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First and Last Daughters

Five Generations

By Gerald W. Block

Seated on the right is Caroline Matilda Beadle, born in 1828, orphaned, and the wife of Fredrick George Schmidt of Johnson Bayou, Louisiana.  Seated next to Caroline is her first child, Louisa S. Schmidt, wife of Charles Louis Theodore Block.  Standing behind them is Louisa’s first child, Clara Matilda Block, wife of William Albert Brown, Sr.  Standing beside Clara is her first and only daughter, Rubie Madera Brown, wife of James Garland Boswell.  Holding Rubie’s hand is her first and only daughter, Gladys Boswell, born in 1905.

This photograph was almost certainly taken upon the occasion of the Block Family reunion of 1907 at the Port Neches farm home of Albert Bernhard Joachim Block, brother of Charles Louis, and husband of Matilda Ursula Schmidt, fourth daughter of Caroline.

Rubie Madera, a renowned beauty and only 19 in this photo, tragically died the following year, a few months after the birth of a son.  Her only daughter Gladys had no children.