southhampton and Cherborg). No record yet found of Lynton Scharff having made that trip.

Lynton Scharff lived where?

Lynton 'Pappy' Scharff in 1901

In 1900,  three year old Lynton “Pappy” Scharff lived in Jennings, Louisiana with Esther and Eduard, his parents.

Lynton "Pappy"Scharff in 1910 - Bar Mitzvah

In 1910, Lynton 13, and his father Eduard Scharff were boarders  in the home of Sigmund and Mabel  Brown in Matagorda, Texas; his mother Esther had died about 1906 of tuberculosis.

And in 1920, Lynton, recorded as ‘Scharff, L L’  (which were his initials) on the census rolls and his age was recorded as 22 (which is consistent with his birthdate in 1897), was a roomer in Houston, Texas. His first child, Eduard Lynton Scharff, was born in Houston in 1923.