Logan County Illinois Biography of Everett Wayne Bock and Rebecca Mae "Billie" Haynes Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm Submitted by: William L. Stephenson, Jr., Biography of Everett Wayne Bock and Rebecca Mae "Billie" Haynes History of Logan County Illinois 1982 Transcription by William L. Stephenson, Jr., - Historian, Bock Family Association When Wayne and I met on Derby Day, 1942 in Lexington, Kentucky, his sister and I were finishing our freshman year at Transylvania College. The following year he was graduated from the University of Illinois and entered the Army. After completing Officers Training we were married in Somerset, Kentucky, my home town. My parents were William E. and Mae Stephens Haynes and I bear their names. After Wayne was discharged from the service as a liaison pilot in 1945 we made out home in Selma, Alabama where our daughter Rebecca (Mrs. Edward Barry) was born in 1946. When she was a month old we returned to Elkhart to start farming for his parents, Everett M. and Louise Gluick Bock. We lived in Elkhart hoping that the REA would reach the farm before we moved but after eighteen months it seemed hopeless so we moved on St. Patrick's Day. It was another year before we had electricity. In the meantime we used a gasoline generator for power to pump the water and a few lights at night. It was another eight years before we were connected to the "Party-Line". It would have been even longer if Wayne had not bought the poles and strung the telephone line three-quarters of a mile. Wayne's mom died in 1950 and our son Roger Wayne was born the following year. We have three summers that we will always remember: 1954 when our youngest son, Gerald Edwin was born and the drought-reduced corn yield hardly paid the fertilizer bill; 1963 when our house was destroyed by fire; and 1981 when Elkhart was flooded on the Fourth of July. Our children had finished their high school education at Elkhart, Becky was married and teaching, the boys were students at the University of Illinois and Southern Illinois University when we moved back to Elkhart in 1973 from the farm three miles southeast of town. Wayne and his brother, Harold and sister Julia were born there. His paternal great-grandparents, Abraham and Julia Mohr Bock had settled there in 1867. They had immigrated from Rhein Preussen, Germany to Waverly, Ohio in 1851. George W., one of their six children was Wayne's grandfather. George died when he was 37 and his widow, Anna Steinhour Bock was left to raise five young children. Everett being the oldest helped his mother operate the farm and keep the family together. His brothers, Gerald F. and George pursued other lines of business and his sister, Julia Bock Miller became a teacher in the newly established Elkhart High School from 1920 until 1936 when she launched a second career and became a world traveler-lecturer. Un a couple of years Wayne hopes to retire and turn over the complete farming operation to Roger, who now farms for his grandfather. We would like to travel and delve further into our "roots".