Klock Connections
Issue # 16, November 2002
Fort Klock, St. Johnsville, New York
The
Klock Reunion will be held at Fort Klock in St. Johnsville, New York on August
2, 2003. This is the plan so far, as it is still in the works…. some
changes may still be made.
The Reunion will start at 9:30 am at Fort Klock with a bus tour. Three busses have been reserved so far. This is the agenda for the bus tour.
Leave Fort Klock 9:30 A.M.
1st Stop Palatine Church for a ½ hour talk.
2nd Stop Stone Arabia Church for a ½ hour talk.
3rd Stop Klock’s Church
4th Stop St. Johns for a talk on the Church’s History, Sandwiches, soup, beverages and dessert will be served at this stop.
5th Stop Fort Herkimer Church for a brief Visit
Return to Fort Klock at about 2:00 p.m.
The cost for the Bus Tour will be $15.00 per Person, meal included. I am looking forward to the bus tour. It should be lots of fun. It will be about a 55 miles tour and will take about 5 hours.
At 2:00 the second half of the Klock Family Reunion will start. The Fort will be open to the public and tours will be given so we can see how our ancestors lived in the mid 1700’s. We will have a chicken dinner at the Fort in the Dutch Barn between 4 and 5 p.m. Cost of the dinner will be $10.00 per person.
Fort Klock will be going all out again .… to make us feel at home and to welcome us to the home of our ancestors. It would be my guess that there are some 4000 to 5000 descendants spread all over the country and world. I would love to see at least three hundred show up for this reunion. We had a good turn out for the Klock Family Reunion that was held August of 2001 at the Fort. The area tour will give us a chance to visit other historical sites that we would miss if we just went to the family reunion at Fort Klock. I have been to Fort Klock in St. Johnsville twice, both times could not find the time to visit these other historical sites. I am looking forward to the bus tour and to visiting Fort Klock again.
I will keep you informed as plans develop for the next Klock Family Reunion.
Margot Bevens talks about her father, John Klock, and the Haunting at Fort Klock.
My Father, John Klock Sr. was born in Dolgeville, New York on August 5th 1899. His first job was at the old St. Johnsville Theater as a projectionist for silent movies. Later my Mother played the piano at the theater. They were quite a pair.
My Mom and Dad stayed at the Fort once, no one was living there at the time or they were away. My mother was so scared- - there was this story about an attic door that would not stay closed no matter how they tried to secure it… it was always open in the morning.
My mother swore to me she heard the squeaking and banging in the house late at night.
There is also a story about a young girl who peeked out a window during a raid on Fort Klock and was struck in the head with an Arrow, you can hear her screams sometimes late at night.
I remember going to the Fort in the early forties, my Aunt Clara was wearing a white apron and waving to us as we pulled in. She had dinner for us and we spent the day. We had heard that the there was a tunnel that ran underneath the Fort to the river. We looked for the entrance but never could find one.
My oldest sister, Valetta was born in the little house across from the Fort and she went to school at the little school house by the Fort.
My father told me why my grandfather and my grandmother were buried in separate cemeteries. My grandfather Lipe is buried in the Old Klock Cemetery and my grandmother is buried in the St. Johnsville Cemetery. When my Grandmother died and the grave was dug at the Old Klock Cemetery, water came into the grave and my Dad did not want to bury his mother in a swamp. When his Dad, Lipe died he was buried in Old Klock Cemetery, water also came into that grave when it was dug, but his Father had wanted to be buried in Old Klock Cemetery, so water or not he was buried there.
This Article was taken from a letter I received A 9/2/02 from Margot Blevens. Most of the words are hers. I changed it a little for effect. Thank you for writing and for you comments about the Newsletter. I am glad you enjoy it. I get a lot of great comments on the Newsletter. Thank you all for the wonderful comments.. It makes all the work worth while.
Another Ghost Story
During the Revolution, enemy British Solders and Indians who were wounded or captured, were held prisoner in the Cellar at Fort Klock, until they could be moved to another location. They were chained to the wall in the cellar, the chains are still there and the blood stains are forever embedded in the stone on the floor of the cellar. There was this one British Solder who was shot, seriously injured, he was chained to the cold stone wall. Sometime during the night he died.
It was winter and the ground was frozen, his body was burned in the field, along with several of comrades who had fallen in battle. With no grave, marker or stone to mark his grave, his spirit is trapped in the cellar, chained to the cold stone wall of the old stone house where he died. Late at night you can still here his moans coming out of the cellar.
Author Unknown
Someone told me this story at the 2001 Klock Reunion. I can not remember who. It is a good ghost story and with Halloween just around the corner, it is a good time to re-tell it.
Do you have a story you would like me to print in Klock Connections…. Please send them too me… I could use the help and besides I want this to be a Family Newsletter and you are part of this Newsletter Family.
Brian L. Klock
Brian Klock,
(Benny, Leroy, William T. Ezekiah, Henry G., George I., Johannes, Han Hendrick
Jr. and Hendrick Klock.) was born in Bethesda, Maryland and grew up in Rockville,
Md.
He is the youngest son of Benny Klock who is a retired Astronomer and Geodesist who now lives in Florida. I did an article on Benny a few months ago. Brian is a Attorney in Washington, DC. He is a Partner in the Law Firm of Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper & Scinto. The Firm has about 150 attorneys in three offices in Washington, New York, and Costa Mesa, California. The firm specializes in intellectual property law ( patents, trademark, copyright, and trade secrets ) Brian specializes in patent litigation in the electrical and mechanical area. He is a registered Patent Attorney and is authorized to obtain patents.
Brian attended College at Virginia Tech where he received a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1988 and M.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1990. He then attended law school in the evenings and earned his law degree. (with High Honors) from George Washington University in 1994. Brian worked full time while in law school. The first two years he worked as a Patent Examiner at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He worked with inventors and their attorneys to insure that the statutory requirements for patent to be issued was met. The last two years while in law school Brian worked for the law firm that he works for today, as a law clerk/patent agent.
Brian lived in Manhattan and worked in New York City Office in 1996 through 1998. In 2000 he was elected a partner in the firm and was made Hiring Partner in the DC office where he spent a lot of time doing recruiting for the firm.
Today Brian does quite a bit of traveling for the law firm. He recently returned from Japan where he met with one of the firms largest clients. This was his second trip to Japan this year.
Brian is not married, (last time I talked with him) and loves to go “spelunking” with his brother, Mark and his other friends. Now what is spelunking? I had to ask Brian, I did not have a clue… Spelunking is exploring caves…. not the commercial ones either, like Carlsbad or Mammoth Cave. He likes to explore the small non commercial ones that are hidden in the hills of Kentucky, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and other states. Brian’s brother Mark got him interested in Spelunking and they get together and go as often as they can. This sounds like something I would not want to do… I do not like bats, snakes and other creatures that fly and crawl around in the dark. But I got to give you guys credit for such and interesting and what seems to me a dangerous hobby… If you get time, could your or Mark tell us more about Spelunking. I know I would like to here more about it… E-mail or Write me a letter or maybe write a article for Klock Connections. Maybe send me a picture of inside a cave where you have been and what you find inside them… It sounds like a very interesting hobby.
Digging up Bones
I was in Otsego a few days ago, checking on some information. A friend of my wife had told her that there was a Klock Family living in the Otsego Area. I though I knew about all the Klocks that live in Michigan. There were no Klocks listed in the Phone Book in Otsego but I had to investigate.
I stopped at City Hall and they told me that there were no Klocks in the city, but the name sounded familiar… I should check the township hall, They might know something there. While driving I saw a old Cemetery. The Caretaker was mowing the grass so I thought I would see if there were any Klocks buried in the cemetery… I stopped the caretaker ( He turned out to be the Sexton )and asked him if there were any Klock’s buried there… He told me that there were some Clocks there. Did not know about the “K” spelling. So he said for me to meet me back at the office and we would check the record book. While driving back to the office, a wood chuck wandered out in front of me and stopped in the middle of the road. I did not want to hit it so I stopped. Then this critter went under my Van. I got out to see where it went and it was laying down on the highway right in front of my driver side front tire. I was standing less the two feet from the critter and he did not want to move. I tried to shoe him away, then the caretaker drove by and I showed him this crazy woodchuck. The caretaker wanted me to run over it. Then the woodchuck moved in front of the lawn mower and the caretaker ran over him. He had to be ran over two or three times and never even did try to get away. The caretaker told me he had been after a woodchuck for quite a while. He did not know if this was the one but one had been getting into graves, the old ones without vaults and had been bring up bones… so he wanted to get him. This wood chuck wanted to commit suicide. It must have been sick or something for it to be acting like that.
There were no “Klocks” buried in this cemetery, but we did find several Clocks buried there. I found a member of this Clock Family and talked with her. Mrs. Anna Russell was 97 years old and her maiden name was Clock. Her family had lived in the same house since it was built in the late 1850’s. The Family had bought some land in the area and logged off the trees to built this house. It is a beautiful old home. She did not know her line beyond her grandfather who had moved to Michigan from New York after a stay in Ohio. Her father and grandfather was buried in the Cemetery where I had been earlier. I needed to get going because I was late for another appointment but I would like to talk with her again.. Next time I will take my Klock/Clock Genealogy Book and see if we can find her family in the Book.
Obituary of Mrs. Hendrix
A Sad Case… A Fairfield Woman Commits Suicide on Account of Her Daughter’s Clandestine Marriage Fairfield, Oct. 15- This quiet little village has been considerable stirred up for the past few days over the suicide of Mrs. Byron Hendrix, wife of a farmer residing near this village, which occurred Monday evening. It seems that Mrs. Hendrix’s daughter, Emma, was clandestinely married last week in Herkimer to Charles Klock, son of Jacob Klock, a farmer residing near the Hendrix home. Last spring young Klock began paying attention to Emma. Emma’s parents apparently did not like young Klock and one Sunday night when he made his regular call, Mr. Hendrix informed him in plain but forcible language, “not to call again.” The young couple were desperately in love, however, and managed to keep up their courtship with pen, ink and paper, they arranged to get married clandestinely, the prospective groom arranging with a Middleville minister to tie the knot, last Wednesday just previous to the departure of the 7 o’clock train.
The minister, however, failed to appear at the appointed time and when the train blew the whistle, the young couple ran to the depot and boarded it and went to Herkimer where they were married Thursday by a minister in that village and the announcement was duly chronicled in Saturday’s Times. The announcement of her daughter’s escapade prostrated Mrs. Hendrix and a physician was called to attend her. The doctor left an ounce bottle of ammonia, ordering that it be administered to the sick woman. She speedily recovered and was able to be about the house Monday. Monday evening she sat in the parlor talking with her husband and son, and was apparently in the best of spirits. Suddenly she went to her bedroom and swallowed what was left the bottle which the physician had left for her use the previous Thursday. Drs. Nichols of Fairfield and Edsall of Middleville were summoned and did all they could to relieve the woman’s suffering, but their labor was in vain and at 4 o’clock Thursday afternoon she died in great agony. The daughter, Mrs. Klock, was at the bedside of her mother throughout her sufferings. The funeral of Mrs. Hendrix was held at 1 p.m. this afternoon.
October 16, 1891
This Obituary was sent to me by a new found cousin Amy Vankampen of Schuyler, New York. She was doing some research and found it in the Schuyler History Book in the Herkimer County Historical Society. Thanks for sending this article to me Amy and the other information you sent.