My mother was Frances Jean Bloom, descended from one of the first Jewish families to settle in Pine Bluff in the 1850s. John Bloom (1832-1883) and Fannie Bloom (1833-1879) were her great grandparents. Also at that time were:

• David Bloom (1824-1889)
• Jacob Bloom, Sr (1824-1889)
• Jacob (apparently another) Bloom (1833-1900).

These could have been brothers or cousins.

I maintain a family genealogy blog and Pine Bluff is a part of that (here). Other Pine Bluff families that married into my family include Altschul, Eisenkramer, Soltz, Strauss and Weil.

John and Fannie Bloom were buried at Temple Anshe Emeth's (Graceland) Cemetery. See John Bloom 's headstone here and Fannie Bloom's is here). Their young son Moses Bloom (6 Nov. 1855 - 28 July 1867) is also buried at Graceland Cemetery (see link). Some of the later Bloom's left Judaism though I have no specifics; my grandfather (John R. Bloom 1884-1935) and his parents, Charles A. & Grace Rhine bloom, were buried at Graceland Cememtery - Southwood A rather than in the Jewish cemetery.

John and Fannie Bloom's children were:

1. Moses Bloom (1855-1867)
2. Dinah Bloom (1857-?)
3. Mary Bloom (1857-?)
4. Charles A Bloom (1858-1905) m. Grace Rhine (1865-1926)
• John Rhine Bloom (1884-1935) m. Emma Block (1895-1980)
• Frances Jean Bloom (1921-1978) m. Leonard C. Ghertner (1917-2002)
5. Emma Bloom (1860-?)
6. Simon Bloom ( 1861-1931) m. Sophia Rhine (1869-?)
7. Emanuel Buckingham "Buck" Bloom (1865-1938) m. Bessie I Houdlette
             (1870-1911) in 1888 and later he married & Etta Jane Salmson (1880-?)
1. Fannie Bloom (1888-1891)
2. Frank Rickey Bloom Sr.(1890-1955)
• Frank Rickey Bloom Jr. (1921-1975) m. Patricia Ann Barnes (1925-2010)

Jean's grand uncle Simon Bloom, became the first Jewish mayor of Pine Bluff serving three terms from 1913 to 1919. Simon began working for Congressman Clifton Breckenridge and then worked for a railway. When he ran for Mayor in 1913, he defeated W. D. Boies who had used anti-Semetic tactics which proved unsuccessful. It was said Mayor Bloom “accomplished more with a depleted treasury than any of his predecessors who had more money at their command”; he invited Carrie Nation to speak in Pine Bluff but the saloon owners objected. Simon Bloom, also a cotton grower, served as a second lieutenant in World War I. (reference A Corner of the Tapestry, LeMaster)

Another grand uncle, Emanuel Buckingham "Buck" Bloom established a large insurance brokerage in Pine Bluff with his son, Frank Rickey Bloom, Sr. Here is an advertisment for that business in a Temple Sisterhood cookbook titled "Snappy Eats of 1932".