Lebanon County, Pa., Store Ledgers And Personal Diary 1857-1865 Shank, C. H. (Christian Henry) Biography & Autobiography,Ephemera,Pennsylvania

Approx. 200 pages; 31 cm. Calf spine and marbled paper over boards. Contains: 66-page store ledger with surname index 1856-57; 71-page "Accounts of the Firm of Shank & Weltmer" 1857-58; 52-page "Diary by C. H. Shank" Jan. 1868-April 1870. Christian Henry Shank (1834-1895), son of Henry and Magdalena Shank, was born in North Annville Township, Lebanon Co., Pa. He worked in stores in Annville and Union Deposit; farmed the Shank homestead in North Annville; engaged in timber land speculations in North Carolina; went into the shoe business with John Kelchner; and was the bookkeeper of the Lebanon Stove Works. He married first Leah Landis (1842-1868), with whom he had Alice (1859-1938), Clara (1860-1881), and Ida (1868-1868); and second Barbara Funck (1840-1924), with whom he had Florence (1879-1956) and Henry (1881-1949). In the period covered by the diary he was working the farm and then moved into Lebanon and started working in a store. His non-work activites included: travelling to Virginia for a week; attending camp meetings, the state fair, political meetings, a convention in Lebanon, "the Drummer Boy of Shiloh" (possibly the play by Samuel Muscraft), church conferences and lectures, and an organ dedication; serving as a juror; joining a hay fork company; and taking goods to the poor house. His wife Leah Landis Shank "gave birth to a Female child" in Feb. 1868; on Sept. 2 he notes: "Been to the Doctor several times about my wife she died at Quarter past one oclock." Several days after the funeral he rented out the farm and mill. The baby, Ida, who had been staying with his mother in Lebanon, died a month later. In Feb. 1869 he sold his personal property at the farm, moved to a house he had purchased in Lebanon, and started working in John Rauch's store. He continued to be involved in various other money-making ventures, including raising and selling Italian bees; making medicine "under the name of Shank, Heiss & Co"; and investing in a hay rake company and in land in the Bay River area of North Carolina, which he visited in Jan. 1870. In Nov. 1869 he "Left for Detroit Michigan this morning to have Perry arrested and brought in to Leb[anon] if Possible, but he made his escape to Canada," probably someone who owed him money. In Jan. 1870 he notes that he "spent a few hours after church with Miss Funck," which continues regularly until the beginning of April, when he prepared to return to North Carolina. In Good Condition: loss of leather from spine; back board is detached but present; old dampstaining at upper edges of ledgers and into upper half of pages in the diary, which is still legible.