Block, John T.

 Submitted by Mike Miller

John T. Block, a public weigher and gauger in the sugar and molasses business of New Orleans, is a native of Missouri. He was born at Cape Girardeau on the 1st of April, 1835. At the early age of eleven years John T. Block was left wholly an orphan, his father dying in 1846, and his mother when he was an infant. He was then left to the care of his uncle, John Juden, who brought him to New Orleans, his place of residence. Mr. Block attended the public schools of New Orleans until he was twelve years old, when with the idea of mastering the printer's trade he entered the office of Hinton & Bros., but before two years had elapsed he was compelled to discontinue on account of his health. He afterward procured a clerkship with W. H. Bunnell, with whom he served a year, leaving to accept a more remunerative and better position offered by William L. Robinson, with whom he remained until reaching the age of twenty-one, when, at the suggestion of his friend and employer, he launched out for himself as a weigher and gauger, and as such has remained until the present time, with the exception of the four years of the war. The firm was first known as Rolf & Block, then Engelhardt & Block, Block & Gerard, and now John T. Block & Co. Upon the war cloud bursting over the country, Mr. Block answered the call and joined Company B, Louisiana guard, First regiment, Louisiana volunteers; said regiment left for Virginia on the 28th day of April, 1861. In August of the same year the company became an artillery company in Stonewall Jackson's corps, and was then known as the Louisiana Guard artillery. He remained a member of this company through the war until the surrender at Appomattox, and was in all the many battles that the guards were engaged in but that of Chancellorsville, being absent on furlough. He was never sick, wounded, or taken prisoner. He is a member of the Benevolent Association Army of Northern Virginia, and has held the position of treasurer of said association for the past eleven years. He is also a member of the United Confederate Veterans, and one of the board of governors of the Southern Historical association, and is intimately connected with many other enterprises of New Orleans. In 1866 he was married to Miss M. Celeste Dimitry, daughter of the late Prof. M. Dracos Dimitry, who was well known in educational and literary circles. Mr. and Mrs. Block have five children: Theo. H., John T. Jr., Celeste M., Walter B. and Susie D.

From Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, volume 2, p. 298.