SAMUEL HORROCKS*: Samuel
was born in New Church, Lancashire England 13
December,
1843, and was the son of Betty Law and Lawrence
Horrocks. Samuel Horrocks was married the first time in England in
1866 to Eliza Jane Holt and had two
children. In the early 1870's Samuel left England under some kind of scandal &
came to the United States.
Samuel liked to race dogs and brought his racing dogs with
him. His nickname was "Red Sam" because he had red hair. He first
appears in the St. Louis City Directory in 1873. He is listed as a
machinist living at 2241 Columbus. He appears again in 1875 working as
a weaver for Bemis. This is the company he worked at for 50 years.
He invented the unraveling thread technique for opening the tops of feed
sacks. Every time I open a feed sack this way I am proudly reminded
that my great grandfather invented that technique! He turned the patent over
to Bemis and in return was promised a life time job and a pension for when
he decided to retire. Samuel also worked delivering coal at one time.
Aunt Lil told me a story once that back in those days it was commonly
believed that people's cellars/basements were haunted so the men would throw
an old broom down the coal shoot to scare the ghosts away first before
dumping the coal down the shoot.
Samuel married Orelia Michaud in St. Louis,
Missouri in 1876. He appears in subsequent St. Louis City Directories up
until the year 1921.
In the 1920 census for St. Louis, Missouri Samuel's immigration date is listed as 1870
& he was naturalized in 1884. His occupation is given as watchman at a bag
factory. His son, Lawrence, is living with him. In 1924 Samuel decided he wanted to go back to England to die.
His wife, Orelia, and many of his children had already preceded him in death. He
booked passage on the RMS Scythia and sailed for Liverpool. He asked his grandson
(my father) Gus Ziock to go with him but Gus declined. I
have a post card with a picture of the ship on it that he sent to my father which
indicates that Samuel chewed tobacco as he comments that on the ship there were no
spitoons and spitting on the deck was not allowed.
While on board the ship Samuel, who was nearly blind, was robbed of all
of his money so when he arrived in England the authorities were going to send him back to
the U.S. because he had no money. However, Samuel was able to contact his son John,
whom he had probably not seen in 50 years, and John came and took Samuel home with him.
Samuel died in 1926 and is buried with his parents & several siblings
in the Wesleyan Methodist Cemetery, Rawtenstall, Longholme, Lancashire,
England.
I have a letter written by Samuel (to my father & his sister) where Samuel tells of going to the cemetery to visit his parents' graves. It is because of this letter that I was able to locate where Samuel came from in Lancashire. I have other letters he wrote & after he went blind his son John wrote a letter & I also have a letter by his daughter Bertha. To view these letters go to Horrocks Family Correspondence
Children of Samuel Horrocks & Eliza Jane Holt:
1. BERTHA - born 1870 married Bennett Parkinson in 1888. I have not yet traced their children.
2. JOHN - born 21/8/1870 Married: 1. Margaret Pickup in 1893 2. Emma Adeline Maslen in 6/1903 and they had 6 children. Richard born 8/12/1903 married but no children, William Horrocks (my father) born 20/12/1904 married Nancy Hamer and had 2 children, John born and died in 1955 and Richard (me) born 29/7/1952 married Eileen Tromans 4/10/1975 and I have 2 children Rachel Louise born 1/9/1977 married 20/5/2000 and Laura Jane born 15/10/1980. I was born in Haslingden and still live here.Harry born 6/9/1907 married Emily and had ! child Sheila. I cant remember her husbands but she has a daughter Claire. Millicent born 12/1/1909 married and had 1 child Melvyn who is married to Margaret Flanagan, has 2 children Susan and Carol and still lives in Haslingden. Edith I do not know anything about. Alan born 21/3/1914 married Nora but he died in the 2nd world war in France 7/8/1944. 3. Jane last name unknown. John died 20 February 1955 & is buried Longholme Cemetery, Rawtenstall, Lancashire, England.
3. SUSAN ELIZABETH - b: 1874 - m: John Spencer Pickup in 1899
Children of Orelia Michaud & Samuel Horrocks born in St. Louis, Missouri, USA:
ANN- born 1877 & married 1) Albert J. Webers 28 June 1894. They had one son, Alexander Webers born 1895. 2) Ann's second husband was George Casper Meek. They had three children: George Oliver, Walter L. & Stanley R. Ann died 13 May 190 & is buried in St. Mathews Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri.
LAWRENCE - born 1878. He never married. In the St. Louis City Directory in 1897 he is listed as a packer. In 1899 he is listed as a cutter. 1900 he is a presser. 1901 laborer. 1902 iron. 1903 tailer. 1905, 1906 & 1907 laborer. 1908 mach. 1909 & 1917 laborer. His death certificate says he last worked as a laborer in 1920. He had stroke while still young & resided in the City Sanitarium. Lawrence died there 4 November 1937. Aunt Lil to me that his body was donated to science but I have documents that say he was interred in New St. Marcus Cemetery, St. Louis. His death certificate gives his address as 631 S. Broadway. It gives the principal & related causes of death as: Cellulitis of leg, Chronic Choleystitis, chronic cholelithiasis, encephalomalacia, nephroaclerosis. He died November 4th & was buried November 6th.
ESTHER* - according to her tombstone she was born 27 July 1879 in St. Louis, Missouri but her death certificate says
her birth date was August 26th. She was the daughter of Orelia Michaud & Samuel Horrocks. She married August Ziock,Jr., on 27 July 1901 & they became the parents of two children: a daughter, Lillian Cecille, & a son, August Theodore (my father). Esther liked to play classical music on the piano. Esther died of pneumonia 26 August 1913 at St. Vincents Institution (a mental hospital) in St. Louis. There is a lot of mystery & discrepancies about her hospitalization & death. I was told that she had been hospitalized for one or two years but the death certificate says she was only at St. Vincent's seven days. It also gave her birth & death day as the 26th of August but her tombstone gives a birth date of July 27 & she was married on July 27. There are also two death certificates - the original & a supplemental. The first gives pneumonia ?hypostatic? as the cause of death with congestion of brain as the contributory. The supplemental gives pneumonia lobar as the primary cause & ?mitral stefiosis? as the contributory for which it gives one year as the duration. The primary certificate gives her former place of residence as 1017 Rutger but she was living at Cherokee St. & Missouri Ave. when she went to the hospital. I know this because one time back in the 1970's Gene & myself & my parents went to pick up mom's old Pfaff sewing machine from a place on Cherokee St. & while walking down the street my father indicated a house on the other side on the corner of Missouri Ave. & commented that that is where they (he & his parents) were living the night they took his mother away. 1017 Rutger is where her father-in-law, August Ziock Sr. lived & later August Ziock Jr. & my father August T. Ziock.
I don't know what happened that my grandmother, Esther, had to be sent to a mental hospital but I was told that one night she was taken away in an ambulance & my father never saw her again until he went to her funeral. The night that she was taken away she made my father promise to finish his religious training in the Lutheran Church & get confirmed. He kept his promise to his mother but after his confirmation he never went to church again. He felt that if there really was a god why did God let his mother suffer & die the way that she did. Esther Horrocks Ziock is buried in New St. Marcus Cemetery. Above is her picture when she was a teenager. My mother is the one that told me this & I was told to never ask my father about it which I never did. But I've always wondered about the circumstances of that event. I was also told that she had "female" problems.
There is another picture of Esther as an adult on the Ziock page. Several people have said that I look very much like my grandmother, Esther whom I am named after. Her daughter & my aunt, Lilian Ziock Palmer, told me that she always thought I looked so much like her mother. I've had one or two people look at the picture (above) & not knowing who it was asked me, "How old were you when this picture was taken?" Then I told them that it wasn't me but my grandmother.
LILY - born 1884. Died 13 May 1888 of inflamation of the brain. Residence at time of death - 2413 DeKalb Street, St. Louis.
FANNY - born 1887. Died 5 June 1888 of inflamation of the brain. Residence at time of death - 2413 DeKalb Street, St. Louis.
JOSEPH - was born 7 May 1889 in St. Louis, Missouri. My aunt Lillian Ziock Palmer told me many years ago that he
married a woman named Nora who had a daughter by a previous marriage & Joseph was in Detroit, Michigan when last heard of. He first appears in the St. Louis City Directory in the year 1907 as a laborer living at 4620 Michigan Ave. This was his parents residence. He appears again in the Directory in 1908 as a driver still living with his parents. He appears again in 1909 as a laborer - same residence. On a draft registration card for WWI he is listed as residing in Detroit, Michigan. His marital status is single & his occupation is laborer. The date of the registration is 5 June 1917. In the 1920 census Joseph is listed as Joseph Horrock & wife Elnor in Dayton, Montgomery County, Ohio. They are lodgers in a boarding home. No children listed. His occupation is given as guard at an airplane field & Elnora's is a sales lady in a department store. The 1930 census list Joseph in Detroit, Michigan. His occupation is given as service man at an auto plant. Birthplace Missouri, birthplace of father England & birthplace of mother Mississippi. I am wondering about the Mississippi birthplace as his mother was born in Illinois. The Social Security Death Index lists his death date as December, 1963 in California & his social security number was issued in Michigan prior to 1951.
Thanks to Sandra Shaffer for the picture of Joseph.
RICHARD "DICK" - On Dick's draft registration card (1917) for WWI his birth date is listed as 3 July 1894. He is
single & his occupation is elevator man for the Bemis Bag Co. He had blue eyes & brown hair. I remember my father telling me one time when I was a teenager that Richard was a gangster & was killed in a gang fight during prohibition. I wish I would have asked him more about it as I have not as yet been able to find any information on the incident. I asked my father's sister, aunt Lilian Ziock Palmer, about Richard but all she would say was that he was a gangster & just "disappeared". He is listed in the St. Louis City Directory in 1919. He is in the 1920 census living in a boarding house. No occupation is given. After this I can find no more information on him. I have found no record of him buried in any St. Louis cemeteries where other family members are buried so it is possible that his death occurred somewhere other than St. Louis. I've searched all the on-line death records for Missouri between 1910 & 1957 for every possible spelling of Horrocks & can't find a death certificate for him so believe he may have died in another state.
Believe picture may have been taken at Horrocks residence on Gravois Rd. My father told me once that when he was a child he used to roller skate down Gravois Rd. when it was just one lane.
1813
in Haslingden, King Street Wesleyan Methodist, & was the son of Richard
Horrocks. On 25 April 1840 Lawrence married Betty LAW who
was born at Deerplay, Newchurch, Lancashire1819. She was christened 17 May 1819 at Bacup,
Lancashire & was the daughter of Samuel LAW (occupation
weaver). Betty & Lawrence were married in the Parochial Chapel at New Church,
Lancashire & their marriage license gives their place of residence at that time as
Heald. Lawrence's occupation was power loom overlooker & Betty's occupation was
weaver. In the 1851 census Betty & Lawrence & the four oldest children were
living in the township of New Church, Ecclesiastical District of St. Nicholas.
Lawrence died in 1876 & is buried in Longholme Methodist Cemetery, Rawtenstall,
Lancashire, England. Betty died in 1895 & is buried by her husband. Thanks
to Rev. Wedgewood for copying (by hand)the Longholme Church records (four pages)
pertaining to my Horrocks family. At right is a picture of the tombstone in
Longholme Methodist Cemetery, Rawtenstall, Lancashire, England. Thanks to a
Longholme church member for photographing this for me in the 1980's.