Histories

The Rudolph and Catherine Peters family immigrated by 1844 making them an early German family in the Bowie County, Texas, area. Rudolph Sr. first appears in the Bowie County tax list in 1846 as R. F. Peters

Their first two children were born in Germany: Sophia Ann in 1836 and Rudolph Jr. in 1840. Daughter, Elizabeth Johanna, was born 5 April 1844 in the Republic of Texas. Two more children were born in Bowie County, Texas: son Edwin in 1846 and daughter Isabella in 1848. Each of the children married and had large families. Sophia married fellow immigrant Behrend Johnson and had six children. Rudolph Jr. married Sarah "Sallie" Platner from Mississippi and had three sons. Elizabeth married German immigrant Frederick Block (Bloch) about 1861 and had twelve children. Edwin married fellow Texas native Emily Wellborn and had eleven children. Isabella married Texas native Henry Proctor and had seven children. 

Elizabeth and Frederick Block's eldest son, Johann "John" R. Block, married Sarah Frances Ziegler from Tennessee on 27 December 1882 in Kaufman County, Texas. They moved to Estancia, New Mexico Territory, before 1904. There John was a Torrance County Sheriff who captured three of five men wanted for the murder of Duran, New Mexico, merchant, Anton J. Coury. The men were tried, found guilty, and sentenced to hang on 28 July 1922 in Estancia. Later a fourth man was tried, found guilty, and hung on 6 April 1923. Sheriff Block was the last sheriff in New Mexico to legally execute a convicted felon by hanging.

John and Sarah had seven children. Six were born in Texas: Beulah in 1883, Fredrick in 1885, Vernon in 1888, Belle in 1892, Frank in 1895, Cora in 1901. Truman, the seventh child, was born in New Mexico in 1904.

Sources:

1846 tax list, Bowie County, Texas

1850 and 1860 US census, Bowie County, Texas

1870 and 1880 US census, Hunt County, Texas

1900 US census, Archer County, Texas

1910-1940 US census, Torrance County, New Mexico

Julie Carter, "Estancia - New Mexico's Last Hanging" (Once available at www.townofestancia.com/)