Blann Photo Album
Rev. Melvin Raymond Blann & Anna Adelia Matthews Photo Album
Robert Arthur Bland and his wife Annie Robinson Bland (the parents of Melvin Blann) dressed for church around 1912.
Detail of a photograph that was hand tinted by an artist of the time.
Annie Robinson Bland on left end and Robert Arthur Bland and his son Elwood in center
standing in front of their house in Hambleton, MD ca.1912. (others are unidentified)
The House at Hambleton, near Trappe, Maryland ca. 1925 and 2015,
where Annie Bland lived the last years of her life
Seated: Arthur Bland and Annie Robinson Bland (ca.1912; others are unidentified)
Buggy ride ca. 1912 with Arthur Bland and son Elwood. Below:detail on left, at right Elwood and Annie wheelbarrow ride.
Robert Arthur Bland (above) lived from 1840 to 1916 in Talbot Co. MD and had 9 children (8 of them pictured at left). His wife, Annie Robinson Bland, was born in 1853 and lived on until 1939. According to family lore. she is the one who changed the spelling of the name to Blann when her oldest son, George (behind her in the photo at left) first went to grade school in the late 1870s. Two of their sons, Elwood and Melvin, became Christian pastors, serving mostly in upstate New York.
Blann family ca. 1938. Front row from left to right: Wilhelmina Smith, Hattie Swann, their mother,
Annie Robinson Blann, and Effie Gray. Back row, left to right: Elwood, Roland, George, Nelson and Melvin Blann.
Below at right is another son, Percy Blann and his wife, Agnes. Percy died in 1917.
Melvin R. Blann ca.1901
Annie Menck Matthews (1860-1830) and Solomon Nicolas Matthews (1849-1934),
parents of Anna Matthews Blann, residents of Trappe, MD. Annie went blind around midlife.
Magdalene Craver Menck (1830-1880) was the mother of Annie Menck Matthews, & daughter of Ann Weatherwax Craver (1801-1869). Magdalene married German immigrant, Johannes H. Menck (1804-1880) in 1849 and they settled in Trappe, MD.
Solomon Troy (1789-1850) was the maternal grandfather of Solomon Matthews. He immigrated from Ireland in the early 1800s.
Below are Anna Matthews Blann's handwritten notes about the Solomon Troy image & Troy Bible, which are still in the family today.
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Anna Matthews ca.1912 and some of her artwork.
Two photos of Rev. Melvin Blann and Anna Matthews from 1916. They were married in Trappe, Maryland on Anna's birthday,
June 29, 1916. According to their daughter, Linda Insley, Anna taught at the Royal Oaks and Bruceville schools in towns near Trappe. She also relates that Melvin Blann proposed to Anna as they went over a bridge, but she made him wait for an answer until they had crossed the bridge. Their first son Melvin Raymond Blann II, was born the following year on April 9, 1917.
Above: Melvin and Anna with their 4 children during the depression, ca. 1930. Front row left to right:
Madgelene (b.1921), Linda (b. 1925) and Troy (b. 1919); Behind them are: Anna, Mel II (b. 1917) and Melvin R. Blann I.
Top left: Rev. Melvin Blann on a ferry (ca.1920). Bottom left: Anna Blann with second son Troy in Finch Hollow, NY, ca.1922.
Above left: Melvin and Anna with their first 2 children Melvin and Troy, ca. 1920. At right is Troy with his baritone horn.
Anna played piano for Melvin's church services, Troy played trombone, baritone & tuba, while Mel II had perfect pitch and
played a variety of musical instruments, primarily keyboards. Mel earned his livelihood as a piano tuner & church organist.
Rev. Melvin R. Blann attended "God's Bible College" in Cinncinati, Ohio and became a minister in the Pilgrim Holiness
Church, a now defunct sect of the Wesleyan Methodist Church. His older brother, Elwood, also a Church pastor, encouraged
Melvin to enter the ministry. Above are a few of the 7 churches Melvin pastored from Mineral, VA to Monticello, NY. In 1952, at
age 61, he retired and returned with Anna to Trappe, MD, where they bought a cottage built around 1910. (pictured below).
Anna Blann in Trappe, MD ca. 1960 Rev. Melvin Blann with granddaughter, Judy ca.1950
THE WAR YEARS: THE NEXT GENERATION
Melvin and Anna Blann (at right) share a picnic lunch with M-Sgt. Troy and Sue Blann (center), Linda Blann,
and Sue's mother, Stella Boone in Washington D.C, where Sgt. Blann was stationed in 1945.
Linda Blann, Melvin Blann II and his wife Ellen Merchant Blann
Melvin was stationed in combat in the Philippines during the war.
1944 --all four were enlisted in the Army (left to right):
Linda, Maggie, Troy and Mel
West Winfield, NY. Anna holds Diane, Melvin I holds Judy, Family music time: Mel plays while the children join in.
and Mel III ("Butch") stands in front. When they were older most played musical instruments and
Christine (foreground) got a music degree from Oberlin.
Photo at left (back row left to right): Judy and Diane; (Front row:) Gregory,
Debbie and Chris Blann. Photo Above (left to right): Mel and Ellen in back
row; front: Judy, Debbie, Chris and Diane Blann. (Trappe, MD 1962)
Back row (left to right): Troy, Anna, Melvin I and Melvin II; (front:) Linda and Magdelene ("Maggie") Blann, ca.1944
Troy and Sue Blann in Washington DC in 1945
The Blann family ca 1951. Back row (left to right): Mel, Ellen,
Maggie, Linda, Sue & Troy. Melvin I and Anna hold grandchildren: Mel III, Chris, Judy, Diane and Rob
Rob, Troy and Gregory in Yuma, Arizona in 1955
Anna Blann plays the piano. On the wall is a
leapord skin from an animal that was shot as it was charging toward Maggie in Africa.
Matthews sisters (left to right): Maude Holmes (1885-1971), Maggie Thume
(1883-1970), Anna Blann (1892-1973) and Beryl Griffith (1898-1990). Mel III
sits across the table. (Not pictured are Anna's brothers: Norman, Olin & Chilton.)
Story time: Aunt Linda reads to Mel's children Above is the house where Beryl lived on Maple Ave. in Trappe, MD.
The house was built by her father, Solomon Matthews, who was a carpenter.
At left: Family of Melvin's brother, Rev.Elwood Blann Above: Hattie Swann and Nelson Blann, Easton 1966
Troy and Mel in a boat ca. 1923
Rev. Melvin R. Blann I with grandson Rob Blann (on right) & Donna Griffith.
Mel, Judy, Diane, Chris and Debbie Blann ca.1957
Anna Blann with grandsons, Gregory, Mel III, & Rob Blann
Troy and Sue Blann's wedding picture, Nashville 1944
Troy, Sue and Rob in London ca. 1950
Gregory and Rob Blann, France ca. 1959
Troy and Sue Blann ca. 1945
Sue, Gregory and Troy Blann in Bayonne, NJ 1952
Gregory in Malesherbes, France
The Troy Blann family home in Malesherbes, France 1957-59
Rob, Troy, & Gregory Blann in Barcelona, Spain
Sue, Gregory and Rob Blann in Paris, France in 1959
M-Sgt Troy Blann in Ft. Benning, GA in 1962
Troy Blann. Linda Insley, Magdalene Mills and Melvin Blann II at Maggie's house in Church Creek, MD ca.1973
Linda Blann in Trappe, MD in 1967
Anna Blann holding her first great-grandchild,
Judy's son, Geoffery Clippinger
Maggie married widower, Carl Mills of Church Creek, MD in 1963.
Carl had three children, Richard, Gloria and Glenda; (Left to right); Glenda, Maggie, Carl and Gloria Mills. Carl was a road worker & farmer while Maggie was an RN charge nurse at a psychiatric hospital
Anna Blann holding Judy's daughter, Jennifer,
while Judy's oldest child, Geoffrey, sits next to
her. The older girl at left may be Glenda.
Anna died in Church Creek, MD in 1973.
(Left to right) Millard and Linda Insley, Troy and Sue Blann and
Maggie and Carl Mills. Millard & Linda married in 1970.
Troy, Heather (Glenda's daughter) and Mel III
in Church Creek, MD in the 1970s.
At left. Ellen and Mel, with daughters Diane and Debbie at their home in West Winfield, NY.
Above is Melvin R. Blann II ca. 1977. Mel used to travel every year or two to visit Troy's family in Nashville, often accompanied by a daughter. On one visit, he tuned our baby grand piano and afterwords played for Troy and Gregory a memorable version of Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C Sharp Minor.
(Left to right) Diane, Debbie, Judy, Mel and Chris
Debbie and Chris (back row), Judy and Diane
(Left to right) Chris Mergenthaler with daughters,
Reneka, Kim-loi and Hiedi
(Left to right): Claire, Gregory, Sylvia, Rachel and Matthew
(Diane's children), Diane and Debbie ca. 1987.
(Left to right) Troy and Sue, Gregory, Sylvia and Claire,
Rob, Barbara and Jennifer in 1983
(Left to right): Claire, Rachel and Heather
A.J., Rachel and Jackson Jenkins
(Left to right) Rachel Jenkins, Claire Wells, Jennifer Sterle
and her daughters, Stella and Haven in Franklin TN in 2023
Troy and Sue Blann in 1998
(Left to right) Rob, Melvin and Gregory Blann
at Sue Blann's funeral in 2007
Travis and Claire Wells ca. 2015
(Left to right) Gloria Mills Pohl, Sylvia Blann, Heather McGlaughlin,
Teresa and Joey Hughes, Scott McGlaughlin in Cambridge, MD 2019
Gregory and Sylvia Blann, Claire Wells in 2019