Harry Schock was born in Kovna, Lithuania on September 8, 1897.
Harry’s Schock’s father (Pesach) died in Russia when he was two and his mother Freda – from which Fred was derived – died leaving him an orphan at the age of ten. He had a brother Issac, four years his senior, and other siblings (contact lost during WWII – one of his sisters’ married name might have been Rosenberg). Another brother, Yakov, became “head of household” following the death of their mother. (See Historical Documents and Historical Details)
Harry’s given name, Girsh, was Hershel in Yiddish and Harry in English. His full name was Girsh Peisakhovich Shokhor according to that same document.
Harry Schock came to the United States in 1914 from Kaunas (Kovno), Lithuania (then Russia) just three months before the outbreak of WW I. At the time, he was 17 years old. Had he remained past his 18th birthday that coming October, he would have been conscripted into the Russian Army. His brother, Issac, came to the US several years before Harry “to avoid conscription” according to Issac’s eldest daughter Jeanette Schocker.
Details of Harry’s journey from Kovna to Hamburg, Germany (DE) are not known. What is known, however, is that on April 29, 1914, he departed Hamburg heading to Emden, DE on the S. S. Rugia before crossing the Atlantic and arriving in the port of Philadelphia, PA on May 15, 1914.
In 1918, Harrry registered for the draft. Draft Registration Card. In 1921, he petitioned for Naturalization. When he became a U.S. citizen in 1922, (U.S. Naturalization Certificate) he changed last his name officially from Schochor to Schock from the original Shokor. His brother Issac Shokhor’s surname name was spelled Schockor when he came to the US.
Harry Schock worked as a butcher in Arron Friedman’s store and lived with the Friedman family in West Philadelphia.
Celia Morris was born in Briest-Litovsk (after WWII Brest) on July 4 1901. She and her mother cam to the US in 1903. Her mother’s maiden name was Rappaport.
A early photograph shows Celia, the eldest, her younger sister Martha and brother Jacob. Another bother, Donald, had not yet been born.
Celia Morris and Harry Schock became engaged on December 2, 1923 and married on February 22, 1925 in the Bronx, NY. Subsequently, the lived at 2300 Lombard Street in Philadelphia, PA.
While living the the Bronx, NY and working for the K.M. Company, Celia obtained a H.K.H. Silk Company, NY 1922 Calendar Book and used it over the following fifty-plus years as a diary.
On subsequent pages, she records births, marriages, addresses and other significant dates and details. Each of the following displays an image containing the aforementioned information.
Another paper with birth and death dates folded in her calendar book contains 6 names and dates.
A newspaper clipping from 1912 describes a fire in her parents’ home.
Their sons, Paul and Fred were born while Harry and Celia were living at 5935 Belmar Terrace, Philadelphia, PA.
Because of circumstances, our family had to move to Brooklyn, NY in the spring of 1939 to live with my grandparents at 1063 E. 15th street. For me, that was a fun time; not so for my parents. It was fun getting to know my Aunt Kay and Uncle Donald who live on Sheepshead Bay; fun seeing Aunt Martha and Uncle Nat again; fun flushing the overhead toilet tank with a long pull chain; fun poking on an old, out-of tune upright piano that sat in a corner of the living room; fun watching the BMT elevated train through the kitchen window and hearing the brakes screech as it approach the Avenue J station just a block away; fun being in the house and smelling the aroma of Grandma Morris’s challah and chicken soup coming from the kitchen and fun when my parents took us to the New York World Fair (1939) in Flushing Meadow. While Paul and I were having all of this “fun”, my parents were wondering what the future held for them, and for us: where we would live; where might Dad find a job; where would Paul and I go to school; would we remain in Brooklyn, return to Philly or go elsewhere? In spite of these concerns, I remember that my parents, along with Aunt Kay and Uncle Donald, went to the World’s Fair the evening before they took Paul and me. That Friday night is still clearly etched in my mind because I didn’t want my parents to go. As the tears flowed, Grandma tired her best to comfort me by telling me that I would be going to the fair “tomorrow”. I think that I must have been a “cling-on” and simply didn’t want my parents to leave; I had never been watched by a “baby-sitter” and I didn’t like that change at all. The next day, however, I had one of those “never-forget memories” when I saw that iconic image of the Trylon and Sphere at the fair grounds. It’s seems ironic that my parents were concerned about their circumstances while attending a world’s fair subtitled “Building The World of Tomorrow”. Or, perhaps, they were just dreaming of what the future might bring.
After returning within the year to the City of Brotherly Love, we moved from southwest to northeast Philly; somehow my father obtained a bank loan (thanks probably to FDR) and opened his own small business, a grocery store featuring meats and delicatessen. The apartment above the store became our home for the next seventeen years; the alley and garage area behind the building my playground. Dad worked countless hours in the store, building his relations with customers and providing for his family. During the Second World War (1941 – 1945), he traveled far and wide to purchase products for the store. On one occasion, he and his best Friend, Alex Levin, also a grocery/meats/delicatessen store owner, traveled from Philadelphia to Richmond, VA just to purchase hind-quarters of beef for their customers. On recounting the episode briefly, he talked about how long it took (two hours) to get through Baltimore. That was the first time I had heard of the city which would become so important to me and my family in years to come.
Three years after the war ended, Dad was able to purchase his first brand-new car, a 1948 Chrysler Sedan. I remember, when I first climbed into this cream-colored beauty, how amazed I was with the dash board and its back-colored lights. Being fifteen and looking forward to getting my driver’s license the following year made this even more exciting. I soon realized that our 1936 Plymouth sedan would be my “wheels” as I learned to drive. When I finally had my license, the Plymouth replaced my wagon as the delivery vehicle for our customers’ orders.
Harry Schock Store
After selling their business and property on October 8, 1956, Mom and Dad lived for several months with Issac (brother) and Bella (sister-in-law) in Easton, PA. When, in 1957, he landed a job working as a butcher in Jim Adams’s meats and grocery store back in northeast Philadelphia,
Jim Adams Store – Harry Schock
they took up residence at 1300 Wells St. where they live on the second floor of a duplex row house from January 1957 until August 1968.
Their last residence was a first floor apartment at 401 Gibbsboro Road, Lindenwold, NJ.
Harry Schock died on November 8, 1978 following major arterial surgery.
In September 1985, Celia Schock moved to an apartment in Baltimore, MD to be near Fred and Joni who live at 510 Windwood Road. In 1988, following the onset of late Alzheimer’s disease, we moved Mom into a Retirement/Nursing facility where she died on December 3, 1989 after hospitalization with pneumonia.
Celia and Harry Schock are buried in Har Yehuda Cemetary (Section L, Line 7, graves 5 & 6) located in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania.
Har Jehuda Cemetery
Upper Darby, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, USA