The collection includes: family, personal, and business correspondence includes letters from his brothers, Amos and William, about their inheritance, farm products, the sale of grain, a new steam grist mill and railroads in Ohio, outrageous prices for dry goods during the Civil War, school life in Ohio, elections (1877), land prices, drought (1886), church life, Standard Oil Company drilling, etc., 1848-1892. Also included are miscellaneous church records of the Greenbush Christian Church, 1858-1908. Political correspondence and newspaper clippings documenting the National Greenback Party, 1882-1887, and undated are also included. Lastly, Blank’s diaries describe expenses, the weather, personal activities, churches in Greenbush and Eureca, Clinton County, Michigan, the death of his wife, Lydia, his childhood in Ohio (recounted in 1879), Greenback activities (1880-1881), death of his child (August 1882), suicide of his friend Britton (September 18, 1885), and Prohibitionists’ activities (1887-1888).
Biography:
David Blank (1826-1890) was raised in Woodville, Sandusky County, Ohio. He came to Clinton County, Michigan, in 1858, where he farmed, was active in the Greenbush Christian Church, and the Greenback political party of Prohibitionists. David had two brothers, Amos, in Michigan, and William, in Ohio, who were agents for farm machinery. (For further family information see p. 202 of Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Sandusky and Ottawa, Ohio, in the Clarke Historical Library).
