By the time this photograph was taken by one of her grandsons, Alvin E. Wichmann, Emilie had buried her husband and two of her seven children. She was, at the time, very near her 94th birthday.

Emiline/Amiline Louisa Carolina Schievelbein Bloch, born August 28, 1852 in Gut Gruenberg, Birkholz, Kr. Dramburg, Pommern, was a daughter of Wilhelm Christian Schievelbein and his wife Maria Christine Köpke. She came to the United States with two older married siblings. They arrived in Baltimore on June 28, 1873 on the ship, Berlin, via Bremen and Southampton. Apparently it was a rough voyage and Emilie later said that she suffered seasickness the whole eighteen days at sea. Emilie had borrowed the money for her passage from her brother-in-law and worked on a farm near Omaha for wages of $8 a month to repay the debt. Besides the regular household duties, she milked eight cows daily.

While living near Bell Creek (Arlington) in Washington County, Emilie met Gustav Bloch (Johan Gustav Bloch, son of Johan Bloch and his first wife, Henriette Redetzke). The couple married at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Bell Creek on March 11, 1876. The first two of their children were born in Fontinelle Precinct, Washington County. In about 1880 the young couple moved to Gosper County where they homesteaded on the banks of Elk Creek. They lived in a soddie for several years and often had Native Americans sharing their land. The family suffered the typical problems of early Gosper County settlers, including prairie fires that swept across the plains without warning. These fires, often started miles away by lightening, were spread by the dry winds and burned anything in the way. It was after one of those fires that the Native American family camped on the shore of Elk Creek packed up and left the area for good.

For additional information about Emilie and her family see Bloch Family Group Sheet

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