Blankman Family Connections Thursday, August 10, 2006 By Janet Clerkin Contributing writer With the publication of "Adirondack Characters and Campfire Yarns," the North Shore connections to the Blankman family have come full circle. The family lived in Constantia off and on for about 100 years, moving to St. Lawrence County during the 1920s. In the book's dedication, author William J. O'Hern writes that the much of the material is the result of Lloyd Blankman's "efforts to honor Adirondack pioneers and woodsmen. This book would never have crystallized without Lloyd's initial research and his son Edward's passion for all things Adirondack. For that, I thankfully dedicate this book to Lloyd and Edward Blankman." According to Edward Blankman, a retired English teacher and retired school librarian who lives in Adams, the Blankman family left Holland after the Napoleanic Wars and settled in Hastings around 1820. The family had a prominent presence in Oswego County and an enduring interest in writing. Edgar Blankman, Lloyd's father, taught in one-room schoolhouses in Constantia and Hastings, and was a well-known cartographer. He made several detailed wall maps of towns and counties in northern and central New York, and in 1889 made a large wall map of Oswego County. The maps were sold to attorneys to hang in their law offices and to the one-room schoolhouses scattered across Oswego County. Perhaps his most interesting achievement, however, was Edgar Blankman's publication, in July 1906, of a novel set on the north shore of Oneida Lake entitled "Deacon Babbitt." The family moved to St. Lawrence County and lived in Canton for a time, before returning to Oswego County. Edgar Blankman died in 1924 and is buried in the cemetery in Cleveland. His son, Lloyd, attended school in his early years in Constantia. He graduated from Fulton High School in 1921 and from St. Lawrence University in 1927. Lloyd Blankman became enthralled with the history of the Adirondacks after reading Harvey Dunham's classic, "Adirondack French Louie, Early Life in the North Woods" published in 1952, according to Edward Blankman. He became close friends with Dunham and shared Dunham's fascination and reverence for the self-reliant characters and haunting landscape of the southern Adirondacks. Lloyd Blankman traveled tirelessly through Herkimer and Hamilton counties, and "had no compunctions whatsoever about going to various places" to capture stories from old-timers, said Edward Blankman. Many of the stories were published in Lloyd Blankman's newspaper column, "Adirondack Characters," in the Clinton Courier newspaper during the 1960s and early '70s. Lloyd Blankman also wrote for "North Country Life," "Forest and Stream" and "New York State Tradition" magazines. In the introduction to "Adirondack Characters," Edward Blankman writes, "My father was very enthusiastic in his love for this history of the North Country. He visited every place that he ever wrote about, and he enjoyed talking with as many people as he could find who could recall the 'Golden Age of the Adirondacks'. . . My father and I visited with many people on our own forays into the woods in the 1950s and 1960s. He would never fail to come home with some special memento that he had bought or that someone had given him. It might be part of the roof from one of Louie's camps or a campstool that the hermit had made . . ." After Lloyd Blankman's death in 1973, the Blankman family donated many artifacts to the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake, including French Louie's hunting knife and fishing spoons. "I thought Jay O'Hern did an excellent job," said Edward Blankman. "He kept after me for years and years and said he wanted to write such a book. I let him take all the information I had. Roy Reehil did a fine job of organizing the material once Jay had sent it to him," he added. Lloyd Blankman's father, Edgar, Lloyd, and Edward are all published authors. Edward Blankman writes a monthly column under a pen name for the Watertown Daily Times. In God we Trust Let there be Peace, Mary Lou 315.625.4575 www.syracuse.com/weblogs/parish http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/Parish-Community-Recreation/ --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail Beta.