A central hub in Forteanism’s Westward expansion, though he eventually lost interest.
Donald Beatty [Edit: Beaty] Bloch was born 18 September 1904 in Evansville, Illinois. His father, Ben, was a salesman (in 1910), the son of two German immigrants, born himself in New York. His mother, Vera P. Beatty was a daughter of Indiana. They had been married around 1904, when Ben was about 25 and Vera 23. Donald was their first child. They moved often enough in his early years. According to the census, they were in Louisville, Kentucky, when Don was six.
According to his memoirs, “Journey to Parnassus,” he spent the summers with his maternal grandparents, Daniel and Margaret, at 1219 Franklin Street, in Columbus, Indiana. This seems to have been the center of his life. They were a very middle class family—picnicking each year at the population center of the country, then five miles southeast of Columbus, and memorializing the day with a photo. Don and his friends seem to have hung out with vagabonds—offering food to “hoboes” who gathered at the rail yard spur, and learning to swim and carve wood from “Jack the Bum,” who appeared every summer in Columbus. The family attended the First Baptist Church.
Donald Beatty [Edit: Beaty] Bloch was born 18 September 1904 in Evansville, Illinois. His father, Ben, was a salesman (in 1910), the son of two German immigrants, born himself in New York. His mother, Vera P. Beatty was a daughter of Indiana. They had been married around 1904, when Ben was about 25 and Vera 23. Donald was their first child. They moved often enough in his early years. According to the census, they were in Louisville, Kentucky, when Don was six.
According to his memoirs, “Journey to Parnassus,” he spent the summers with his maternal grandparents, Daniel and Margaret, at 1219 Franklin Street, in Columbus, Indiana. This seems to have been the center of his life. They were a very middle class family—picnicking each year at the population center of the country, then five miles southeast of Columbus, and memorializing the day with a photo. Don and his friends seem to have hung out with vagabonds—offering food to “hoboes” who gathered at the rail yard spur, and learning to swim and carve wood from “Jack the Bum,” who appeared every summer in Columbus. The family attended the First Baptist Church.