Bowling Green, Missouri
Bowling Green is a small town in northeastern Missouri that sits along Noix Creek about 10 miles inland from the Mississippi River. Despite the city's small size and relative lack of historical notoriety, it has been home to a few Jewish families during the town's history.
History
Bowling Green founded in 1819 by slave-holding settlers from Kentucky and Virginia. The town takes its name from Bowling Green, Kentucky, from where some of the earliest settlers arrived.[1]
Jewish History
The first known Jewish family in Bowling Green was Eleazer Block, a slave-owner and merchant. Though the date of their arrival is unknown, the Block family lived in Bowling Green by the 1840s. In 1847, Eleazer's daughter Madora married Thomas James Clark Fagg in Bowling Green, the two of whom had their first son, Charles, in 1853. Eleazer's other daughter, named either Sallie or Sarah, married William McCormick in 1861.[2]
Also living in Bowling Green in the 19th century were Benjamin and Annie Younker, Polish-Jewish immigrants who ran a local dry goods store. The Younkers immigrated in 1869 or 1870 and settled in Missouri by 1873. Their daughter Gertrude married Isaac Glasberg, a young Jewish man from St. Louis. Another daughter, Blanche, graduated from Missouri in 1903 with a degree in education. Benjamin died in 1897, leaving the store to his son Herman.[3]
A third Jewish family that called Bowling Green home were the Franks, a family of German-Jewish immigrants. Elias Frank was the first to arrive in Bowling Green in 1875, and he married his wife Rosa in 1888. By 1900, the two of them had a son, Malcombe, and Elias's brother lived with them in Bowling Green, working as a clerk in Elias's store.[4]