Logan County Illinois Biography of Henry Frederick Adam Bock Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm Submitted by: William L. Stephenson, Jr., Biography of Henry Frederick Adam Bock History of Logan County Illinois 1982 - Henry F. A. Bock Transcription by William L. Stephenson, Jr., - Historian, Bock Family Association Henry Frederick Adam Bock was born at Beason, Logan County, Illinois on January 26, 1905 to Henry and Minnie Awe Bock and was the eldest of six children as follows: Henry, Hilda, Walter, William, Carl, and Adam. His mother come to this country from Germany when she was none years old. It took twenty-one days to cross the ocean. He received his first nine years of schooling at Mt. Zion, a rural school near Beason and then three years of high school in Beason. He married Elda Meinershagen July 25, 1933. She was born in Higginsville, Missouri in 1905 to Julius and Elsie Starke Meinershagen. Mr. and Mrs. Meinershagen had two children, Henry and Hilda, moved to Logan County in 1937 and settled on a farm on Fifth St. Road. A brother, Otto, was left to farm the home place at Higginsville. For the first seven years of their married life, Henry and Elda lived on a farm in the Atlanta area. Then they purchased a farm on Route 10 two miles west of Lincoln. This was their home until after Elda's death in 1971 and until Henry was unable to farm in 1977. Henry and Elda had two children, Elsie, born in 1937, was a missionary nurse in Ghana, Africa for two and a half years. Henry and Elda were able to visit her there. Elsie married Gerald Piotrashke and they now live in Denver, Colorado. They have two children, Gary and Gregory. John, born July 29, 1939, is a graduate of Eden Seminary in St. Louis. He is a minister at St. John's church in Elmore, Ohio. He married Carol Jena of South Bend, Indiana. They have two children, Tamara and Timothy. Henry was quite interested in aviation and in 1946 took over the operation of commercial airport on his farm from Ray Suiter. He operated this airport for several years. One of his projects was delivering chicks from Lincoln to Dallas, Texas and Leavenworth, Kansas. This airport was considered one of the better airports in Illinois at that time. Later, a Logan County Airport was built and Henry operated that. At one time there were fifty students taking flying lessons. Henry became well acquainted at this time with Bill Piper, maker of Piper planes. Henry is known in the Logan County area as "Mr. Crop" because of his untiring efforts over many years with the CROP drive in the area. He has been a faithful worker over the years in St. John United Church of Christ in Lincoln. After four years of visiting and helping out at the hospital during his wife's illness, Henry continued many hours of voluntary service at the hospital's extended care unit after her death. For these endeavors, as well as all his other philanthropic works, he was chosen Logan County Citizen of the Month in July, 1969.