Meat and banking were among the specialties of the early day Blurock family. The Blurocks also got some additional attention because a landing on the Columbia River below Vancouver was named for the family.

Most, if not all, of the Blurocks arrived in 1876 after an overland journey with their stock. Historian Fred Lockley said John Blurock was involved in dairying and vegetable raising near Vancouver.

The 1880 census also lists John's parents, Henry and Catherine, as Clark County residents.

John Blurock bought a half-interest in Jere Harmer's meat market. Ads of the 1880s list Harmer and Blurock's Vancouver City Market on Main Street, featuring fresh meat, salted meat, ham, bacon, fish and vegetables. The firm bought livestock and delivered at no charge. After Harmer's death, Blurock took over the business.

About 1897, son Charles Blurock acquired the business. The father, who lived east of the Barracks, died in January 1907, survived by his widow and six children.

The market at Sixth and Main streets was torn down to make room for the U.S. National Building, now the renovated Heritage Building. But the owner constructed another store at 110 W. Seventh St., that the Columbian called "one of the most modern....up-to-date markets on the Pacific Coast." Charles Blurock died in 1916, and his mother in 1922.

E.M. Blurock, another son, had aided his father on the ranch, and was a leading stock raiser. In 1924, he was named president of the US National Bank, which had been chartered about 1910. He continued as a bank official into the early 1930s and later was a salesman for an investment company.

He died in the late '30s.

Return to Clark County Ancestors