Category: Articles

These are family history articles we have written to summarize in one document what we know (or think we know) about a particular ancestor, ancestral line, or someone else who caught our interest. Warning: we both have a serious grudge against genealogists who do not cite to sources. We try not to commit that sin, so our articles typically have a plethora of footnotes identifying our sources. We use four main categories of source documents: (1) county records, such as deeds, wills, tax lists, court records, etc.; (2) abstracts of such original records; (3) non-county records such as the federal census, state censuses, and military records; and (4) books. We rarely if ever cite to family trees posted at ancestry.com, the Family Search website, or elsewhere on the web.

Outline chart for William Galloway Rankin’s family (part 4)

The last three articles on this blog have been about William G. Rankin,  nicknamed “Willie G” by the two of us. He was apparently displeased with the nickname, see the most recent post about him here.

This post is almost, but not quite, a traditional outline chart. It has some commentary and includes minimal evidence. Three important legal documents — a probate court petition to sell the land of Robert C. Rankin as well as two wills — are abstracted at the end of the chart.

The probate court petition illustrates an important research point: one of the best things that can happen to a family history researcher is to have an ancestral family member die intestate, without children, and leaving an estate. The decedent’s property will pass to his or her heirs under the jurisdiction’s law of intestate descent and distribution. ALL of the heirs will be named in the inevitable petition to sell land or other request of the court. Any such request involving the decedent’s estate must, as a matter of law, name all heirs and make them parties to the proceeding. Thus, a petition to sell land (for example) of a childless decedent will name his or her parents if living, surviving siblings, children of deceased siblings, and –here’s a real bonus! — identify their locations. I conclusively proved a great-great grandmother when I found such a petition on microfilm, and did several twirls of my swivel chair with my arms in the air in the Family History Library in SLC. Everyone on the row grinned, knowing what had just happened.

When we found a petition to sell the land of R. C. Rankin among the probate papers of Mercer County, Pennsylvania, we had found the equivalent of the Rosetta Stone for this family.

I tracked this family trying to find a living Rankin male who might be willing to Y-DNA test. No luck. Ah, well, maybe next time. Meanwhile, here’s the chart,  along with abstracts of the relevant legal documents following the chart.

See you on down the road.

Robin

1 William S. Rankin, b. abt. 1786, d. 1857, Mercer, Mercer Co., PA. The 1850 census says he was b. PA, although an abstract of his son William’s death certificate says he was born in Scotland. What makes the latter somewhat plausible is that his son William has the middle name “Galloway.” On the other hand, typical immigration and migration patterns make PA seem more likely than Scotland. His will left everything to his wife in fee simple except for a small gift to their housekeeper.[1] His wife was Martha Jane Cook, b. abt. 1790, Washington Co., PA, died in Mercer in 1873.[2] She is buried in the Mercer Citizens Cemetery along with her husband, one daughter and SIL, and three sons.[3] Six of her eight children predeceased her. She was a daughter of Robert Cook and his wife Mary (probably Mary Ann, see the first Rankin daughter) of Cecil Township, Washington County. Her father left her $250 when he died in 1826.[4] William S. most likely also lived in Cecil Township when they married, but I cannot identify him among the legion of Rankins there.

    2 Mary Ann Rankin, b. abt. 1814, died 1850-55. Husband Benoni Ewing, b. abt 1807. At least one census called him Benjamin, but three legal documents are clear that his name was Benoni. The Ewings lived in Crawford Co., PA.[5]All of their children are named in several documents except for Samuel, who died young and who only appeared in the 1850 census.[6]

      3 William R. Ewing, b. abt 1837.

      3 James M. Ewing, b. abt 1839.

      3 Elizabeth Ewing, b. 16 Nov 1842, Hartstown, Crawford Co., PA, d. 6 Jan, 1901, Mercer, Mercer Co. Husband James Alexander Stranahan, b. Philadelphia, 1839, d. 1922, Harrisburg, Dauphin Co., PA. They were married in 1874.[7]He was a Civil War veteran. Both are buried in the Mercer Citizens Cemetery.

      3 Martha Jane Ewing, b. abt 1846.

      3 Robert Rankin Ewing, b. 18 Oct 1847, Hartstown, PA, d. 19 Jan 1939. His Mercer Borough, Mercer Co. death certificate identifies his middle name and his parents as Benoni Ewing and Mary Ann Rankin.

     3 Samuel Ewing, b. abt 1849, d. by 1856.

     3 Margaret E. (probably Emma) Ewing, b. abt 1861.

   2 Robert C. Rankin, b. abt 1816, d. 22 Jan 1855. His middle name was almost certainly Cook. He was an attorney. Lived at home with his parents and accumulated a fair amount of land, including mineral rights in some coal seams. Never married. He died intestate and without issue, which is conclusively proved by a petition to sell his land after he died. Buried in the Mercer Citizens Cemetery in the borough of Mercer, PA.[8] Claims on Find-a-Grave that he fought in the War of 1812 and that he had a wife and son are readily disproved, see the abstract of the petition, below.

   2 James L. Rankin, b. 1820 – 1825, d. by 1855. Wife Madeline Williamson.

      3 James Lee Rankin Jr., 14 Apr 1846 – 30 Sep 1933. His death certificate gives his parents’ names as James Lee Rankin and Madeline Williamson.[9]

         4 James Rankin (possibly James Lee III?), b. abt 1876.

         4 William Scott Rankin, b. Nov 1882, d. May 1931.

             5 William Scott Rankin Jr., b. 2 Sep 1928, d. 8 Jul 1954. He was a pilot training instructor and died in a plane crash. Buried in the Laurel Grove Cemetery North, Savannah, GA.

   2 John H. Rankin, b. abt 1820, d. 1872. Will dated 30 Nov 1870, proved 28 Aug 1872. Mercer Co. Will Book 6: 31. His mother was living with John in the 1870 Mercer Co. census, in which he valued his realty as $38,000.  He had purchased several tracts from his brother Robert’s estate. John’s estate is recorded in File No. 3428, Mercer Co. He is buried in the Mercer Citizens Cemetery with his brothers Robert C. and William G., sister Mary Ann Rankin and her husband Benoni Ewing, and his parents Martha Cook and William S. Rankin.[10]

  2 William Galloway Rankin, 1822 – 1891, Manhattan. Captain, U. S. Army with a checkered career. Married at least once, no known children. See three blog articles about him at the links in the footnote.[11] Find-a-Grave information about him is mostly incorrect.[12]

   2 Samuel H. L. Rankin, b. about 1823. Probably died in the Civil War. Was in New York City in 1855 and 1860. He was listed in the household of the William Snell family in the 1860 census along with his 5-month old son. His occupation was listed as “shoe store.” His wife was probably Caroline Snell.

      3 William S. Rankin, b. 7 Feb 1860, New York City, d. 21 Oct 1902, White Plains, NY. He was listed with Samuel in the 1860 census. They were living in the household of William Snell, whose family included a probable daughter Caroline Snell. In 1870, William S. Rankin and Caroline Snell Rankin were again listed in NYC in the household of William Snell, but without Samuel Rankin. Caroline and William are both buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. William was confirmed in the Anglican church, which would undoubtedly have horrified his dyed-in-the-wool Presbyterian forbears.

   2 Martha Jane Rankin, b. March 1829, d. 1906. Husband Rev. William A. Mehard, 29 Oct 1825 – 24 Jun 1878. Both are buried in the Oak Park Cemetery in Lawrence Co., PA.[13] Their children are proved by the wills of her mother and her brother John.

   2 Clark D. Rankin, b. abt. 1831, d. 1864-1869. Medical degree from Western Reserve College, Ohio, in 1848. Moved to Peoria, Peoria Co., Illinois.[14] Appeared in the Peoria City Directory in 1861, occupation: physician, practicing at 12 S. Adams St., residence at 138 Fulton. Commissioned in the Union Army 28 Oct 1861 as a surgeon, 7th Cavalry, Company S. Resigned his commission on 1 Jun 1862. 1863 Civil War Draft Registration indicates he was age 32 and single.  His mother bequeathed  $500 to her granddaughter “Martha Jane Mehard … at the request of my son Clark D. Rankin, dec’d, contained in the last letter I received from him immediately before his death.”

*   *   *   *   *   *

 Petition of William S. Rankin, administrator of the estate of R. C. Rankin, to sell decedent’s real estate. Mercer Co., PA Orphans Court Vol. E: 307 et seq.

Presented at the Orphans Court held at Mercer on 26 Apr 1856. Petition asserts that Robert C. Rankin, Esq., late of Mercer Borough, dec’d, died on 22 Jan 1855 in Mercer intestate and without issue. Never married. His father, William S. Rankin (petitioner), and his mother, petitioner’s wife Martha, are both now living.

Collateral heirs are his siblings and children of deceased siblings:

  1. Children of his deceased sister, Mary Ann Rankin, who married Benoni Ewing. Their children are William R. Ewing, James Ewing, Elizabeth Ewing, Martha Ewing, Robert Ewing, and Emma Ewing, all minors not yet having anyone legally authorized to take charge of their estate. They reside in Hartstown, Crawford Co., PA.
  2. James L. Rankin, a minor child of deceased brother James L. Rankin. He has no guardian and resides with his mother Madaline Julia Rankin in Reading, Cumberland Co., PA.
  3. John H. Rankin, a brother, of West Salem Township, Mercer Co.
  4. William G. Rankin, a brother, who is a deputy quartermaster in the U. S. Army. When last heard from, he was at Ft. Reading, California, and was about to remove to Fort Vancouver, Washington, Territory.
  5. Clark D. Rankin, a brother, who resides in Peoria, Illinois.
  6. Samuel H. L. Rankin, a brother, who lives in the City of New York.
  7. Martha J. Rankin, a sister, who is married to Rev. William Mehard. They live in New Wilmington, Laurence Co., PA.

Robert owned land and ” equitable interests” in real estate in Mercer.[15] Debts when decedent died were about $4,757; he had personal property worth $1,500. Petitioner asks to sell land, repay debts, and distribute the balance pursuant to the PA intestate distribution law. Petitioner says that a better price can be obtained at a private sale rather than a public sale. Petitioner also prays for notice to heirs and legal representatives.

On August 31st, the heirs and legal representatives accepted notice of the petition and joined in the prayer to sell decedent’s real property at private sale. The signatories were Sam H. L. Rankin, John H. Rankin, William G. Rankin, Martha Rankin, Madeline J. Rankin for James L. Rankin, William R. Ewing, A. Cook (probably Absalom) as attorney for the Ewing children, William A. Mehard, and Martha J. Rankin Mehard. Sale was ordered.[16]

The Orphans Court entries continue with the petition of J. H. Robinson, administrator de bonis non of R. C. Rankin. The petition say that William S. Rankin, Esq., late of Mercer, was administrator of Robert R. Rankin but is now deceased. The decedent’s real estate was sold at private sale on 4 May 1857 to John H. Rankin, 4 tracts. Other tracts were sold to James A. Hunla, William Struthers, and Chauncey W. Hummason. There was additional information having no apparent genealogical value.

*   *   *   *   *   *

Will of John H. Rankin of Mercer Borough, Mercer County, PA. Dated 30 Nov 1870, proved 28 August 1872. Mercer Co., PA Will Book 6: 31.

To my mother Martha Rankin, the proceeds of my farm in Findley Township until sold and the use and occupation for her life of the house where she resides in Mercer Borough. The latter is already arranged for by agreement.

To my brother William G. Rankin $16,000.

To my sister Martha J. Mehard, $6,000. To her children, my niece and nephews, Emma Mehard, William Mehard, Joseph Mehard, and Charles E. Mehard, $10,000 to be equally divided when each reaches age twenty-one. Interest on those legacies while unpaid to my sister Martha for their education and support.

To brother-in-law Benoni Ewing, $1,000, and to my nieces and nephews, the children of my sister Mary Ann Ewing, $15,000: William R. Ewing, James M. Ewing,  Elizabeth Ewing, Martha Jane Ewing, Robert Ewing, and Emma Ewing. Emma’s share to be paid when she reaches age 21. To the daughters, all my sheep.

To my sister-in-law Madeline J. Rankin, widow of my brother James L. Rankin, $1,000. To my nephew James L. Rankin, his son, $2,500.

Cousin Sarah Henry, wife of James Henry, $200.

Caroline Fritz, $500 and her choice of my cows.

To the Second United Presbyterian Church of Mercer, “in ecclesiastical connection with the United Presbyterian Church of the United States,” $500.

All bequests except as otherwise directed within a year of my death.

Residue to my brother and sister and nephews and nieces. Provides for the contingency that “his brother shall die without lawful issue,” telling us that Willie G (William Galloway Rankin) had no children when John H. wrote his will in 1870.

*   *   *   *   *   *

Will and codicil of Martha Rankin of Mercer Borough, Mercer County, PA. Dated 6 Jan 1872, proved 26 May, 1873. Mercer Co., PA Will Book 6: 84.

Directs executors to convert government bonds, notes, and other securities into cash, and sell all personal property not disposed of herein, as soon as practicable.

To son-in-law Benoni Ewing and to my grandchildren William Ewing, James Ewing, Elizabeth Ewing, Martha Jane Ewing, Emma Ewing, and Robert Ewing, children of Benoni and my deceased daughter Mary Ann Ewing, $1,200 to be divided equally among them.

To my daughter Martha Jane Mehard, wife of Rev. W. A. Mehard, $1,000.

To my son William G. Rankin, $600.

To my grandson James L. Rankin, son of my deceased son James L. Rankin, $600.

Grandson William Rankin, son of my deceased son Samuel H. L. Rankin, $600.

To my son John H. Rankin, $125 for purchasing a gold watch for his use.

To my granddaughter Emma Mehard, daughter of my daughter Martha Jane Mehard, $500. “I make this bequest to her at the request of my son Clark D. Rankin, decd. contained in the last letter I received from him immediately before his death … to be expended upon her education.” If she dies a minor, then spend the bequest on the education of her brothers William, Joseph, and Charles Mehard.

To the above three brothers, $150 to be divided equally.

To Caroline Fritz, $500 and a good, new feather bed and bedding.

To the Second United Presbyterian Church of Mercer, $50 to be applied to its debts. And to the church’s Board of Foreign Mission, $100.

Granddaughter Martha Jane Ewing, my silver tea spoons. Granddaughter Emma Ewing, a large silver tablespoon and one feather bed and bedding. Granddaughter Emma Mehard, a large silver table spoon. Granddaughter Elizabeth Ewin, a large parlor looking glass.

Friend William J. McKean, executor. Witnesses A. J. Greer and J. W. Robinson.

Codicil dated 23 May 1873, also proved 26 May.

To daughter Martha J. Mehard, one bed and bedding, one cherry wardrobe, a large chair given me by my son John, dec’d. Also my knitted shawl, best dress, and breast pin.

To Caroline Fritz, one bed and bedding, one set of knives and forks, one rocking chair, the dishes in the cupboard and ornaments on the mantle, and one spring mattress and $100.

To Martha J. Ewing, one bed and bedding and one set of German silver tea spoons.

To Martha and Emma Ewing, one set of large table spoons.

Granddaughter Emma Mehard, $100.

Witnessses John Pew, A. J. Greer.

*   *   *   *   *   

                  [1] Mercer Co., PA Will Book 4: 188, will of William S. Rankin of Mercer Borough, Mercer Co., PA dated 13 May 1857, proved 26 Jun 1857. $100 to Caroline Fritz, the Rankin housekeeper. Entire residue to wife Martha. Son John H. Rankin, executor. His Find-a-Grave memorial has no image of his tombstone.

                  [2] Mercer Co., PA Will Book 6: 84, will of Martha Rankin dated 6 Jan 1872, proved 26 May 1873. When she wrote her will, only three of her eight children were still alive: John H., William G., and Martha R. Mehard. Her son John H. died before she did, but she did not revise her will. An abstract of her will can be found above.

                  [3] Martha Rankin’s Find-a-Grave memorial can be found at this link. There is no tombstone image.

            [4] Washington Co., PA Will Book 4: 282, will of Robert Cook of Cecil Township dated and proved on 8 May 1826. Wife Mary. Sons John and Archibald. Daughters Jane Long, Martha Rankin, and Margaret Clark.

                  [5] 1850 census, Crawford Co., PA, household of Benjamin Ewing, 42, Mary A., 36, William R., 13, James M., 11, Elizabeth, 7, Martha J., 4, Robert, 2, and Samuel, 1, all b. PA. 1860 census, Crawford Co., Benoin [sic] Ewing, 54, merchant, $5,000/$10,000, William Ewing, 23, clerk, James Ewing, 21, clerk, Robert R. Ewing, 12, Elizabeth Ewing, 17, Martha J. Ewing, 14. 1870 census, Hartstown, Crawford Co., PA, Benoni Ewing, 63, $11,500-$700, Elizabeth Ewing 23, Martha J. Ewing 23, Robert R. Ewing 22, and Margaret E.  (presumably Emma) Ewing 19, all b. PA.

                  [6] See Mercer Co., PA Orphans Court Vol. E: 307 et seq., petition to sell the land of Robert C. Rankin, dec’d, names the children of his deceased sister Mary Ann Benoni: William R., James, Elizabeth, Martha, Robert, and Emma, all minors in 1856.

                  [7] Elizabeth Stranahan’s Find-a-Grave memorial has an image of her death certificate.

                  [8] The Find-a-Grave memorial for Robert C. Rankin claims that he was in the War of 1812, which cannot be correct. He was born about 1816, according to the 1850 census when he was living with his parents in Mercer County. It also claims that he had a wife and son, which is disproved by the petition to sell his land after he died. Robert’s Find-a-Grave memorial can be found at this link.

            [9] 1880 census for Savannah, GA, James L. Rankin, 34, b. GA, mother b. GA, father b. PA, with wife Susie S. Rankin and son James, 4.

                  [10] Here is John H. Rankin’s Find-a-Grave memorial.

                  [11] The first two articles about Willie G. can be accessed here (part 1), and here (part 2). A link to the most recent article, part 3, is provided in the first paragraph of the main article text.

            [12] William G. Rankin’s Find-a-Grave memorial is at this link. The posted attempted to put an unwarranted gloss on his military career.

                  [13] 1860 census, Lawrence Co., PA, W. A. Mehard, 35, Martha Mehard 30, Emma Mehard 4, William Mehard 1. 1880 census, William Mehard 54, Martha Mehard 49, Emma Mehard 23, William Rankin Mehard 20, Joseph H. Mehard, 18 and Charles E. Mehard, 12.

                  [14] See 1855 Illinois State Census, Clark D. Rankin, age 20 < 30, b. 1825 – 1835.

                  [15] The Mercer Co. real property owned by Robert C. were: (1) a 133-acre tract in Findley Township known as the “Tait Farm;” (2) an 85-acre tract in Findley Township; (3) a 76-acre tract in East Lackawannick Township; (4) 9 acres and (5) 4 acres in the same township; (6) 25 acres in Sandy Lake Township; (7) an undivided 1/2 interest in 3.5 acres of the Common Coal Bank in West Salem Township underlying a 190-acre tract of which decedent owned 12 acres. The petition has information about adjacent landowners for each tract. Mercer Co., PA Orphans Court Vol. E: 307 et seq.

                  [16] Mercer Co., PA Orphans Court Vol. E: 307 at 308-309.

Willie G. Rankin’s Story, in His Own Words (Part 3)

by Gary and Robin Willis

Willie G is waiting his turn, tapping his foot, while we say just one thing. Namely, when you search and search and search but turn up nothing, your assumptions may be bad. We should have realized that with William G. Rankin. We were searching for him with a bad estimate of his birth year and apparently delusional logic regarding his whereabouts. Lesson learned the hard way. We needed to share that in case one of you makes the same mistake.

OK, Willie, the mic is all yours.[1]

*   *   *   *   *   *

“First, I want to say I resent Gary and Robin for calling me “Willie G.” My name is (or was) William Galloway Rankin, a perfectly respectable moniker. I may not have lived up to it, but that’s another matter.

I knew at an early age farming wasn’t for me, so I kept my eyes and ears open for something better. And preferably easier. When gold was discovered in California, word was going around that a man could make six years’ wages in a matter of months. That was all I needed to hear. As soon as I had a grubstake, I got the hell out of Mercer County, Pennsylvania. I headed west, looking for easy money, fast women, and hard liquor. I went overland via the California Trail when I was in my twenties.[2]

Unfortunately, so did thousands of other people, almost all men. There were hardly any women in California, fast or otherwise.[3] Worse, searching for gold was hard work. You moved rock, dug dirt, and waded into freezing streams. Equipment and food were expensive.[4] It didn’t take long for me to size up who was really getting rich — the people who were supplying equipment and provisions.[5]

Turned out the ones who were doing a lot of that were people in the good ol’ United States Army. It was also clear to a sharp-eyed hustler like me that some of those soldiers were running their own business ventures on the side. Many of them worked in the Quartermaster Department. I could talk a pretty good game when I was sober, so I threw away my shovel and went to work for those guys. I was clean, warm, and fed. Whiskey was available.

In about 1852 — my memory isn’t so good now that I’ve been dead for more than 130 years — I became a Deputy Quartermaster at Fort Reading, California.[6] That is less than 200 miles north of Sutter’s Mill, California, where the Gold Rush began.[7] It was a safe distance from hard  physical labor. I was still a civilian at the time. Each Army detachment had an officer or two designated as Quartermaster, but the real work was done by us civilians or a handful of enlisted men from the unit.[8]

After Fort Reading, I went to Fort Vancouver in Washington Territory. I made a couple of lifelong buddies there, both West Point graduates. One young captain had a fondness for spirits. Ulysses S. Grant. The other fellow was also a captain. Rufus Ingalls. He and Grant had graduated in 1843 and had both been in the Mexican War. I settled in to work and live with them at the Quartermaster Depot at Fort Vancouver.

The two men moved on after a while.[9] As the country headed toward civil war, I wrote them seeking advice (and any help they could provide).[10] They both said that experienced officers would soon be promoted to higher ranks, leaving room for new Captains and Lieutenants. They suggested I seek an appointment in the regular Army. Grant was encouraging, although he was temporarily out of the service. However, Ingalls was now a Major and on the way up. He may have recommended me to some of his associates. Or Grant may have put in a good word for me with friends still in the Army. Someone definitely greased the skids for me, because I obtained a commission as a Captain in the 13thRegiment of Infantry, headquartered near St. Louis, Missouri.[11] I was probably the only person who was commissioned in the 13th from Washington Territory.

Being commissioned as a Captain was unusual. Ordinarily, the only way to achieve that rank right off the bat was to raise a company of soldiers. As I like to say, it is nice to have powerful friends.

In any event, the Army transported me, now Captain William G. Rankin, from Fort Vancouver to my assignment. The 13th Infantry was headquartered at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, just outside St. Louie. I soon figured that my quality of life as a staff officer would improve if I were assigned to a larger unit than a regiment, so I wangled a post with the headquarters of the Department of the  Missouri.[12]

I actually worked in St. Louis, helping the Department with administrative tasks and quartermaster functions. Fortunately, sweat, cold, and other discomforts weren’t involved. I also had time to enjoy the many pleasures of the big city. It was there I met my future wife, a beautiful woman. She was not, however, the type to take home to Mama. In fact, I am not sure any of my family would have approved of her – or of me, for that matter. She was, it turned out, “mostly faithful.”[13] You can refresh your memory by looking at what Gary had to say about that in Part 2.

The end of the Civil War brought some big changes. Most people wanted to go home. Most of them did, but not me. As higher ranking officers left the service, someone had to take over their jobs, at least temporarily. In 1865, I got two brevet promotions out of the organizational vacuum, to Major and Lt. Colonel. Both promotions were to fill vacancies left by departing officers. My selection to fill those jobs accorded with the old military rule that awards and promotions accrue to those nearest the typewriters, and I was nearly always in a headquarters job. Grant and/or Ingalls may have provided an assist. The temporary ranks were nice while they lasted. My pay went from $115 a month to $181.

Later changes didn’t turn out so well. A lot of cushy staff jobs were eliminated as the Army consolidated its command structure. Someone decided if I wanted to hang around, I would have to do something I’d  not done before – command troops in the field. It could be that I had gotten on the wrong side of a higher-up by flirting with his wife. Or drinking too much, and the objective was just to get my arse out of town.

Whatever the reason, in mid-1866, I was put in charge of a company of infantry and sent up the Missouri River. My orders were to establish Fort Buford at the junction of the Yellowstone River with the Missouri. The plan was to provide an outpost to protect settlers coming into or through the Dakota Territory. Since it was peacetime, and I was to be the commander of the prospective fort, I was allowed to take my wife along with me.

It was immediately obvious this remote outpost did not compare favorably to a staff job in St. Louie. The local Sioux attacked us the second night and again the next day. We drove them off and proceeded with construction. As winter approached, it became apparent they intended to surround and lay siege to our small fort. When the Missouri froze and cut off communications with headquarters, a rumor circulated in the eastern press that we had been annihilated. Not true, although it was a tough winter for all of us. With the spring thaw, reinforcements arrived and our situation improved. With the fort now manned by four and a half companies, we were a far more imposing force. I can’t remember for sure, but I may have qualified again for brevet Lt. Colonel status with that many men under my command.

The summer of 1867 brought more changes. You may have read about the charges lodged against me for drunkenness and misappropriation of government property. Here is my side of the story. First of all, everyone in the Army drank – or at least I never met anyone who didn’t. Don’t forget my friend Grant. It was an accepted part of military life. Still is, says Gary. As to the government property issues, I would frankly rather not talk about it. But any opportunities there may have been for selling whiskey and government supplies to a friendly local tribe soon evaporated because the Army reorganized. It transferred me and my troops out of the 13th Regiment into the 31st, and gave us a new boss – a Frenchman named Colonel Phillipe Regis de Tobriand.[14]

Things went from bad to worse. Col. Tobrian ginned up a court-martial for my various alleged sins: misappropriation of government property, conduct unbecoming an officer — brawling with a subordinate officer — blah blah blah. You know, fights sometime break out when you’ve had a snootful. My wife caught a steamboat back to civilization. You may have noticed I’ve not mentioned her name. Maybe Spade can dig it up.[15]

Lucky for me, I was able to swing a transfer back to the 13th Regiment and out from under the pending court-martial. I can’t remember how that happened, but it almost certainly had something to do with my high-ranking friends.

I ultimately resigned my commission in 1873, after receiving not-so-subtle hints to do so from senior officers. Some people claim I resigned in 1870 and that I was a Major or Lt. Colonel. I should know my own service dates and rank, don’t you think? Read them for yourself in the 1890 Census Schedule for Veterans and Widows. I served 13 years from 1861 to 1873 as a Captain in the U.S. 13th Infantry Regiment.[16] And also check my 1889 Pension Application. It clearly states I was a Captain. As much as I would have liked to claim the pay and status associated with the higher ranks, those were just temporary.

Gifts from my family allowed me to kiss the Army goodbye without financial pain. Back in Mercer, Pennsylvania, my brother John was filthy rich. When he died in 1872, he bequeathed me $16,000 in cash, an unexpected windfall. That’s right: sixteen large. My mother, who died the next year, left me another $600. Captain’s pay was chicken feed by comparison.

After resigning, I headed east. I stopped by Mercer to see my mother in 1873 not long before she passed away. But there was still nothing to make me tarry in Mercer. By then, my family was mostly dead. St. Louis had turned me into a confirmed city boy, and the lights of the big city called: New York.

By September 1873, I had talked my way into a job in a New York customs house.[17] The work was easy and — much to my surprise — it paid as much as a Lt. Colonel made. With the inheritances from John and my mother, life was almost a bed of roses. But all good things come to an end. In 1889, I applied for an Invalid Pension for my service during the War.[18] I switched to part time with Customs and my pay was cut in half, although I can’t recall whether that was because of my disability or my drinking. I’m not sure where the inherited money went, although I did have a taste I had acquired from Grant for fine whiskey and cigars. I lived out my time in an apartment on West 38th Street and shuffled off this mortal coil on 30 May 1891.[19] My last years weren’t easy. Some might say my problems were self-inflicted, but I never chose to be an alcoholic.

I suppose I ought to say something about the family I left in the 1840s. Since they are all long dead, I figure I can say pretty much anything I like without fearing any pushback.[20]

My father was born in Pennsylvania about 1786.[21] He wasn’t much for small talk, meaning anything except whose turn it was to milk the cow or clean the stable. He was a bit of a tyrant, prompting most of his children to leave home at an early date. In all fairness, he was a fairly well-to-do man and took care of his sons. My sisters, of course, were expected to marry well, which they did. As for the boys in the family, our father paid for my brother Robert to go to law school. Likewise, my little brother Clark went to medical school. Our father helped my brother John acquire land and run a farm. He also provided a grubstake for me so that I could indulge my wanderlust and go west.

My mother’s name was Martha Cook Rankin. She came from Washington County, which is where she married my father.[22]  Her father, Robert Cook, left her a nice legacy in his will — $250, which was a lot in 1826 when he died. Her mother’s name was Mary.

My father’s will left everything to my mother. She died a wealthy woman. Her will divided her estate among me and her grandchildren, with token gifts to my brother John (who was still alive when she wrote the will, and who was more wealthy than our mother) and the housekeeper who lived with the family for years. I never did anything to deserve that money, but was sure grateful to have it.

My sister Mary Ann was the eldest child, born about 1814. She married a man named Benoni Ewing who was a postmaster in Mercer County but became quite rich. Mary Ann died young after having a half-dozen or so children.[23]

Robert Cook Rankin, born in 1816, was my oldest brother and my father’s favorite. Probably everyone’s favorite. He remained at home, practiced law, was a model citizen, and accumulated a fair amount of land. He never married or had children. He is buried in the Rankin plot in the Mercer Citizens Cemetery, along with our parents, our brother John H., and me. I never did figure out who paid for my nice headstone, which matches those for the rest of the family.[24]

The next son was my brother James Lee Rankin, who left home early. He also died young.[25] His widow Madeline and only son, James Lee Jr., lived with my parents for a while after James Sr. died.[26] Some people think Madeline was Robert’s wife and James Lee his child, but that is just flat wrong. James Lee Jr. wound up in Savannah, Georgia, where his mother Madeline Williamson Rankin was born.

James Lee was followed in short order by John H., born in 1820. He was the only one besides Robert who stayed in Mercer. Also like Robert, he didn’t marry or have children. John bought a good bit of Robert’s land after Robert died. John and my mother lived together in the borough of Mercer when she got old, although John H. died first. In fact, all of my siblings except me and my sister Martha Jane died before our mother. John H. died rich in 1872.

I came after John H. I was born in 1822, as my tombstone says. I was evidently the black sheep in the family, as you may have surmised by now.

My brother Samuel H. L. Rankin, born about 1823, also wound up in New York City. He had one son named William S. Rankin who was mentioned in my mother’s will. Sam married Caroline Snell in New York. She and William are both buried in a cemetery in the Bronx. William was confirmed in the Anglican church, which would have horrified the Presbyterian forebears in our family. I heard Sam died in the Civil War, so he didn’t have a say in his son’s religious upbringing.

My sister Martha Jane, the youngest child, married William Mehard and went to Lawrence County.[27] He was a minister — Presbyterian, of course — but he was rich as sin.[28] He must have had a side hustle, because I’ve never known a preacher who had two pennies to rub together. Not that I hung around many men of the cloth.

That’s about it. Frankly, I’m sick of talking about all of us. If you want to know anything else, ask Gary and Robin.”

* * * * * * * * * *

Thanks, William Galloway Rankin. Perhaps we will create an outline descendant chart for your family. Mßaybe not. Depends on whether another interesting character crosses our path.

See you on down the road.

Gary and Robin

                  [1] Willie G’s first person account is partly proved and partly plausible literary license based on available evidence.

                  [2] We have no documentary evidence that William G. Rankin was drawn west by the Gold Rush. We only know that he was in California in the 1850s, and are confident that a get-rich-quick scheme would have appealed to him. He was apparently still living with his family of origin in 1840, when he was eighteen, but was no longer with them by 1850. Gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in 1848.

                  [3] Hundreds of thousands of people flocked to California in the Gold Rush, but almost none of them were women. In 1852, 92 percent of the people prospecting for gold were men. https://www.history.com/news/8-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-california-gold-rush

                  [4] There are many good internet sources on the Gold Rush. Here is one. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/goldrush-california/

                  [5] E.g., Levi Strauss saw the need for tough, durable work pants and hired men to make pants out of tents. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Levi-Strauss-and-Co#ref38503. See also John Studebaker (brother of the car makers), who made a fortune producing wheelbarrows for miners in Hangtown, CA during the Gold Rush. https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2015/11/23/john-studebaker/23790679007/

                  [6] The Mercer County probate record shows Robert C. Rankin died intestate without children  in 1855. His heirs — his siblings — were necessary parties to a petition for the sale of Robert’s real estate. Each of their locations were recited in the petition. Robert’s brother William G. Rankin was noted as having last been heard of in California, where he was Deputy Quartermaster at Fort Reading. Further, recited the petition, he was soon to move to Fort Vancouver in Washington Territory. SeeMercer Co., PA Orphans Court, 26 April 1856, Book E: 307 et seq.

                  [7] Fort Reading was built in 1852 and abandoned in 1856. https://noehill.com/shasta/cal0379.asp

                  [8] In 1912, Congressional legislation created the Quartermaster Corps, consolidating the Army’s Quartermaster Department (in charge of supplies and equipment), Subsistence Department (food), and Pay Department. It authorized 6,000 enlisted personnel. Up until that, time field operations had been performed largely by civilians or by temporary use of enlisted men from the unit. https://www.quartermasterfoundation.org/quartermaster-history-timeline-1775-to-present/

[9] Grant resigned his commission in 1854. Ingalls was selected to accompany a cross country expedition that same year. Everyone knows Grant went on to greatness. Ingalls became Quarter-master for the Army of the Potomac and later Quartermaster General of the Army.

                  [10] This is poetic license. We have no proof of any communication between Rankin and the two officers. It is merely plausible, given the proximity of the three men. Also, there must be some explanation for him obtaining a commission as a Captain, and that is the only thing we can imagine.

                  [11] Army Register, 1865, Thirteenth Regiment of Infantry, Captain William G Rankin, Date of Rank 14 May 1861, Entered as a Captain, Born in PA., Enrolled at W.T. [ Washington Territory].  https://www.fold3.com/image/312142148?rec=303817662&terms=war,us,g,civil,william,union,united,america,rankin,states.

                  [12] 13th Regiment officer roster notes that Captain Willian G. Rankin was “At Headquarters Department of the Missouri, Order Number and Date unknown”

[13] See John R. Sibbald, “Frontier Inebriates with Epaulets,” Montana: The Magazine of Western History, vol. 19, no. 3, 1969, pp. 50–57. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4517383. Accessed 29 Jan. 2023.

[14] Sibbald.

                  [15] There is some ambiguity about his marital status. An abstract of his death certificate (we have been unable to obtain the original) says that he was married when he died. We found no other evidence. It may just be that he never obtained a divorce from the lovely Mrs. Rankin of Ft. Buford fame. New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949″, database, FamilySearch(https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2W17-B6Z : 3 June 2020), William G. Rankin, 1891.

[16] 1890 Census, Special Schedule of Surviving Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines, and Widows

[17] 1873 Register of Federal Employees shows W. Gallaway Rankin, Entry Clerk, Employed at New York, Born in Pa., Appointed at New York, $2,200 annual pay. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/2822640:2525

[18] Pension Index, Capt William G. Rankin, Invalids Pension application  731 201, filed 28 Sep 1889. https://www.fold3.com/image/25290874?terms=war,us,g,civil,william,union,united,

america,rankin,states.

[19] “New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949”, database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2W17-B6Z : 3 June 2020), William G. Rankin, 1891.

                  [20] Willie G’s parents and siblings, plus some nephews and nieces, are conclusively proved by an April 1856 petition to sell land owned by the estate of his brother Robert C. Rankin. Mercer Co., PA Orphans’ Court Book E: 307 et seq. Any petition regarding an intestate decedent’s estate required that all the heirs at law (i.e., heirs under the state law of intestate distribution) be joined. See also the wills of Martha Rankin (Mercer Co., PA Will Book 6: 84, will dated 6 Jan 1872, proved 26 May 1873)  and John H. Rankin (Mercer Co., PA Will Book 6: 31, dated 30 Nov 1870, proved August 1872).

                  [21] See 1850 federal census, Mercer Co., PA, household of William S. Rankin. It is hard to tell whether his age was 69 or 64, but we read it as 64. The census definitely says William was born in PA. But that confounding abstract of Willie G’s NY death certificate (see Note 15) says he was born in Scotland. That’s possible but not probable. The timing was all wrong for immigration from Scotland to the United States. The overwhelming majority of Presbyterian immigrants in the 18th century came to the Colonies from Ulster. LINK.

                  [22] Willie G’s mother was Martha Jane Cook. She married William Scott Rankin in Washington Co., PA. Washington Co. according to a Washington County marriage abstract. See also Will Book 4: 282, will of Robert Cook leaving his daughter Martha Rankin $250. By the time the bequest was distributed, it had become $300, either via accumulation of interest or addition from the residual estate.

                  [23] The petition to sell Robert’s land identifies six children of Mary Ann Rankin and Benjamin (or “Benoni,” as he is called in the petition and two Rankin wills) Ewing. The children were all minors in 1856 and lived in Hartstown, Crawford Co., PA. The family is listed in the 1850 census in Crawford County, all born in PA: Benjamin (or Benoni) Ewing, 42, Mary A. Ewing, 36 (born about 1814), William R., 13, James M. 11, Elizabeth 7, Martha J. 4, Robert 2, and Samuel 1.

                  [24] Willie G’s Find-a-Grave memorial correctly states that he was born in 1822 and died in 1891. It also has a “bio” provided by a Find-a-Gave poster. It is partially incorrect. It says this: “Union soldier. On December 31, 1870, he was honorably discharged at his own request, with the rank of brevet major and brevet lieutenant colonel for his faithful service during the war. He spent his last years as a clerk in the New York customhouse.” He was definitely a Union soldier, he was honorably discharged, and he worked as a clerk in the New York customhouse. His discharge rank, however, was Captain. He received the two brevet promotion in 1865, but those promotions were never made permanent by Congress. His last rank as Captain was also his first, established by his application for a pension and a census of army veterans. The bit about “honorably discharged at his own request” puts an unwarranted gloss on the facts. An officer either resigns his commission or is discharged. Willie G served 13 year as a Captain, then resigned his commission, almost certainly with the Army’s encouragement. His record was spotty, see Note 13.Further, if a Captain isn’t promoted after 13 years in rank, he is politely ushered out the door. Here is Willie G’s Find-a-Grave memorial: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/43145798/william-galloway-rankin

                  [25] James Lee died between 1845 and 1850; his birth year is uncertain. The Georgia death certificate for his son James Lee Rankin Jr. identifies his mother as Madeline Williamson and his father as James Lee Rankin. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/60821601:2562

                  [26] 1850 census, Mercer Co., PA, household of William S. Rankin, age 64 or 69?, b. PA, farmer, $9,000. With Martha Rankin 58, R. C. Rankin Esquire, 34, and Martha J. Rankin, 20. Also in the household: Madeline Rankin, 28, widow of James L. Rankin, and their son James L. Rankin Jr., 4.

                  [27] The death certificate for Martha Rankin Mehard (often shown as McHard, apparently incorrectly) can be found at https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/5164/images/41381_2421406274_0776-03038?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true&usePUBJs=true&_gl=1*weqbpx*_ga*MjAxMjYwMzc3NS4xNjc0MDg4MDM2*_ga_4QT8FMEX30*MTY3NTk3NTU5NC4yNi4xLjE2NzU5NzY5ODkuNTQuMC4w&_ga=2.228206238.2089896928.1675909799-2012603775.1674088036&pId=1823217. It gives her dates of birth and death as 26 Mar 1829 and 29 Mar 1906, respectively. It also identifies her parents: William S. Rankin, born in PA, and Martha J. Cook, born in Washington Co., PA. Her memorial at Find-a-Grave is at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/162733405/martha-jane-mehard?_gl=1*h8kj8r*_ga*MjAxMjYwMzc3NS4xNjc0MDg4MDM2*_ga_4QT8FMEX30*MTY3NTk3OTU5OS4yNy4xLjE2NzU5Nzk2MDUuNTQuMC4w*_ga_B2YGR3SSMB*M2JhODZjOWMtNDY4Mi00ZTdjLTg1YmItNDI3OWQzYjA1YjgwLjM0LjEuMTY3NTk3OTYwNi4zNC4wLjA.

                  [28] Martha Rankin Mehard’s son Charles E. was Executor of her estate. The inventory and appraisal reflected total assets in 1907-1908 of almost $26,000. See image here: https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1496975:8802. See also 1860 census, Wilmington, Lawrence Co., PA, W. A. Mehard, 35, U.P. minister, Martha 30, Emma 4, and William 1. And see 1880 census, Wilmington, Lawrence, William Mehard 54, U. P. preacher, Martha 49, Emma 23, William R. 20, Joseph H. 18, and Charles E. 12.

Willie G., Part 2 – Nevertheless, They Persisted

Having bombed Tokyo and gotten most of Doolittle’s Raiders to safety with the help of numerous Chinese villagers, I closed the book and turned to Robin. “Anything I can do to help track down this William G. Rankin fellow?”

She laughed. “I hit ‘publish’ about two minutes ago – so, no. On the other hand, it is a good story but with a lot of holes. Let’s see what else we can find.”

Indeed, it is a good story, starting with a Union coat and vest up for auction. A guy comes out of nowhere, gets commissioned as a Captain in the Union Army in 1861, gets breveted to Major and Lt. Colonel on the same date in 1865, maybe carries a brevet Colonel rank in 1867, supposedly leaves the service in 1870, goes to work in Customs in New York City, applies for a veteran’s invalid pension in 1889, and appears in the 1890 schedule of Civil War Veterans — still in New York, although he was born in Pennsylvania.

But the holes are gaping. Where and when was he born? Who were his parents? What was his middle name? What did he do before the War? How did he wrangle a Captain’s commission? What really happened when he was at Fort Buford? Did he marry and/or have children?  As Yule Brenner said in The King and I, “Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.”

Well, by gosh, we persevered and found answers to many of those questions. He was born in 1822 (not 1835) in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. His parents may have been William S. and Martha (birth surname unknown) Rankin. His middle name was Galloway, which is interestingly the name of a single malt scotch. At Fort Buford our man was a conniving, scheming, alcoholic. He did marry – apparently to a woman with lavish tastes but some good sense. She left him. We still do not know about children. He died in 1891 and is buried in the Rankin plot in Mercer Citizens Cemetery, Mercer, Pennsylvania.

If you are interested in how this all came together, here is how the sausage was made. First, I found New York City Directories online at the New York Public Library site. Nicely digitized but non-searchable, not even to skip to a numbered image! Faced with scrolling page by page, I complained to Robin, “Sure would be nice if we were looking for someone named Adams or Bailey instead of Rankin.” She replied, “That is a funny thing to hear coming from a man named Willis!” I laughed and turned back to scrolling. Somewhere around image #900, the 1889-90 Directory lists Wm G Rankin on West 38th Street.[1] That was also Rankin’s location in the 1890 Civil War Veterans’ Schedule. He showed up at the same address in the 1890-1891 directory. And then Bingo — he does not appear in 1891-92. Maybe he moved. Maybe he died. I found the answer in a New York Death Index Extract. It read:

William G. Rankin, died 30 May 1891 in Manhattan, New York, age 69, born about 1822, Death Certificate #18993.

That looks like our guy! Unfortunately, there was no digitized image of the certificate, so we could not learn names of next of kin or parents that might be on that document. In any event, the discovery was a breakthrough. From that point, the search picked up steam.

Then, we found his middle name! A register of United States employees in 1873 listed “W. Galloway Rankin” as Entry Clerk in the Customs Department in New York at an annual salary of $2,200.00.[2] Surely, this is the same man as William G. Rankin who was a temporary Customs Inspector at a later date for $4.00 per day, about half the earlier salary. The 1873 listing showed he was born in Pennsylvania, which also matches our man.

Having that middle name  opened the floodgates to more information. One of the most revealing pieces was an article published in 1969 about drunken officers at forts in the West.[3] Based primarily on official military reports and correspondence, the author exposes Captain (not Colonel) William Galloway Rankin, commander of Fort Buford during the summer of 1867. He was a drunk and a thief who sold Army rations, probably to a nearby village of friendly Sioux. He was assaulted by an equally inebriated subordinate officer who discovered Rankin’s thievery. The article claims that he had a beautiful wife, half French and half Spanish, who left Fort Buford by steamboat for Omaha, apparently enjoying some of the Captain’s illicit wealth. As you might expect, the record does not include the wife’s name!

Despite substantial proof against Captain Rankin, he escaped punishment and was assigned to a coveted job in recruiting. The article claims he was friends with Colonel (later General) Rufus Ingalls, who headed the Army’s Quartermaster Corps. We have not been able to trace the beginnings of that relationship. Was that part of the reason Rankin got his commission in the first place? Was that why he apparently spent a lot of the war at headquarters rather than in battle? Was there any connection related to Rankin’s misappropriation of government supplies? One has to wonder.

In any event, the officer bringing charges against Rankin (and his assailant) was the commander of the U.S. 31st Infantry Regiment.[4] That regiment was formed from one battalion of the 13th Regiment in December 1866. Rankin’s company at Fort Buford was part of the transferred battalion, which explains how he came to be in the 31st during 1867.[5] We can reasonably conclude that whoever “rescued” him from his pending Court Martial and placed him in the recruiting assignment also transferred him back to the 13th, where he ended his service. Rankin apparently had some powerful friends.

Having Willie G.’s middle name also yielded results at Find-A-Grave. William Galloway Rankin’s tombstone is pictured on the site showing birth and death months of June 1822 and May 1891, respectively. That is our man! And a big breakthrough – he is buried in Mercer Citizens Cemetery, Mercer County, Pennsylvania. A Pennsylvania U.S. Veterans Burial Index confirmed our guy (although misspelling the name as Rawkin) – born June 1822, died 30 May 1891, buried in Mercer Citizens Cemetery.

With that information, Robin searched for William Galloway Rankin in Mercer County. Census records in Mercer County identified Willie G.’s possible family of origin.  A William S. Rankin family appeared in 1820, 1840, and 1850 censuses. The 1840 census includes a male born between 1820 and 1825, the right age for Willie G. The 1850 census shows William S. Rankin with wife Martha and several presumed children.[6] William G. Rankin is not listed in the household, which makes sense. He would be 28 years old.

The household, however, does include R. C. Rankin age 34, an attorney. Robin found a reference to a Robert C. Rankin who died in 1855.[7] She also found that William S. Rankin does not appear in the 1860 Census, so he likely died as well.

Next step has to be looking for those two in the probate records at FamilySearch! Hopefully, our Willie G. will be named as an heir or administrator.

Maybe tomorrow.

Cheers, and See you on down the road,

Gary and Robin

—

[1] To be fair, I could scroll eight pages at a time, so it “only” took about 120 clicks in each directory to get to image 900.

[2] “Register of Civil, Military, and Naval Service Employees 1863-1959,” 1873, Vol. 1, Customs.

[3] John R. Sibbald, “Frontier Inebriates with Epaulets,” Montana: The Magazine of Western History, vol. 19, no. 3, 1969, pp. 50–57. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4517383. Accessed 29 Jan. 2023.

[4] Id at 51, Colonel Phillipe Regis de Trobriand.

[5] This transfer explains why the 1867 events were not included in the history of the 13th Regiment of Infantry prepared by Lt. J. B. Goe referenced in the earlier article on William G Rankin.

[6] The 1850 Census for Mercer, Mercer County, Pennsylvania lists Wm S Rankin 69 farmer with $9,000 of real estate, Martha Rankin 58, R. C. Rankin 34, Madeline Rankin 28, Martha J. Rankin 20, and James L. Rankin 4.

[7] Robert might have never married. The New Castle Public Library in Lawrence County, adjoining Mercer County, Pennsylvania, lists an obituary for Robert C. Rankin, Esq. No image is available for the obit, which appeared in the Lawrence Journal on 27 Jan 1855. However, the library’s index card does not indicate any spouse named in the article.

Where You Be, Willie G?

I’m stumped.

Addendum, several hours after hitting “publish” on this article: I am no longer stumped, thanks to Gary plowing through Manhattan City Directories. Willie G’s full name was William Galloway Rankin, and he was from Mercer County, PA. We will  publish a follow-up article after doing some due diligence on the Mercer County Rankins.

Back to the original article …

As of January 27, there was a Union Army jacket and vest on the auction block at Winter Fine Art and Antiques.[1] The uniform is attributed to Brevet Colonel William G. Rankin, commander of Fort Buford in what is now North Dakota. Last time I looked at the auction site, it could be yours for $1600 plus a buyer’s bonus of 25%.

Willie G apparently parachuted into the Civil War from Mars, because both his whereabouts when he joined the army and his family of origin are mysteries.

I thought about seeking help from my friend Spade, a shady P.I. with a rep for digging up dead Rankins. But his retainer is a bit steep — $100 plus a fifth of Cutty Sark. His fee has been going up ever since his success with John McGinley Rankin’s parents. My next thought was to ask Jessica “Gams” Guyer for help, but her specialty is deeds. They are recorded at the county level, of course. In Willie G’s case, I don’t even know what state he lived in before the War. I only know he was born in Pennsylvania, probably circa 1835-ish. Big whoop. So were a zillion other William Rankins.[2]

The best possibility for help was my friend Mary “the Bulldog” Buller, the world’s premier expert on mining military records at NARA.[3]  She could locate the official military report, if one existed, on a Brown Bess lost in the Revolutionary War. Unfortunately, I am hopeless in the NARA website labyrinth. Also unfortunately, I have pestered her often, and I hope she is currently busy looking for a home in Texas after a brief exile from Austin to Virginia. My last hope was ex-Captain Willis, USAF, author of two military histories. Unfortunately, his nose is currently in a tome about Doolittle’s Raiders. No chance there.

So I rolled up my sleeves, trying to verify information from the auction website. My friend and cousin Debbie Rankin sent me the link to the auction. In addition to a great description and numerous photos of the coat and vest, the website has a biography of Colonel Rankin. Here are the highlights:[4]

  • He was appointed Captain of the 13th Infantry regiment on May 14, 1861. That suggests he was from a family of some means, because officers had to provide their own horse and other equipment. He was probably, says Gary, in his twenties. Thus my crude estimate that he was born circa 1835-ish.
  • He received two brevetted promotions, to Brevet Major and Brevet Lieutenant Colonel.[5]
  • He was transferred to the 31st Infantry Regiment in September 1866 and then back to the 13th in 1869.
  • He was brevetted as a full Colonel during the American-Indian Wars. Maybe.
  • In 1866, he “founded” and commanded Fort Buford in the Dakota Territory along the Oregon Trail. “Founded” is the wrong word: soldiers don’t “found” forts. The writer probably meant to say “oversaw construction of a new U. S. Army military installation in his role as its first commander.”
  • The fort was attacked by members of the Sioux Nation. Because the garrison was isolated and unable to communicate to report its status, newspapers “inadvertently” created a story of the “Fort Buford Massacre.”
  • He was discharged from the Army in December 1870. That date doesn’t pan out.

Where to start? That is a wealth of information. Or misinformation, if the researcher didn’t know his or her genealogy bidness. In this case, she had a fairly respectable batting average. Probably hired Spade. I hope his hangover wasn’t too bad.

Right off the bat, I’d like to know how one “inadvertently” writes a newspaper story. That skill might be useful to me in writing blog articles.

First research stop: Fold3, an online source of military records. It requires a paid subscription. I don’t care for it, having compared the information on file at NARA for one of my ancestors with what the website has for him. Fold3 didn’t fare well. But it’s a quick-and-easy place to start.

In Willie G’s case, a search on “William G. Rankin” with the filter “Union Army, Civil War” provided many hits, but not much information. He is listed on Union Army Registers for 1861, 1865, 1866, 1868, and 1870. Those registers confirmed that he was commissioned (appointed) on 14 May 1861 as a Captain in the 13th Infantry Regiment. He remained in the 13th Infantry in 1866 and 1867. He was transferred to the 31st Infantry in 1868. He had transferred back to the 13th Infantry by 1870. He received promotions to Brevet Major and Brevet Lt. Colonel on 13 March 1865.

I found no mention of a promotion to Brevet Colonel. However, the coat being auctioned has a fabulous eagle embroidered on the epaulets. An eagle with outspread wings is the traditional uniform marking for a so-called “full bird” colonel, as opposed to a Lt. Colonel, whose rank insignia is a silver oak leaf. Below is a picture of a colonel’s insignia, although the one pictured has silver thread for the eagle. Col. Rankin’s eagle was gold thread. A Brevet Colonel rank might have been appropriate for a fort’s commander, says Gary, even though there may have been only one company originally on site.

I couldn’t find a mention of a discharge date on Fold3. It did have an image for a pension application filed on Sep. 28, 1889 from New York, asserting invalid status.[6] No doubt it was our Willie G. It includes the information that he was a Captain, 13th U. S. Infantry Regiment, Companies F and S.

There should be more information at NARA, such as when his pension (if approved) terminated, which would tell us when he shuffled off this earthly coil. But have I mentioned that I am not competent to find anything on the NARA website? I used up all my NARA brainpower looking at Revolutionary War muster and pay rolls for Bulldog’s Rankin ancestor.

Wading through all those hits on Fold3 did produce three new pieces of information:

  • That is where we learned he was born in Pennsylvania. I.Do.Not.Know.Where.to.Begin.
  • He was living in New York in 1889 and was physically incapacitated in some fashion.
  • He was appointed (or commissioned) from “W.T.” For most of the men listed on those Army registers, there is a standard state abbreviation for where the commission/appointment took place: e.g., “MO” or “PA.” Usually, that means where the soldier physically joined the unit. Where the heck was W.T.?

I rudely interrupted Gary’s perusal of Doolittle’s exploits. “What on earth,” said I, “might W.T. mean? Wyoming territory is out of the question because 1861 is too late.”

He pondered and decided it was probably an incorrect transcription of old handwriting and should be “M.T.,” as in “Missouri Territory.” I rolled my eyes. Missouri became a state in 1821. Translation from Garyspeak: please leave me alone with Col. Doolittle.

I went to the next logical source of information (not counting NARA): the U.S. Army Center of Military History. Specifically, I found historical records for the 13th Regiment of Infantry by Lieut. J. B. Goe at this link. What I hoped to learn was where the 13th Infantry Regiment was recruited, because Willie G and/or his family of origin probably lived nearby in 1860. One usually did not travel hundreds of miles to join the army.

Lt. Goe tells us that 13th Regiment headquarters were established at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. The original military post was south of St. Louis, Missouri, on the banks of the Mississippi River. It was primarily a supportive military installation overseeing westward expansion and assisting in protecting the early (read: white) settlers.[7] The 13th had recruiting stations in Dubuque, Keokuk, and Iowa City, Iowa: Cincinnati and Bellefontaine, Ohio; and Madison, Wisconsin.

Well, now, isn’t that just fine and dandy! That narrows it down to one of six towns located in six counties in three states, plus St. Louis, the regiment’s HQ. So I searched the 1860 census for anyone named Rankin in the counties where those towns are located. I turned up no leads suggesting Willie G’s location when he was appointed. The arrived-from-Mars theory was gaining traction.

I was clearly on the wrong track. Barking up the wrong tree. Heading down fruitless rabbit trails. Please choose a metaphor which expresses “failing” in a kindly fashion.

What next? Well, the biography on the auction site said the alleged Ft. Buford Massacre became a newspaper story. Next stop: Newspapers.com, an easy to use searchable website, although it also requires a paid subscription. There are a number of stories in April 1867. Here is a sample.

The Delaware State Journal and Statesman story on April 2 was headlined “Another Horrible Massacre.” It said that “Indians … butchered ever [sic] man, woman and child, not one being left to tell the tale. The fort was under the command of Colonel Rankin, and Company C, Thirty-first United States Infantry.”

Yep, that’s our boy, then in the U.S. 31st. The story was reportedly relayed from friendly Sioux.

On April 10, the New York Times article reported this:

“The fate of Col. Rankin and his little garrison at Fort Buford, Dakotah, is still wrapped in uncertainty.” Unable to resist repeating gory details, the Times continued, “A few days since we published a circumstantial account of the massacre by the Indians of Col. Rankin, his wife and child, and eighty soldiers of his command. The account gave the details of the affair, described a three days’ siege, the final assault, the killing of Mrs. Rankin by her husband to prevent her capture …”

The article continues: “From military, but not official sources, we now have a complete denial of the whole story, and a dispatch from St. Louis alleges that Gen. Sherman has received letters from Col. Rankin of date subsequent to that of the alleged massacre.” The paper then went on to excoriate the army for a host of sins, including the vulnerability of remote military installations such as Fort Buford.

Duh. Doesn’t “vulnerable” usually logically follow “remote”?

The same day, The Charleston Mercury had a story headlined “Reported Massacre Unfounded.”

The only new information from those articles was the fact that Col. Rankin may have had a wife and child. Commanders of installations were usually permitted an “accompanied” tour, meaning the officer could bring his family along. If Willie G were married, there is probably a marriage license somewhere. Of course, that is yet another record kept at the county level, and is one more reason to figure out where he had lived before military service.

Getting desperate, I turned to an unusual source. Wikipedia. Since anyone can write anything at all in that forum, it has as much credibility as online family trees. Approximately zero, give or take a small measure. I briefly considered whether I should even admit I consulted it. But the truth is what the truth is.

The article about Fort Buford has no citations to sources whatsoever, except for the article’s sources of information on a nearby friendly Indian settlement. There is not a hint where the author obtained detailed information he/she provided on, e.g., the evolution of the fort’s structure, the repeated attacks on the fort by the Lakota, or the status of the fort’s water wells during the attacks. Please read it for what it’s worth.

Wikipedia identifies Willie G as a Brevet Lieutenant Colonel and says the fort was manned by Company C, 2nd Battalion, 13th Infantry, including three officers, 80 enlisted men, and six civilians. Here is a contradiction: was the fort manned by the 13th or 31st? I’d just like to know more about the six civilians, if that is true. Here’s the Wikipedia link.

In short, the Wiki article doesn’t shed any light on Willie G and I probably should have preserved whatever reputation I may have by omitting it altogether.

Whatever. The former fort is now primarily known as the location where Tatanka Iyotake — more familiarly known as Sitting Bull — surrendered his rifle.[8] He, of course, is famous for defeating Gen. Custer at Little Big Horn. He is less well-known for the siege of Fort Buford, but he was the leader of the Lakota attackers, according to Wikipedia.

Sitting Bull wasn’t my target, though. Willie G was, and I was still coming up empty on his location when he was commissioned. And zilch on his family of origin. So I turned to his post-Civil War adventures, guided by the 1889 pension application from New York. Only two post-war records surfaced …

First, the 1890 federal census (mostly lost) has a “Special Schedule, Surviving Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines and Widows, Etc.” Lo and behold, Willie G was enumerated in New York City. He is identified as “Rankins, William G., Capt., 13th U.S. Infantry, enlisted 14 May 1861, discharged 1873, served 13 years.”

By golly, that is our man, discharged in 1873 rather than 1870. Congress never approved his brevet promotions, since his rank is given as Captain. Since he was still a Captain after thirteen years, he was probably shown the exit from military service in a genteel fashion.  And there is his address: 60 West 38th Street. A multistory building now occupies that address. Perhaps it was a multi-family structure such as an apartment building in 1890?

Surely, thought I, finding more information on him would be a piece of cake. Hahahaha …

I’ve got to clear my throat before identifying the last source of info on Willie G, to wit (I am unable to persuade WordPress to allow single spacing):

OFFICIAL REGISTER OF THE UNITED STATES

CONTAINING A LIST OF

OFFICERS AND EMPLOYÉS

IN THE CIVIL, MILITARY, AND NAVAL SERVICE

ON THE

FIRST OF JULY, 1881;

TOGETHER WITH A

LIST OF SHIPS AND VESSELS BELONGING TO THE UNITED STATES.[9]

Page 188 is headed “TREASURY DEPARTMENT, CUSTOMS SERVICE.”

One William G. Rankin, identified as having been born in Pennsylvania, was a temporary employee in the office of the Customs Service Inspector, employed in New York, at a compensation of $4.00 per diem. Our Willie G. was surely the only William G. Rankin born in Pennsylvania and living in New York in 1881.

And that is all of the flesh I have been able to put on ex-Captain William G. Rankin’s bones: a temporary job as a customs inspector and a subsequent disability, for which he may or may not have received a pension. An address in Manhattan. I cannot find him anywhere in the 1880 census, although he was definitely alive, probably in New York. Where was he from before he joined the Army? Who was his family of origin? I don’t know any of those things. Was there ever a Mrs. Rankin? The only evidence for her existence is those inadvertent newspaper stories. Ergh.

Spade, do you have any of that Scotch left?

An occasional failure is just part of this hobby, but that doesn’t mean one has to like it. Had I been charging someone a fee for this matter,[10] I would write it off.

Somebody who reads this may have a clue about Willie G. I hope so. You know where to find me.

See you on down the road.

Robin

                  [1] I hope the website is still accessible. At last check, the high bid was $1500. Here is the link Debbie sent.

                  [2] There were 422 men of all ages named William Rankin listed in the 1850 census for Pennsylvania.

                  [3] The National Archives and Research Administration. Images of many records are available online.

                  [4] See Note 1.

                  [5] A “brevet” is a temporary promotion that might or might not be made permanent. Above a certain rank, promotions had to be approved by Congress. That is still the case.

                  [6] Civil War Pension Application number 731 201.

                  [7] Here  is more about Jefferson Barracks.

[8] And that fact has a highly credible source: the State Historical Society of North Dakota. See its entry about Fort Buford here.

                  [9] A copy of that undoubtedly weighty tome is owned by the University of Oregon and has been digitized by Ancestry.

                  [10] Just kidding. I have never been compensated for any genealogical research.

Tennessee-Texas migrants, including some Trices and Burkes

When I first started writing this blog, another family history researcher told me that people would prefer stories to my academic, footnoted, law-review-style crapola. In all fairness, she didn’t expressly badmouth my articles. She didn’t need to. The statement that people would prefer to read stories instead of, uh, whatever the heck my stuff might be, is about as subtle as the neon lights in Times Square, except less flattering.

In any event, I’m edging toward stories. Gradually. This post is about some relatives and ancestors who left Tennessee for Texas: two Trice brothers, a young male Burke, and a Trice widow with eight children. They all wound up in Waco, McLennan County, Texas. My original plan was to figure out the reason(s) they chose to migrate and craft a story with motivation as the unifying theme. I couldn’t make it work due to lack of both imagination and descriptive skills. All of them apparently went to Texas looking for wide-open spaces and opportunities.

Now, see, that is exactly the sort of thing people say about Texas that makes everyone hate the place. Since I have already lit that fire, however, I’m going to fan the flames by carrying on about Texas for a bit before getting to the Trices and Burkes. Please stick with me, because there are a couple of anecdotes here that might count as stories. A cross-dressing Trice. A Burke with a pet wild turkey. Annoying quail. A bird dog named Navasota Shoals Jake. Also, some cool old photos.

At one time, it seemed like half of Tennessee was heading to Texas. In the period after Mexico became independent from Spain in 1821, more people migrated to Texas from Tennessee than from any other state. Cheap land was undoubtedly the big draw. I doubt anyone was enticed by the fact that every poisonous snake indigenous to North America has a home somewhere in Texas. All four types — rattlers, copperheads, water moccasins, and coral snakes — appear in Harrison County, the location of a summer camp I attended. Frankly, my mother was more difficult to cope with than the snakes, which have a live-and-let-live approach to coexistence. She was also a native Texan. I wonder if that is a non sequitur.

Some of the guys who died at the Alamo in 1836 were among the early wave of Tennessee migrants to Texas.[1] More than thirty Tennesseans fought there, including Davy Crockett.[2] He is the source of what may be the most fabulous sore loser quote in the entire history of American politics. Accepting his loss for a race for a congressional seat from Tennessee, he famously said, “You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas.” Unfortunately, that didn’t work out well for him. John Wayne did OK.

The state has inspired other noteworthy quotes. Larry McMurtry (author of Lonesome Dove) said “Only a rank degenerate would drive 1,500 miles across Texas without eating a chicken fried steak.”[3] Someone else said that, back in the covered wagon days, you could leave Beaumont with a newborn son and he would be in the third grade by the time you reached El Paso, which qualifies as primo Texas braggadocio.[4]  A travel writer for some major newspaper voted Texas “the most irritating state.” He didn’t explain why, but it has a whiny undertone, don’t you think? Traffic? Cedar pollen? Bless his heart.

In the same general spirit, two friends who live in California told me last week that they can’t imagine how I tolerate living in Texas. That is both an uncanny coincidence — two people with the same observation — and less-than-fortuitous timing, since the western third of their state is under two feet of water and the eastern third is blanketed by six feet of snow. The California weather competes daily with the war in Ukraine for the lead story in the New York Times and Washington Post. The continuing deluges have given rise to a brand-spanking new meteorological term: “atmospheric river.” And let’s not forget earthquakes that can collapse double-decker freeways. No, thankee, I’ll take the copperheads and humidity.

Back to Texas: the Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto live on eternally in the hearts of some die-hard Texas natives, including Ida Burke Rankin, now deceased. Her only child had the misfortune to be born in northwest Louisiana, just twenty-seven miles from the border of the promised land. The kid lost count of how many times Ida reminded her to “REMEMBER THE ALAMO!!!! Approximately fifteen minutes after her husband’s Shreveport funeral, Ida packed up and moved back to Texas. Her grandfather Burke had married a Trice. Both are featured in this narrative, eventually.

Sam Houston was undoubtedly the most famous Tennessee migrant to Texas, having become governor of the state. His reputation was launched by a decisive victory at the Battle of Jan Jacinto, where he commanded the Texian forces.[5] Texans later marked the battlefield with a monumental obelisk and stationed the Battleship Texas nearby, just in case Mexico had notions of a rematch. The San Jacinto monument is ten or eleven feet taller than the Washington monument. That was surely no accident, and is yet another in the endless list of reasons why everyone hates Texas. Besides which, ours has a 220-ton star on top.[6]

The Trices and Burkes played in vastly different ballparks than General Houston, of course, being pretty much forgotten to history except perhaps in Waco. The ones featured in this article left Wilson County, Tennessee at different times, although they undoubtedly knew each other’s families. Both the Trices and Burkes owned land on Spring Creek, a lovely little arm of the Cumberland River nestled among gently rolling hills on the south side of the river.

The first two Trices to arrive in Texas, so far as I know, were the brothers William Berry Trice and Sion B. Trice. They arrived in 1853. Here is what a local history book says about Berry:[7]

He “was born in Wilson county, Tennessee, in the year 1834.  His father was a substantial farmer, but never accumulated much property. He was deprived of the advantage of an early training, and never attended school a day in his life.”

“Substantial farmer,” what hooey! Berry undoubtedly contributed that fiction. Truth is, the Wilson County Trices were basically subsistence farmers, as were the Burkes. Neither family accumulated any property other than the land they farmed. Berry’s biography continues:

“In the year 1853 he was convinced beyond a doubt that a good future awaited him, and wanting more latitude for his operations, he concluded to go west.  He left home with thirty-five dollars, and accomplished, in forty-seven days, what very few young men would have thought of undertaking — a journey on foot from Wilson county, Tennessee, to Waco, Texas.  He walked the entire distance. Immediately after his arrival here, instead of seeking the shade and waiting for something to turn up, he hired himself to drive a wagon at $12.50 per month.”

The article doesn’t say so, but my family oral history is that Berry’s brother Sion accompanied Berry on the walk to Texas, a distance of more than 800 miles. Their parents, Edward and Lilly Smith Trice, were still alive when they left. I’m betting Berry and Sion weren’t waiting around for a substantial inheritance, which — as it turns out — wasn’t in the offing. Edward and Lilly had nine children, including Berry, Sion, and my great-great grandfather Charles Foster Trice.

Berry and Sion were involved in the construction of the famous Brazos River bridge in Waco – the first suspension bridge west of the Mississippi[8] (more Texas braggadocio). Trice Brothers Brick and J. W. Mann did the brick work for the bridge, furnishing two million, seven hundred thousand bricks.[9] Berry and Sion became rich as sin in the process, ensuring funding for some impressive Trice monuments in Waco’s old Oakwood Cemetery.

Before making a fortune in bricks, Berry drove a wagon, cut and split rails, and worked in a sawmill. He was elected constable in 1855 and Justice of the Peace eight years later. When he was elected constable, he couldn’t even write his name.[10] His second wife was the widow of a former sheriff named Alf Twaddle, possibly the worst surname on the planet.

In the 1860 and 1870 census, Berry described himself as a “brick maker.” By 1880, he was a “farmer and banker.” At Berry’s death, he was president of Waco National Bank; he was then, or had been, a director. He was, according to The Handbook of Waco, “one of the wealthiest men in our community.” He owned five farms, although I am confident there was no dirt under his fingernails. Nor did Berry miss any meals: he weighed over 400 pounds when he died.[11] The local history book describes him colorfully:

” … Not only is he of great weight in financial circles, but his ponderosity amounts to four hundred and twenty-five pounds, and, in physique, he possesses more latitude and longitude than any man in the county.  He is … surrounded with all the conveniences and comforts of life.”

Ponderosity! I am embarrassed for whoever wrote that. With respect to the comforts of life, the inventory of Berry’s estate included, among many other things, a telescope, a piano, and a gold-headed cane. In the hundreds of estate inventories I’ve seen, that is the one and only telescope.

I’m not sure what Sion did before he and Berry founded the Trice Brothers Brick Yard, or how much he weighed. He is also buried in the Oakwood Cemetery along with more Trices and Trice in-laws than I can count. There is a telling slip of paper among Sion’s probate records describing expenses incurred on behalf of his two daughters: a receipt for “tuition in music to Misses Beaulah and Hattie Trice from Apr. 18 to Oct 1st 1879 … 5 months at $10 per month.”[12] Sion wasn’t nearly as famous as Berry, but he clearly didn’t want for anything, either.

Coincidentally — or not — the first Burke who appeared in Waco found a temporary home with Berry Trice. William “Burks” was listed in the 1880 census in Berry’s household. He was twenty at the time. Farmer was his stated occupation, although I suspect he left Tennessee at least in part to escape farming. His full name was William Logan Burke, the first of a fistful of men in my family with that name.[13] He was my great-grandfather and the eldest son of Logan (full name Esom Logan Burke) and Harriet Munday Burke. Logan and Harriett also owned land on Spring Creek in Wilson County. I’m not sure exactly when William Logan Burke left home, but I’m afraid he bailed out on his widowed mother and four underage siblings after their father died. When Logan died in 1877, his eldest son was still only seventeen. I would bet he was still at home, though I have no evidence. By 1880, he was in Waco.

The first William Logan Burke wasn’t a farmer for long. He became “one of the early Sheriffs” of McClennan County, then a U.S. Marshall or Assistant Marshall. Owing to the plethora of men sharing his name among my Burke relatives, we call the first WLB “the Sheriff.” I know virtually nothing about him except that he was often absent from home. His daughter-in-law (Ida Huenefeld/Hannefield Burke) explained his frequent absences like so: “he was out chasing outlaws.” Here is a formal portrait of him, the only good likeness I have. Too bad he wasn’t wearing a badge.

The Sheriff married a Trice, although not one of the rich ones. She belonged to the third set of my family’s Tennessee migrants to Waco: Elizabeth (Betty) Morgan Trice. Her parents, Charles Foster Trice and Mary Ann Powell, also lived on Spring Creek in Wilson County. Foster was a blacksmith. Mary Ann was a quick-thinking lady who once outfitted him in a woman’s dress and bonnet, sitting him in a rocking chair in front of the fireplace, peeling potatoes, just before Union Army “recruiters” came to call.

Spring Creek wasn’t kind to Foster. He died in 1881 in a cave-in of the creek bank. There was a coroner’s inquest into his death, which was ruled an accident.[14] His land had to be sold because his personal estate was inadequate to pay debts. Foster didn’t make it to Waco, but his widow Mary Ann and eight children moved there some time between 1881 and 1886.

Mary Ann is buried in Waco’s Oakwood Cemetery along with the other Trices, Betty and the Sheriff, and Ida Hannefield Burke’s parents Ella Adalia Maier and John Henry Hannefield. Mary Ann died in 1928, when her great-granddaughter Ida Burke was eighteen. Ida heard the potato-peeling-dress-wearing story directly from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.

Mary Ann’s daughter Betty Morgan Trice Burke was a tiny redhead who could, according to my grandmother, “hold her liquor like a man.” Her only surviving child, the second William Logan Burke, was a dead ringer for his mother. Here she is, in a fabulous dress featuring elaborate ribbon trim, a brooch at her neck, and a fancy watch pinned to the dress.

The Sheriff died of tuberculosis in 1899, when the second William Logan Burke was eleven. The Sheriff’s widow, Betty Trice Burke, married a kind man named Sam Whaley in 1906, although she had been ill for a good while. She died just a few months after she married Sam, when her son was eighteen. Her obituary mentions both the Trice family’s elevated status in the community and the Sheriff. Her memorial in Oakwood Cemetery, a flat marker, is considerably more modest than Berry’s.

She had four children, but only one — her spitting image, my grandfather — survived her. Here he is as a young man:

“Gramps,” we cousins called him, was a genuine, Grade-A, certified Texas character, born in Waco in 1888. He went by W. L., or just “Billie.” I adored him, and vice versa. He taught me how to shoot a BB gun at a moving target by hanging the lid of a Folger’s can on a string from a tree branch. He gave me a fishing rod and reel, never used in my non-fishing family. Every time my grandparents came to Shreveport, he brought me some kind of critter. Baby chickens. Baby ducks. Goldfish. Once, he brought a pair of quail for which my father built a fabulous cage. Unfortunately, they launched into their “bob-WHITE!” calls each day at sunrise. They have surprisingly good lungs for such small birds. Neighbors registered complaints. One night, the quail mysteriously “escaped.” My father often said that he fully expected his father-in-law to bring me an elephant one day.

Sometime in the 1950s, Gramps had a pet wild turkey named Clyde. I am not making this up. When we were visiting my grandparents in Houston, we would all sit outside after dinner in those old uncomfortable slatted metal chairs when it was nice outside, meaning anything over 70 degrees. No air-conditioning in the 1950s. Clyde would sit on the arm of Gramps’s chair and apparently enjoy the conversation, looking at whomever was talking. Once, when we were driving back to Houston from Fredericksburg, Gramps abruptly pulled the car over to the side of the road beside a sorghum field, saying “I’m gonna get some of that good milo maize for my turkey.” Whereupon he climbed over the barbed-wire fence and grabbed a handful. My grandmother didn’t bat an eye, having known him since they were teenagers. I don’t know what became of Clyde, but I know he was spoiled rotten.

Gramps was a polo player and, after he was too old to play, a referee; a hunter who raised bird dogs, including a prizewinner named “April Showers;” a fisherman; and a spinner of tall tales. One of them made it into either the Houston Chronicle or the Post, I don’t know which. Granny cut it out and mailed it to my mother, with a penciled note saying “Your daddy in print with a big one.” It was in a column titled “The Outdoor Sportsman” by Bill Walker. Here is a transcription:

“A roaring gas flame in the big brick fireplace in the Cinco Ranch clubhouse warmed the spacious room and the several members of the Gulf Coast Field Trial Club who gathered there for coffee Saturday morning before the first cast in the shooting dog stake.

“Usually when veteran field trial followers get together the conversations turns to great dogs of yesteryears and this group was no exception.

“W. L. “BILLY” BURKE related one about an all-time favorite of ours — Navasota Shoals Jake.

“Burke and the late W. V. Bowles, owner of Ten Broeck’s Bonnett and Navasota Shoals Jake, were hunting birds in the Valley on one of those rare hot and sultry winter mornings. Jake pointed a covey several hundred yards from the two men and out in the open.

“BOWLES suggested they take their time approaching the pointing dog, since he was known to be very trustworthy. When the two hunters did not immediately move to Jake, the dog broke his point, backed away to the cool shade of a nearby tree and again pointed the birds.

“THE COVEY was still hovering in a briar thicket when Bowles and Burke arrived. Navasota Shoals Jake was still on point.

Here is Gramps in his 60s as a polo referee:

I should probably also include a picture or two of his daughter, Ida Burke Rankin, the die-hard Texan who admonished me to “Remember the Alamo!” They wouldn’t let women play polo in her day, of course, although I am confident she would have beat the heck out of everyone. Undoubtedly to show them, whoever “they” were, she used to ride her father’s polo ponies like a bat out of hell whenever she thought he wouldn’t find out. She once fell off on a blacktop road and said she couldn’t sit down for three days. She claims Gramps never knew, but I’ll bet he did. He was nobody’s fool.

And one more, when I was about three:

Next, I might have to write about Granny, a character in her own right.

See you on down the road.

Robin

                  [1] Here is a link to an article about the Battle of the Alamo by the reputable Texas State Historical Association, complete with images of Davy Crockett, William Barrett Travis, and James Bowie. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/alamo-battle-of-the

                  [2] There were either 31 or 32 or Tennesseans at the Alamo. An authoritative list has the same name twice, and it is unclear whether those names represent one or two men. See the list at this link: https://www.historicunioncounty.com/article/tennesseans-who-died-alamo

                  [3] For the record, 1,500 miles exaggerates both the length or width of Texas. It is 827 miles from Beaumont to El Paso on I-10, and about 850 from Texhoma, OK, on the OK-TX panhandle border, to McAllen on the Rio Grande. This is another reason people hate Texans: bragging about how big the state is.

                  [4] The math doesn’t audit on that bit of hyperbole, either. If mules or horses walk at 3 mph for 8-hour days, the journey would surely take less than six months even with interruptions.

                  [5] Here is a link to an article about the Battle of San Jacinto. It also has a fabulous picture of the San Jacinto monument. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/san-jacinto-battle-of

                  [6] See a closeup of the star and a photo of the monument here: https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/san-jacinto-monument-and-museum

                  [7] John Sleeper and J.C. Hutchins, The Handbook of Waco and McLennan County, Texas (Waco: Texian Press, 1972), article titled “William B. Trice.”

                  [8] Here is a photograph of the bridge, now a pedestrian walkway. https://www.loc.gov/resource/highsm.29747/?r=-0.163,-0.02,1.362,0.789,0

                  [9] Id., article titled “The Waco Suspension Bridge.”

                  [10] Id., Trice article.

                  [11] John M. Usry, early Waco Obituaries 1874 -1908 (Waco: Central Texas Genealogical Society, 1980), citing the July 16, 1884 issue of the Waco Daily Examiner at p. 2 col. 5, obituary of W. B. (Berry) Trice.

                  [12] Probate packet #671 at the courthouse in Waco, McLennan Co., TX.

                  [13] William Logan Burke, the escapee from Tennessee, was the first with that name. His only surviving child, my grandfather, was also William Logan Burke, who went by “W.L.” or just “Billie.” His only son was the third William Logan Burke, who was called Bill, or “the Kid” in his polo playing days. Bill’s elder son was known as “Little Bill.” He went by William Logan Burke III, although he was actually the fourth in the line. Little Bill’s brother Frank, who just goes by Burke, gave one of his sons that name. That makes five. My elder son’s name, by the way, is William Burke Willis, in honor of my wonderful grandfather.

            [14] Tennessee State Library and Archives, Wilson Roll # B-1407, County Clerk (Loose Records Project) Box 59, Fld. 20 – Box 60, Fld 13. Vol: 1742-1962. This film contains Box 59, Folder 22, which contains an inquest into the death of C. F. Trice. I have a copy around here somewhere …

 

John McGinley Rankin: Too Many Have Lived

by Anonymous

I took a drag on my cigarette and leaned back in my chair. John McGinley Rankin was dead alright. Dead as a doornail. Had been for 187 years. Cholera they said, but I figured it was more likely a bad ticker. The probate records scattered all over my desk told the story. He’d been up to his eyeballs in debt with a wife and nine kids to support. It was a wonder he held on as long as he did.

Yep, John McGinley Rankin was dead, no doubt about it. My job: Find his parents.

Spade’s the name. Not my real name, of course. They call me “Spade” because I dig up dead relatives, mostly Rankins. I’d walked into the office that morning to find a manilla envelope on my desk. Inside was a $100 bill – my usual retainer – and a note that read “There’s more where that came from if you can tell me who his parents were.” There was also typewritten sheet titled “Memories” by a guy named James Doig Rankin,[1] plus a hand-drawn family tree.[2] Both had the name “John McGinley Rankin” circled in red.

I took a quick look at the “Memories.” Up top it mentioned Adam Rankin, son of William, who came to America from Ulster about 1720 with brothers John and Hugh. Adam had married Mary Steele and died in 1747 leaving his property to sons James, William and Jeremiah. So far, so nothing. Every Rankin under the sun claimed either Adam or John as an ancestor.[3] 90% of them were dead wrong, and the DNA evidence said Adam and John weren’t even brothers.[4]

James D Rankin went on to say that Adam’s son James had served under Washington and “for some notable service was given a tract of land at the foot of Two Top Mountain, Franklin County, Pa., a few miles from the present town of Mercersburg.” He’d married Mary McGinley, and John McGinley Rankin was one of his kids.

I chuckled. Every Rankin private dick knew that Adam’s son James was married to Jane Campbell, not Mary McGinley, and his four sons were William, David, Jeremiah and James. Not a “John McGinley” among them. It was easy to see how James D might have got mixed up, though… Guys named “James Rankin” were a dime a dozen.

The rest of the story rang true though. John McGinley Rankin had married a gal named Agnes Burns, “daughter of Hon. John Burns, first cousin and intimate friend of the Scottish poet.” About 1816, “they made their bridal trip in a covered wagon across the Allegheny Mountains, and after a short period in Eastern Ohio settled permanently a mile out of the village of Washington, Pennsylvania. Here they purchased a tavern and connected with it a farm. It stood on the Great Western Highway. The village around their home was called Rankintown. No liquor was sold in the tavern.”

I took a look at the family tree. It told basically the same story right down to the “full cousin of Robert Burns” bit, but also listed all John and Agnes’s kids and their spouses.[5] I flipped it over. It was written on stationary of the General Counsel of the Rock Island & Pacific Railway, a guy named William Thomasson Rankin. I did a double-take. Will Rankin was my own second great grandfather. Suddenly this wasn’t just another Rankin case.

This was personal.

Just then the phone rang. “Spade here… Yeah, I’m on the John McGinley Rankin case… Killed in a thresher accident in Centre County?[6] Nah, you’re barking up the wrong tree pal.” Click. What the hell was that? Some joker trying to send me off on a wild goose chase?

I ran through the list of John M’s kids from William T Rankin’s chart, and they all checked out. Two of them had been born in Warren, Ohio – James Graham in 1821 and John Walker, Will’s dad, in 1823 – so that bit of James Doig Rankin’s story looked OK, but at least one of the older girls had been born in Washington County, PA, according to her obit.[7] I also checked out Agnes’s father, “John Burns.” Turns out his name was really James[8] and he was born in Pennsylvania, so the odds of him being an “intimate friend of the Scottish poet” were just about nil. Agnes’s family had lived just west of Schellsburg, and that’s probably where she was born. That “crossed the Allegheny Mountains” part of the story was starting to look like a bunch of hooey.

I poked around in the records for Washington County for a while looking for some likely candidate for John McGinley Rankin’s father. There were a bunch of Rankins just north of the town of Washington at a spot called Raccoon Creek.[9] I even found a James who was about the right age, but it turned out he’d been ambushed and killed by Seneca on his way home from a trip to Kentucky and left no kids.[10]

So now here I was looking for clues in the probate records[11] for John M who had shuffled off on 4 Aug 1835[12] at his tavern in Canton Township. It was mostly a big pile of called in debts. The Rankintown Tavern practically had to be liquidated to pay it all off, including every barrel of beer and whiskey – so much for it being a “dry” tavern! Somehow, Agnes had managed to keep it all going for another 10 years as the Erie Canal and B&O Railroad slowly dried up traffic on the Old National Pike. She’d even managed to put most her kids through Washington College. Helluva gal.

I sighed. I’d hit a brick wall.

The phone rang again. “Yeah?… You don’t say… I’ll check it out. Thanks doll!”

It was Jess Guyer calling with a hot tip. When it came to deeds and wills, she had a nose like a bloodhound, and great gams to boot.[13] She said she’d found something in Belfast Township, Bedford County, that I might be interested in. I pulled down my dusty copy of Bedford County Deed Book P, turned to page 255, and there it was. In 1825, John M Rankin of Canton Township quitclaimed ground rent on a parcel he’d sold to one James Austin in 1815. That was definitely my boy.

Jess had said there were other deeds for the same property. I flipped back to Deed Book L, page 601. In 1818, John M Rankin, then of Belfast Township, was selling 200 acres to a guy named David Humphreys from Franklin County for 9400 clams. As I went through the details of the agreement, though, something hit me. This was no ordinary sale; this was a bailout!

John M had bought the land in 1813 for 6 grand – 2 grand up front and 4 notes of 1 grand each. It was supposed to have been paid off by the beginning of 1818. But David Humphreys was agreeing to pay off the remaining balance, so John M must have had trouble getting his hands on the dough. Not only that, but Humphreys was taking on $3400 of other debts owed by John M. That was a lot of lucre back in 1818! Besides getting rid of his debts, John M was getting a 120 acre piece of land in Warren, Ohio.

The phone rang. “Yeah?… Yeah, I’m on the case…. Doctor in Piney Township, Clarion County?[14] No, you got the wrong guy, bub.” Click. Joker.

I did a little quick arithmetic… If 200 acres in Pennsylvania was worth $9400, 120 acres in Ohio couldn’t have been worth more than two or three, probably a lot less since the feds were still selling off undeveloped land in Ohio for $2 an acre. But the deed valued it at six grand. I had to scratch my head at that one. Maybe they were trying to make it look like John M wasn’t getting such a raw deal. Anyway, what happened to John M wasn’t much different than what happened to a lot of other small farmers in those days. Everybody had been running up debt speculating on land and they all got left holding the bag when the credit dried up and the whole house of cards came tumbling down in the Panic of 1819.[15] Poor sap.

As my eyes went over the Humphreys deed again, I noticed something I’d missed on the first pass. The land in Ohio was to be transferred to John M Rankin and his father James Rankin! So the family had it right… John M’s father really was named James. Well, that helped a little, but there were so many James Rankins floating around back in those days that you couldn’t spit without hitting one in the eye. Which was John M’s daddy?

The phone rang again. I was just about ready to throw it across the room, but picked it up anyway. “Spade here… Doctor in Kalamazoo?[16] You gotta be kiddin’ me…. No, no, that’s way too late… Yeah, well, same to you.” Click.

Maybe I needed to come at this from another angle. If John McGinley Rankin’s mother was really Mary McGinley, chances are her father was named John McGinley. That’s how the Scotch-Irish liked to name their kids back in those days… give the kid the full name of some friend or relative. All I had to do was find the right guy.

Ten minutes thumbing through Pennsylvania will books and I had it. John McGinley of Adams County, Pennsylvania. Will dated December 12th, 1796.[17] He left 10 pounds each to his four daughters: Mary wife of James Rankin, Margaret wife of Isaac Moore, Sarah wife of James Rankin, and Abigail wife of William Rankin. I blinked and read it again. James Rankin was married to Mary McGinley… and Sarah McGinley?  That had to be a transcription error.[18]

Well, now at least I knew where Mary McGinley came from, but I still didn’t feel any closer to figuring out James Rankin. I started digging into the background of this John McGinley character. Turns out, he was married to a gal named Jane Alexander, and her grandmother was Mary Steele. I blinked. Wasn’t that the name of Adam Rankin’s wife? Yeah, her first husband had been a guy named James “the Carpenter” Alexander according to his will.[19] So Mary McGinley was married to James Rankin, and her father was married to the step-granddaughter of Adam Rankin? My head was starting to spin. Maybe there was something to this Adam Rankin connection after all.

The phone rang again. “This is Spade… Wait, did you say Two Top Mountain?… No kidding… I’ll look into it.” Click.

It was my cousin Ralph. He’d been digging into the Adam Rankin story and had found where Adam’s son James had his farm. It was at a spot called “The Corner,” in Montgomery Township, Franklin County, PA, a little south of Mercersburg, where Punch Bowl Road crosses Licking Creek, and right at the foot of Two Top Mountain, just where James Doig Rankin’s “Memories” had said it was. James’ will had split the property between his four sons, and Ralph had worked out all the property lines, with the easternmost tract going to James Jr.[20]

I started paging through Pennsylvania land warrant applications looking for clues, but the phone rang. Again.

“Spade here… Yeah, I’m on the case… Farmer in Guernsey County, Ohio?[21] No no no no NO! Not the right guy!” Click. What a Nimrod![22]

Back to the land warrants I went, and boy did I get lucky! February 23, 1816.[23] There it was. John M Rankin of Belfast Township applies for a Warrant on a tract at The Corner. And evidence was given by none other than James Rankin, “a disinterested witness”, saying that John M had settled there in March 1812. The survey[24] put the tract just east of James Jr.’s. James Jr had to be John M’s father, but that “disinterested” bit put me off. Could a father be “disinterested”?[25] I was so close I could taste it.

I went back to the deed books. There had to be something there. Finally, I found it! A deed from James Rankin Jr to Charles Kilgore[26] for a tract of land bordered on the east by lands “late the property of said James Rankin & his son John Rankin.” There was my smoking gun!

I now had a solid paper trail proving that John McGinley Rankin, husband of Agnes Burns, was the son of James Rankin Jr, grandson of the Adam Rankin who died in 1747.  James Jr. had married Mary McGinley, his first cousin once removed of the half blood, as the old timers say, and she’d named her son after his granddad. Sometime around 1813, John M had moved to Belfast Township, Bedford County, and met and married Agnes Burns. The first two or three kids must have been born there, not in Washington County, obit notwithstanding. By 1818, with bankruptcy looming, he sold out and they all moved to Warren, Jefferson County, Ohio. After a couple more kids, they sold out again and moved to “Rankintown” in Canton Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania, to open the tavern.

James Doig Rankin and William Thomasson Rankin had got it nearly right after all. They just dropped a generation.

I poured myself a double shot of Cutty Sark and leaned back in my chair again. The phone rang. This time, I picked it up with a smile. “Don’t tell me you’ve got another one?… Died of typhoid in 1898?[27] No, that’s not the guy, but you’ve certainly been very helpful to my investigation.” Click. No amount of kibitzing was going to spoil my drink.

[1] The original copy of “Memories” is in the private collection of a descendant of John McGinley Rankin who provided an abstract to me.

[2] I discovered a hand drawn chart of descendants of William Rankin, including the lines of John McGinley Rankin and James Clark Rankin, among a packet of family papers left by my father.  It is in the hand of William Thomasson Rankin, son of John Walker Rankin and grandson of John McGinley Rankin.  It is on stationary of the Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, so must have been drawn up in about 1900 when Will Rankin was General Counsel.

[3] There are a number of articles on this website concerning Adam Rankin who died in 1747 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

[4] See “Adam Rankin Who Died in 1747, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania – AGAIN!” here.

[5] These were:  Mary Jane Rankin (~1814-~1843) m. Rev. James Law; Esther Burns Rankin (~1816-1851) m. Rev. James Rolla Doig; Ann Eliza Rankin (~1818-1912) m. Rev. Robert Johnston Hammond; Rev. James Graham Rankin (1821-1868) m. Catherine Pollack; John Walker Rankin Esq. (1823-1869) m. Sara Dupuy Thomasson; Agnes McGinley Rankin (1825-1913) m. Rev. Byron Porter; Rev. Alexander Reed Rankin (1828-1917) m. Vianna Katherine DeGroff; Dr. David Carson Rankin (~1833-~1865) m. Margaret S Speedy; Samuel Murdock Rankin (~1833-?).

[6] John M Rankin (1797-1838), son of William Rankin and Abigail McGinley, died after being injured by a threshing machine.  John Blair Lynn, “History of Centre and Clinton Counties, Pennsylvania” 222 (Press of J. B. Lippencott & Co., Philadelphia), available online.  Abigail McGinley was a daughter of John McGinley, so the man was likely named for his grandfather. See an article about the Centre County Rankins on this website here.

[7] “The Americus Greeting,” Americus Kansas, Thursday, December 12, 1912, Page 1. Obituary for Ann Eliza Rankin “Grandma” Hammond.

[8] Will of James Burns, Bedford County, PA, Will Book Vol. 4: 379, dated 28 Jan 1860, leaving $500 to “Agness Burns intermarried with John Rankin.”  James Burns seems to have been quite a story-teller.  In the 1850 census, he gave his age as 86.  In 1860, he claimed to be 101, the same age written on his headstone when he died in 1863.  His application for a revolutionary war pension was denied because, in spite of the extensive military history it detailed, including wintering with Washington at Valley Forge, the only evidence he provided was a pay record for a different James Burns who had lived in York County.  His own records, he said, had been eaten by a mouse.  Perhaps this was the same mouse whose fate was mourned by the poet Robert Burns, who James claimed as a first cousin.

[9] See “Pennsylvania Rankins: William and Abigail of Washington County” on this website here.

[10] Charles A. Hanna, Ohio Valley Genealogies Relating Chiefly to Families in Harrison, Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and Washington, Westmoreland, and Fayette Counties, Pennsylvania (New York: Press of J. J. Little & Co., 1900) 104-105. It is online here.

[11] Pennsylvania Probate Records, File R, 1837-1844, Case 25.

[12] Biography of John Walker Rankin from the “CF Davis Collection” 261, authorship and publication unknown.  A copy of this hand written manuscript is in the possession of the author, and a transcription is available here (Ancestry.com subscription required).

[13] For the record, this is literary license:  I have never met Jess Guyer in person.

[14] Dr. John McGinley Rankin (~1792-1869) of Piney Township, Clarion County, was the son of James Rankin and Sarah McGinley.  His memorial at Find Grave has his middle name as “McKinley,” but there is no photo of a grave marker and no reference.  The cemetery record for his daughter Sarah M. Rankin shows his middle name as “McGinley.”  See “Find-a-grave information — fact or fiction? (e.g., Dr. John M. Rankin, 1833-1909)” on this website at this link for a discussion of name confusion between this Dr. John and a younger Dr. John of Kalamazoo, MI.

[15] See Wikipedia for a discussion of the Panic of 1819.

[16] Dr. John M. Rankin (1833-1909) of Kalamazoo, MI, was the son of James Huston Rankin and Margaret McCurdy.  Huston, in turn, was the son of James Rankin and Sarah McGinley.  Huston likely named his son for his brother, Dr. John McGinley Rankin of Piney Township, Clarion County, PA, as well as for his own grandfather, John McGinley.  See footnote 14 and this article.

[17] York County, PA, Will Books vol. H: 363, viewable here.

[18] But it was no transcription error.  Three McGinley girls married three Rankin boys, two of whom were named “James.”  Sarah and Abigail married brothers James and William respectively, sons of William Rankin (1723-1792) and Mary Huston, while Mary married their first cousin James, son of James Rankin (~1722-1795) and Jane Campbell.

[19] New Castle County, DE, Will Book C: 103.

[20] A copy of Ralph Jefford’s map can be found here.  Ancestry.com subscription required.

[21] John M Rankin (1834-1927) of Guernsey County, OH, was the son of Adam Rankin and Elizabeth Pumphrey.  Adam, in turn, was the son of James Rankin and Mary McGinley, and brother to the John McGinley Rankin who is the subject of this piece.  Adam almost certainly named his son after his brother, as well as his grandfather John McGinley.

[22] Nimrod W Rankin (1862-1952) was the son of John M Rankin (1834-1927) and Elvira Berry.  See footnote 21.

[23] The Franklin County, PA, warrant application is viewable here.  Ancestry.com subscription required.  I’m sure there must be a way to view it that isn’t paywalled, but I’ll be darned if I can figure it out.

[24] Early Land Surveys for Montgomery Township, Franklin County, PA, can be found at a unique Google Earth interactive map located here.

[25] It is possible that the “disinterested” James Rankin was a cousin of John M Rankin, son of his father’s brother William, who lived three farms to the west.

[26] Franklin County, PA, Deeds, Book 12: 230.

[27] John M. Rankin, Jr. (1874-1898) was the son of Dr. John M. Rankin (1833-1909) and Susan C Rankin (her maiden name) of Kalamazoo, MI.  See footnote 16.  Like his father, his middle name was almost certainly McGinley.

A Willis Christmas Thank You Note

Some time ago, I found a ninety-eight year old letter from my grandfather, Doctor Henry Noble Willis of Wilmington, Delaware, to his older sister Mary Clark in Preston, Maryland. The 31 December 1924 letter thanked her for a check, presumably a Christmas gift or a birthday present.[1]

Items like this are a treasure. They reveal our ancestors as real people. The brief note shows Doctor Willis was in poor health but retained a sense of humor. The letter mentions his daughter Mary Willis, his cousin Cora Willis Noble, his wife Jessie (“Boss”), and his son Noble, who was eight years old at the time.

The transcribed letter below is followed by some explanatory comments. A couple of words were unclear. I indicated them with a question mark in brackets:

Envelope Addressed:     Mrs. M. W. Clark        Preston, Md

Postmarked:               Dec 31, 1924, 7 PM         Wilmington, Del.

Dear Sister,

            Your check arrived ok and waited to find out if you were in Preston before thanking you for same.

            Mary leaves us tomorrow for supper in Phila. then on to Yonkers next morning.

            She certainly looks fine … weighs 148 almost as much as her Dad. I think she enjoyed her stay very much.

           We have had quite a cold snap. The weather man has predicted sun but has not arrived yet.

            Don’t kill yourself eating this Xmas with all the fine dinners.

            Cora stopped over between trains[?], think she’s looking better.

            Well, I am doing fine no change in my blood pressure for 6 weeks. Dr. T told me on Monday A M more[?] drainage and he thought I would be good for 5 or 6 years. Sounds good to me, I shall open the office with the New Year starting in slow – avoiding exceptional strain.

            Wishing you a Happy New Year and many of them. Noble had more Xmas in his bones than the rest of us.

           Boss says she will write later.

                                                Your Brother

                                                   H.N.W.

Henry Noble Willis

Henry Noble Willis was 59 years old at the time he wrote this letter. He was born and raised in Preston, Maryland. He graduated from Williamsport College, Pennsylvania in about 1885. After graduating from  the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1888, he became a doctor like his father, Henry Fisher Willis. The younger Doctor Willis established his practice in Pocomoke City, Worcester County, Maryland. In  1890, he married Mary E. McMaster, daughter of a local physician. Mary died in 1898, leaving two children: Mary Catherine Willis, born in 1891 and Harry McMaster Willis, born in 1893.

In 1899, the widowed Doctor Willis married Jessie Sensor in Pocomoke City. She was a daughter of the Methodist minister who served several communities in the region. The couple had a daughter Grace in 1905. She died of meningitis at age five. Shortly thereafter, they adopted a daughter Kathryn, who had also been born in 1905. In 1908, Henry and Jessie moved to Wilmington, Delaware, where they resided until their deaths. In Wilmington, they had a son, Noble Sensor Willis who was born 1916.

Mary Willis Clark

The recipient of the letter was Doctor Willis’s 64-year old sister Mary.[2] She was born in Sussex County, Delaware, where their father then practiced medicine. About 1863, the elder Doctor Willis family moved Preston, Caroline County, Maryland. In Preston, he took over the practice of a doctor who had joined the Union Army. Mary grew up in Preston and married Joshua Bascom Clark there in 1878.[3] A report of the marriage indicated he was of Seaford, Delaware where he served as junior editor of “The Sussex County Index,” a local newspaper. The childless couple subsequently moved to Georgetown, Sussex County, Delaware where he became publisher and editor of the “Sussan Journal.”

Joshua Clark died in 1892, and Mary managed and edited the newspaper until 1894. She continued to live at her home in Georgetown until her death in 1941.[4] However, Doctor Willis mailed the 1924 thank you letter to Preston, Maryland rather than to her home in Georgetown. He must have known she was traveling, probably visiting relatives during the holidays, and somehow got word that she was in Preston. Mary or her relatives must have been well known in Preston, a town of about 300 people in the early 1900s, because Henry did not include a street address, just her name and the town.

Cora Fisher Willis Noble

Mary Willis Clark and Henry Noble Willis were the surviving children of Doctor Henry Fisher Willis and his wife Emily Rumbold Patton. Their other two children, Cora Fisher Willis and Emma Patton Willis died young … Cora died as a young school teacher in 1875 at age 18, and Emma died in 1863 before her first birthday.

The Cora referred to in the letter is a second Cora Fisher Willis, born in 1879. She was Mary’s and Henry’s first cousin, the daughter of Henry Fisher Willis’s brother James Spry Willis and his wife Mary E. Shufelt. About 1900, Cora married Charles Fulton Noble, son of Isaac Noble. The Nobles were close to the Willis family although this is the first record I have found of a marriage between the two families.

Isaac Noble was a successful carpenter and a neighbor of Henry Fisher Willis in Preston, Maryland. Doctor Jacob L. Noble joined Henry Fisher Willis’s medical practice in Preston. The elder Doctor Willis so admired the Noble family that he adopted their surname as the middle name for his son. It has been used now as a given name in the Willis family through five generations – the doctor’s son, Henry Noble Willis, grandson Noble Sensor Willis, great grandson Gary Noble Willis, great-great grandson Noble Sutherland Willis, and great-great-great grandson Christopher Noble Willis.

Doctor T

I cannot identify the “Doctor T” mentioned in the letter. However, he was overly optimistic about Henry Noble Willis’s expected life span. Henry died 11 April 1926, a little more than two years after this letter, rather than being “good for 5 or 6 years”. I haven’t found a death certificate, so don’t know the official cause of death. I suspect some sort of heart disease based on Henry’s mention of high blood pressure and “drainage.” Maybe some reader can speculate intelligently as to the cause.

Mary Catherine Willis

The Mary referred to in the second sentence of the letter is Mary Catherine Willis, daughter of Henry Noble Willis and his first wife, Mary McMaster. Mary Catherine was working at the time as a secretary at the YWCA in Philadelphia and had obviously come to Wilmington for the Christmas holiday and her father’s birthday. In 1925, Mary applied for a passport to visit Hong Kong, China and Japan. She later served in China as a secretary for a missionary group sponsored by the YWCA, returning to the United States before war broke out. After her years of employment, she retired in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Our family had the pleasure of Mary’s company when she visited Shreveport, Louisiana in the late 1940s. I remember her as an imposing woman. Doctor Willis’s estimate of her weight was far too low by that time. My mother frequently told a story about Mary, who never married or had children, instructing Mom on how to diaper my younger sister, Mom’s third child. Mary complained, “Charlotte, that diaper is too tight. That child is not going to be comfortable.” Mom backed off and said, “Here. You do it.” Mary did so and with a self-satisfied smile placed Barbara in the playpen. Five minutes later, the naked baby was standing in the playpen swinging the not-too-tight diaper over her head!

Noble and “Boss”

Henry’s and Jessie’s son Noble Sensor Willis referred to near the end of the letter was at the age when children are really excited about the magic of Christmas. With his half-siblings half a generation older than he, I can imagine Noble was an exuberant center of attention. Reading Henry’s letter reminded me that later in life Noble adopted some of his father’s habits. As an adult, Noble opened letters with “Dear Sister” and closed with “Your Brother” as did his father. Also, Doctor Willis called his wife Jessie “Boss” in the last line of the letter. Noble referred throughout his married life to his wife Charlotte as “Boss,” when he wasn’t calling her “Imp.” Noble also usually signed notes and messages with three initials rather than a full name. Interesting to note that those patterns all arose with his father.

The letter does not mention adopted daughter Kathryn who was nineteen by 1924 and possibly no longer in the household. She married William New in 1926. In the 1930 census, however, the two resided with the widow Jessie S. Willis and young Noble at Jessie’s home in Wilmington. The couple continued living in New Castle County, Delaware, but had no children.

That is about all I can glean from this letter right now. I have enjoyed re-discovering  more about these people and sharing it. Here’s hoping you can find such treasures among your family memorabilia.

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

—–

[1] Henry Noble Willis was born 23 December 1865.

[2] Mary Willis was born 21 January 1860.

[3] Mary Willis and Joshua Bascom Clark married 23 January 1868.

[4] From Newspapers.com – The News Journal, Wilmington, Delaware, 31 Jan 1941, page 20.

Looking for DAR membership via a Virginia ancestor?

You might look in Frederick County, Virginia if you may have an 18th-century ancestor there. The court order books in 1782 are loaded with lists of people who furnished supplies “for Continental use.” The lists even include women.

Here is the definition of membership eligibility for providing supplies from the DAR website:

“Those who rendered material aid and supported the cause of American Independence by furnishing supplies, with or without remuneration, loaning money and/or providing munitions. Some states enacted special tax laws to raise money for supplies. Payment of these “supply” taxes is considered patriotic service.”

You can find the page defining what the DAR deems accepted service at this link. 

You can view microfilm of original court records for Frederick County at FamilySearch.org. Film #7897647 has images of Order Books 18-19, with entries beginning in 1781. All you need to access them is a FamilySearch account, which is free and can be created here. They won’t pester you with emails asking for money or proselytizing. If you aren’t able to access the film, just holler and I will try to help.

Here are some surnames from Frederick County Order Book 18, pages 36 and 37 (image 40 on the microfilm):

Jones, Jacobs, Cryer, Holliday, Hess, Noble, Williams, Dorsey, Morton, Smith, Slaughter, Frost, Brown, Booth, O’Neill, Cheek?, Kendrick, Cantmill?, Aldridge, Brooks, Kisner?, Carrick?, Stone, Seacrist, Johnston, Anderson, Throckmorton, Parker … et al.

There are more names on page 37 and in earlier Order Book pages. There are undoubtedly later entries as well. If you run across anything about a Rankin, please send an email!!!

See you on down the road.

Robin

It’s all about the Benjamins …

… but we aren’t talking $100 bills. Our subjects are four eighteenth-century Virginians named Benjamin who hail from the Northern Neck Rankin Cluster. Two of these men will qualify a descendant for DAR or SAR membership. If that is your thing and you may have a Rankin ancestor in the right area, they might be worth a closer look.

But this Virginia Rankin family is a tough nut to crack. Only one of the Benjamins has proved parents. Precise birth years are nonexistent; we mostly have to settle for a likely decade. I’m hoping for a reader who has a Bible or other evidence to help us with these men …

  • Benjamin Rankin of King George County, Virginia, a proved son of the Robert Rankin who died there in 1747/48. Benjamin was probably born in the 1720s.
  • Benjamin Rankin of Frederick and Berkeley Counties, Virginia (later part of West Virginia). DAR information is that Capt. Benjamin was born circa 1740.
  • Benjamin Rankin of King George/Fauquier/Loudoun Counties, Virginia and Fayette County, Kentucky. He was a Revolutionary War soldier, suggesting he was born in the 1750s or early 1760s.
  • Benjamin Rankin of Loudoun and Frederick Counties, Virginia and Mason County, Kentucky. He was probably born in the 1760s. His probable or possible brothers were Lt. Robert, William, John, Moses, Reuben, and George Rankin.[1]

Here’s what county records reveal about them.

Benjamin Rankin of King George County, Virginia, son of Robert Rankin who died 1747/48

Benjamin first appeared in the Virginia records in 1747/48 when he was named a beneficiary of his father Robert’s will.[2]Benjamin and his siblings Mary Rankin Green, Moses, George, and Hipkins each inherited only one shilling. Sons William, John, and James, probably the three eldest, inherited Robert’s land.[3] Robert’s estate was appraised at less than one hundred pounds sterling, so he didn’t have much wealth to spread among his children.[4] As a general rule, that means his sons weren’t likely to be wealthy, either.

After his father’s will was proved, Benjamin didn’t appear again in the King George records until 1753.[5] He must have been of legal age by then, born by 1732. After 1753, he appeared regularly in the court order books through 1767. In at least two records, Benjamin was involved with one of his brothers. In 1753, Benjamin and Hipkins sued the same man for trespass, assault and battery.[6] In 1763, Benjamin was security for Moses Rankin, a defendant in a suit for debt.[7]Benjamin was a carpenter, as was his brother John.[8]

The King George court slapped Benjamin hard on the wrist once — on the record — for presenting what the justices called a “very extravagant” charge for building several structures at Gibson’s tobacco warehouse.[9] The justices instructed that Benjamin be paid a lesser amount than he charged. Benjamin, bless his heart, didn’t take it lying down. He sued, was awarded a judgment, and obtained a writ of execution against the warehouse. The court instructed that the judgment be paid from the county levy.[10] Score: Little Guy 1 – City Hall 0.

Benjamin was moderately respectable by the norms of the day, something one can’t say with confidence about his brothers. They appeared in grand jury presentments for “failing to attend divine services,”[11] swearing,[12] “vagrancy” (failing to appear for militia drills),[13] or in court records as defendants in lawsuits for debts.[14] Benjamin did not belong to the top tier of the social order, though. He was never identified with the honorific “gent.,” nor did he serve in a county leadership position — justice, vestryman, tobacco warehouse inspector, someone who took tithes, or the like. He was, after all, a carpenter.

Benjamin did appraise at least one estate, a court-ordered position of moderate respect and trust.[15] He served on a couple of juries.[16] He was appointed overseer of a road, an indicator of both probable land ownership and public trust.[17] However, I found no record of any land acquisition in the deed books or Northern Neck grants. I also found no evidence of Benjamin’s family, if any.

After 1767, Benjamin disappeared from King George records. Because I found no probate records for him, I assumed he had moved. Then I started digging into the online images of King George order books. It turns out that there are very few surviving court records from the 1770s, or at least I had limited luck in the FamilySearch.org microfilms. Court records for King George are disorganized after the 1760s. Benjamin may have remained there and died intestate in the 1770s. Or he may have moved away. I don’t know. !!%&@!**&%!!

Capt. Benjamin Rankin of Frederick/Berkeley County, Virginia

Benjamin of Frederick/Berkeley first appeared in the records witnessing a 1765 Frederick County lease.[18] He lived in the Bullskin Creek/Bloomery area in the northern part of Frederick that became Berkeley County.[19] He was a Captain in the Berkeley County militia. The DAR deems him a Revolutionary Patriot, apparently for furnishing supplies.[20] The DAR estimates he was born circa 1740, probably based on information provided by a descendant.

He resigned his Berkeley militia commission in 1779.[21] That same year, he purchased more than 700 acres and thirty-seven enslaved persons.[22] He was clearly a wealthy man. In 1786, he was a trustee of the city of Charlestown, indicating he was also well-respected.[23] He died in 1787, leaving a will naming his wife Judith MNU and daughters Molly (Mary) Rankin and Margaret Helm, wife of William Helm.[24] George Rankin, who was surely a relative, witnessed Benjamin’s 1787 will.[25]

I had a notion that Capt. Benjamin of Frederick/Berkeley might be the same man as Benjamin, son of the Robert Rankin who died in King George County in 1747/48.[26] However, a birthdate circa 1740 for Capt. Benjamin, if close to accurate, precludes that possibility. Robert’s son Benjamin was of legal age by at least 1753, and thus born well before 1740.[27] Also, I have since learned from microfilm of court records in King George that Benjamin, son of Robert, was still appearing in records there in 1767, while Capt. Benjamin of  Frederick/Berkeley was in a Frederick County record two years earlier.

I also wondered whether Capt. Benjamin of Frederick/Berkeley might be the father of Lt. Robert, William, John, Benjamin, Moses, George, and Reuben Rankin.[28] Those seven men were almost certainly brothers.[29] Capt. Benjamin was in the right place at the right time to have been their father. However, his only proved children are the two daughters named in his will. Further, a birth date circa 1740 makes him highly unlikely as a father of at least Lt. Robert, born in 1753.

If you are looking for an entrée to the DAR or SAR, Benjamin’s son-in-law William Helm is a sure bet. The Helms children were identified in the SAR application of a descendant.[30]

Revolutionary War Soldier Benjamin Rankin of King George/Fauquier/Loudoun Counties, Virginia and Fayette, Kentucky

This Benjamin lived as a young man in King George County and died in Fayette County, Kentucky. In between, he spent at least some time in Loudoun and Fauquier Counties, because he signed a letter from each county assigning his benefits as a Revolutionary War soldier to a Francis Peyton.[31] One of the letters states that Benjamin served for three years as a dragoon — a cavalry soldier — in Lt. Col. William Washington’s Regiment.

Col. Washington signed Benjamin’s discharge papers as follows: “Benjamin Rankins soldier in the 3d Regiment of Light Dragoons having served faithfully three years is hereby discharged.”[32] The discharge was dated May 17, 1781, suggesting that Benjamin entered the service about May 1778. He was definitely with the unit by July 1778, when he was on furlough. On that date, the regiment was located in Fredericksburg, less than thirty miles west of the King George county seat.[33] I have no idea why he was on furlough so soon after enlisting, which seems unusual.

In September 1778, the regiment was billeted in barns and houses around Old Tappan, New Jersey.[34] The soldiers’ presence was betrayed by loyalist townspeople to British troops in the area. They were attacked during the night in an event known as “Baylor’s Massacre,” named after Col. George Baylor, who was then the regiment’s commander. More than sixty of the Third Regiment men were bayoneted and died.

Benjamin obviously survived the Massacre, unless he was still absent on a pretty long furlough. He was definitely serving in the cavalry regiment when it made mounted charges at the Battles of Cowpens and Guilford Court House, both of which were major patriot victories in the Carolinas.[35]

According to depositions given in the pension application of Benjamin’s widow Jane Hickey, he was a resident King George County when he enlisted.[36] He may have appeared in King George records in the 1770s, although that is the period when court records are apparently lost. Given his military service during 1778-1781, he was probably born in the 1750s or early 1760s.

The first records I have for him are the two 1783 letters from Loudoun and Fauquier Counties assigning his Revolutionary War benefits to a third party. He moved from that area to Fayette County, Kentucky along with another Rankin, relationship unknown. John Rankin of Clark County, Kentucky gave a deposition in connection with the pension application of Benjamin’s widow. John did not (!!) define his relationship to Benjamin, although they were surely related in some fashion. John merely said that his father, not named, and Benjamin moved to Kentucky in 1784 from Fauquier County.[37]

Jane Hickey testified that she and Benjamin married in 1785. They had more than six children, some of whom were named in the depositions supporting her pension application. Children included Sarah (the eldest, born about 1786, married Charles Hall), William, Frances, John, James, and Thomas. Jane gave her deposition from Jefferson County, Indiana. She and her children probably all moved there. Jane, her daughter Sarah Rankin Hall, and two probable sons of Jane and Benjamin can be found in the 1850 census for Indiana in Clark County (Sarah Rankin Hall and Jane) and Jefferson County (William and James).[38]

It is a reasonable bet that Revolutionary War Benjamin was a grandson of the Robert Rankin who died in King George in 1747/48.[39] As to which of Robert’s sons might have been Benjamin’s father, I haven’t found a scrap of evidence. That is par for the course with the Northern Neck Rankin Cluster.

Benjamin Rankin of Loudoun/Frederick, Virginia and Mason, Kentucky

Lt. Robert, William, and John Rankin — three proved brothers who lived in Mason County at one time — definitely had a brother Benjamin. There is evidence for that in two records, which appear conclusive:

  • In July 1783, William Rankin executed a power of attorney authorizing delivery of William’s Certificate of Service to Robert Rankin in order for the latter to obtain William’s land warrant. William’s military service was certified by Capt. William Brady. Both Lt. Robert and William had enlisted in Brady’s company of Stephenson’s Independent Rifle Regiment in 1776, so it is clear we are dealing with those two brothers. Benjamin Rankin witnessed the power of attorney, good circumstantial evidence of a family relationship.[40]
  • In August 1792, the Northern Neck Proprietor executed a lease to Benjamin Rankin of Loudoun County for the life of Benjamin and his brothers Moses and Robert Rankin. George Rankin, relationship unknown, witnessed the lease. William Rankin, Lt. Robert’s proved brother, had a nearby lease for his life and the lives of his wife Mary Ann and son Harrison.

Benjamin and his brothers Moses, Robert, and William were not sons of the Robert Rankin who died in 1747/48 in King George. That Robert did not name a son Robert in his will. More importantly, Lt. Robert was born in 1753; William was born in 1758. If the Robert who died in 1747/48 was their direct ancestor, he was their grandfather.

Benjamin of Loudoun/Frederick did not leave probate records in Frederick, so he evidently moved on. I believe he is the same man as the Benjamin Rankin who appeared in Mason County along with Lt. Robert, William, John, Moses, and George. Benjamin owned a number of town lots in Williamsburg, name later changed to Orangeburg.[41] My notes also indicate he appeared on a tax list with 100 acres on Cabin Creek and an enslaved person.[42] He married Catherine Stubblefield in 1796.[43] His bondsman was George Rankin, who plays a variety of supporting roles in records concerning the Northern Neck Rankin Cluster.[44]

The last appearance in the Mason County records that I found for Benjamin was in 1803. He was not in the 1810 census there. In 1817, a Catherine Rankin — possibly his widow? — married. I found no probate records for Benjamin.

Need I say that Benjamin and Catherine’s children, if any, are a total mystery? We cannot even be positive that the Benjamin Rankin of Williamsburg/Orangeburg, Mason County is the same man as the Benjamin who leased a tract in Frederick County in 1792. They probably were the same man, since families often migrated together, several other Rankin siblings lived in Mason County, and, of course, the appearance of George Rankin in both Benjamin’s Mason County marriage bond and the Frederick County lease for life.

And that’s all the news that is fit to print about the Benjamins of the Northern Neck Rankin Cluster.

See you on down the road.

Robin

                  [1] There are a number of articles on this website about Lt. Robert, his brothers, and their possible parents. They include Part 1, an introduction to Lt. Robert Rankin’s family, Part 2, relevant military information for Lt. Robert and his brother William, Part 3, William’s war story, Part 4, Lt. Robert’s war story, and Part 5A and Part 5B, two articles seeking to identify their parents.

                  [2] Abstract of King George Co. VA Will Book 1-A: 201, George Harrison Sanford King, King George County Virginia Will Book A-I 1721-1752 and Miscellaneous Notes (Fredericksburg, VA: 1978), undated will of Robert Rankin proved 4 Mar 1747/48. Wife Elizabeth. Sons William, John, and James, all of Robert’s land to be equally divided. Daughter Mary Green and sons Moses, George, Benjamin, and Hipkins, one shilling each.

                  [3] William was definitely the eldest because he was summoned to court to object, if he desired, to the noncupative will of Robert’s widow Elizabeth Rankin. King George Co., VA Order Book 1754-56: 470, order dated 3 Apr 1755. The right to object was accorded only to the eldest son under the rules of primogeniture. The fact that William was the first-named child in the will suggests Robert named his children in birth order. Hipkins, the last-named, was almost certainly the youngest. Order Book entry dated 6 Apr 1753 regarding the lawsuit Hipkins Rankins by Richard Green his next friend v. Thomas Burnett. That is the only court record in which one of Robert’s children was proved to be under legal age.

                  [4] King George Co., VA Order Book 1746 – 1751: 577, inventory and appraisement of the estate of Robert Rankins, dec’d, presented and recorded. His inventory is recorded in Deed Book 6: 28. The estate included one enslaved person, who probably accounted for most of the estate’s value.

                  [5] King George Co., VA Order Book 1751-54: 212, May 1753, Benjamin Rankins was a plaintiff in a lawsuit.

                  [6] Id. Benjamin and Hipkins both sued Thomas Burnett for trespass, assault and battery. The suits almost certainly arose out of the same events.

                  [7] King George Co., VA Order Book 1751-1765: 1065, entry for April 1763, Benjamin Rankins was security for Moses Rankins in a suit for debt.

                  [8] Id. at 781, entry of March 1758 binding Henry Jones as an apprentice to Benjamin Rankins to learn the trade of house carpenter. As for John, see King George Co., VA Deed Book 4: 36, 9 May 1753, a mortgage by John Rankins, carpenter of Hanover Parish, to William Bruce, an enslaved person named Sall or Sarah, witnessed by Richard Green, Mary Green, and Joana Pool. Mary Green was John’s sister, see Note 2.

                  [9] Id. at 903, Jun or July 1760 order concerning Benjamin Rankin’s “very extravagant” account for building several structures at Gibson’s tobacco warehouse.

                  [10] Id. at 1078, court order to pay from county funds to discharge Benjamin Rankin’s execution against Gibson’s warehouse.

                  [11] Moses, George, John, and Hipkins were all summoned by a grand jury at least one time for missing church. King George Co., VA Order Book 1754-56: 594 (Moses and John); Order Book 1751-65: 823 (George); Id. at 924 (John and Hipkins).

                  [12] King George Co., VA Order Book 1746-51: 610, grand jury presentment against James and Moses Rankins for “swearing an oath”.

                  [13] King George Co., VA Deed Book 4: 283, Moses Rankin “vagrant,” not appearing for militia drills. I don’t know whether that was one offense or two.

                  [14] E.g., King George Co., VA Order Book 1754-56: 583 (money judgment granted against James Rankins and George Rankins), 580 (judgment against William Rankins for suit on an account), 582 (default judgment against John Rankins). All of those records were in November 1755. There are more.

                  [15] King George Co., VA Order Book 1751-1765: 971, Benjamin Rankins et al. to appraise the estate of Richard Strother.

                  [16] E.g., King George Co., VA Order Book 1751-1765: 903, Benjamin Rankins on a jury. I have always thought that only freeholders could serve on colonial juries, although both Benjamin and Moses did so. Order Book 1751-54: 143, Moses on a jury. Neither inherited any land from their father Robert, and I found no deed or grant in which either one acquired land.

                  [17] Id. at 694, Benjamin Rankins appointed overseer of a road in place of Samuel Kendall.

                  [18] Amelia C. Gilreath, Frederick County, Virginia Deed Books 9, 10, 11, 1763-1767 (Nokesville, VA: 1989), abstract of Frederick Co., VA Deed Book 11: 12, Benjamin Rankins witnessed a lease dated 5 May 1765.

                  [19] Virginia Genealogical Society, Frederick County [Virginia] Road Orders 1743-1772 (Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, 2007), abstract of Frederick Co., VA Order Book 13: 383, entry of 7 May 1767 appointing Benjamin Rankin overseer of the road “from Bullskin to the Bloomery.”

                  [20] You can search for Benjamin Rankin on the DAR website here. See also William & Mary Quarterly, Series 1, Vol. 13, No. 1 (July 1904), “Soldiers of Berkeley County, W. Va.” 29-36.

                  [21] Berkeley Co., WV Order Book 3: 401, 20 Apr 1779, Benjamin Rankin personally appeared in court and resigned his commission as a captain in the Berkeley Militia.

                  [22] Berkeley Co., WV Deed Book 5: 744, deed of 8 Dec 1779 from Richard and Francis Willis to Benjamin Rankin.

                  [23] William Thomas Doherty, Berkeley County, U.S.A.: A Bicentennial History of a Virginia and West Virginia County, 1772 – 1972 (Parsons, WV: McClain Printing Co., 1972) 36 note 9.

                  [24] Larry G. Shuck, Berkeley County, Virginia Deeds and Wills, Abstracts Deed Books 1-5 (1772-1781), Will Books 1-3 (1772-1805), abstract of Berkeley Co., VA Will Book 1: 441, will of Benjamin Rankin of Berkeley proved 16 Jan 1787. Mentioned land on Bullskin. Witnessed by George Rankin.

                  [25] Benjamin, son of Robert d. 1747/48, had a brother named George. See Note 2. That is one reason I had speculated that Benjamin of Frederick/Berkeley was the same man as Robert’s son Benjamin, although I no longer believe that to be the case. I don’t know for sure who George Rankin might be.

                  [26] See Note 2.

                  [27] See Note 5.

                  [28] See Part B of an article about the possible parents of Lt. Robert here  and one identifying Lt. Robert’s siblings here. The only evidence for Benjamin Rankin as a possible father, so far as I found, is that Lt. Robert Rankin and his brother William enlisted in Col. Hugh Stephenson’s Maryland and Virginia Rifle Regiment from Berkeley County, which typically means they resided there. Benjamin lived near the Stephensons. In other words, he was in the right place at the right time.

                  [29] The first four men (Lt. Robert, William, John, and Benjamin) can be deemed proved. Moses, Reuben, and George are possible.

                  [30] See the SAR application of Standiford Helm, a descendant of William Helm, 1755-1806. His first wife was Margaret Rankin, daughter of Capt. Benjamin of Berkeley. William served in the 3rd VA Regiment of the Continental Line. He lived at “Helms Hill” in Berkeley Co. Standiford’s SAR application identifies the children of William and Margaret Rankin Helm as (1) Benjamin Helm, (2) Thomas Helm m. Eliz. Mort 8 Jan 1806, (3) Elizabeth Helm m. John Mort, (4) John Helm, (5) William Helm, (6) Lucy Helm m. Mr. Jennings, (7) George Helm, (8) Ann Helm m. Mr. Williams, and (9) Erasmus Helm m. Lavinia Oliver. Some of the Helms went to Mason Co., KY, as did Lt. Robert Rankin and his brothers.

                  [31] The originals of Benjamin Rankin’s two letters are in the records of the Library of Virginia, although my links to the online images no longer work. Instead, see Annie Walker Burns, Revolutionary War Pensions of Soldiers Who Settled in Fayette County Kentucky (Washington, D.C.: 1936), available online here. The two letters are at p. 52, and are included in the pension applications of “Hickey, Daniel and Jane.” Jane was Benjamin’s widow; Daniel Hickey was her third husband.

                  [32] Christine L. Langner, Baylor’s Regiment: The Third Continental Light Dragoons (Berwyn Heights, MD: Heritage Books, Inc., 2015) 149.

                  [33] Id.

                  [34] Id. at ix.

                  [35] See a brief history of the 3rd Continental Regiment of Light Dragoons here.

                  [36] Burns, Revolutionary War Pensions 49-52, applications for Daniel and Jane Hickey at this link. One deposition identifies a Benjamin Rankin as the deponent, but that was clearly an error. Ms. Burns transcription indicates that a John Rankin signed the deposition.  The only way the testimony makes sense is if the deponent was a John Rankin who came to Kentucky with his father in 1784.

                  [37] Id.

                  [38] Benjamin’s widow Jane Hickey gave her deposition in Jefferson Co., IN in 1847. Their eldest daughter, Sarah Rankin, married Charles Hall and lived in Bourbon Co., KY briefly before also moving to Indiana. Sarah Hall and her mother Jane Hickey are listed in the 1850 census in Clark Co., IN: Sarah Hall, 64, b. KY, with Jane Hicky, sic, 82, b. NC. William Rankin, age 65, and James Rankin, age 51, were enumerated in Jefferson Co., IN in the 1850 census. They may well be and probably are sons of Benjamin and Jane. Both were born in Kentucky and were the right age.

                  [39] I don’t believe Benjamin, the Revolutionary War Soldier, was a son of John and Sarah Woffendale Rankin, although that is possible. John and Sarah’s son Reuben was born between 1736 and 1741. Benjamin was probably born circa 1760. With this crowd, of course, it is anyone’s guess.

                  [40] See a transcription of the power of attorney letter here. It is not clear from the letter where William was living when he wrote it. Knowing that might help determine which of the several Benjamins was the witness. I believe Benjamin the witness was William’s brother, the grantee in the 1792 lease for life, although he might well have been Capt. Benjamin of Berkeley.

                  [41] Mason Co., KY Deed Book C: 73, 75, deed dated March 1796, Benjamin Rankins of Mason Co. bought three lots in Williamsburg; deed dated March 1794, Benjamin purchased Lot #10 in Williamsburg. My notes also have Benjamin on a tax list showing him taxed on 100 acres on Cabin Cr. and one enslaved person. I failed to note the FamilySearch Film number and now cannot find such an entry.

                  [42] My notes say that FamilySearch films of Mason County tax lists were the source of that information. I cannot find it again. Doing so will require going through the films page by page, a commitment I am not ready to make after my adventures in the King George court order book films.

                  [43] Mason County, Kentucky Marriage Records 1789 – 1833 (Kokomo, IN: Selby Publishing, 1999), marriage bond for Benjamin Rankin and Catherine Stubblefield, 20 Apr 1796, bondsman George Rankin.

                  [44] George, the supporting actor (or some other man named George Rankin), also witnessed the 1787 will of Capt. Benjamin Rankin of Berkeley and Benjamin Rankin’s 1792 lease for life in Frederick.

Trust, but Verify

“Trust, but Verify” was an oxymoronic slogan from the era of nuclear weapons treaties during the Cold War. Diligent researchers understand the value of that approach. Restated and applied to genealogy, the rule is, “Never dismiss out of hand any documentary evidence, including census data, but don’t assume census data is always 100% accurate.”

There is clear rationale for that caution. First, census data is subject to error multiple times. The person supplying information to the census taker can be mistaken as to any number of things such as ages or places of birth of people in the household. The census taker can record the data incorrectly. Further, the data collected was organized and rewritten into a final document. Each reproduction of the census information presented an opportunity to introduce errors, including misreading another person’s handwriting.

In addition, census data was not subject to the same checks and balances as other official documents. For example, original deeds and wills copied into court records benefitted from court oversight of the process. Witnesses attested to the accuracy of those document, heirs could question a misstatement that affected their interests, and neighbors could request resurveys of land boundaries they thought to be in error. No such process accompanied the tabulation and publication of a census. As a result, that data is far more prone to error than other records.

I recently ran across two illustrative errors in the same census entry. Searching for Henry Willis, carpenter of Maryland and Philadelphia (1829-1906), I found the family of John and Rebecca Kilgore Willis of Cecil County, Maryland. They had six sons and four daughters. By 1850, three sons were of age and no longer listed in John’s household. Hoping one of the three might be Henry, I looked for them in the 1850 census. I did not find Henry, but found James Willis and “David” T. Willis living next door to each other. The census entry showed the following:[1]

Family #

     123             Sarah H. Shivery        27 M

James Willis               21 F

Mary                           3  M

Joseph                         1  F

Sarah A.                      27 M

     124             David T. Willis           22 F

Hannah A.                  3  M

George A.                    1  F

Margaret R.                5/12 F

Mary E.                       40  F

     125             Hannah Terry            9  M

The problem with this data is obvious: the genders and ages do not match the named people. Whoever completed the census form moved that information up one line from its proper position. James Willis’s proper age and gender are 27 and M. That data is shown on the form one line above his name. It is incorrectly associated with a child named Sarah H. Shivery who is the youngest daughter of George Shivery in the adjacent family #122.

No problem. To get the correct information, just mentally move the data down one name.

However, that is not the only error. James Willis’s neighbor is supposedly David T. Willis with a wife Hannah A. Willis and several children. However, Daniel Willis, not David, married Hannah Ann Sutton on 15 April 1847.[2] In fact, there was no David Willis in that location in 1850. Whoever entered the data in the census form apparently misread someone else’s handwriting and thought the name Daniel was David. That is not hard to do. A script “n” can easily be mistaken for a “v” and the “el” as a “d.” Try it in your own handwriting to see how easy it is to make the two names look the same.

Of course, the opposite could be true, Maybe it was David Willis who married Hannah Sutton, and there is no Daniel Willis. This is where the “Verify” part of the slogan becomes important. The proof is found in subsequent records. Daniel Willis registered for the civil war draft in 1863[3] and appeared in the 1870,[4] 1900,[5] and 1910[6] censuses. David did not – – because, of course, he did not exist.

So, the message is to confirm the data found in censuses with other sources. Many people on Ancestry.com have not done so. As a result, there is a fictitious David T. Willis running amok on many trees. We all make mistakes. They come with the territory. This is a zillion piece puzzle, and we only have a few thousand pieces available to make sense of the picture. However, diligence can easily eliminate some errors. It is worth the effort.

[1] 1850 Census, Cecil County, Maryland https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-XCHQ-7X5?i=109&cc=1401638&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AMD46-PD2

[2] Cecil County Marriage Licenses 1840-1863, Genealogical Society of Cecil County, August 1990, 20 at https://web.archive.org/web/20150214151843/http://www.cecilhistory.org/virtuallibrary/marriage3.pdf

[3] Civil War Draft Registration 1863-1865. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/3912656:1666?tid=&pid=&queryId=66dc11368cf6a04f330078b4413841ae&_phsrc=Uwh1&_phstart=successSource

[4] 1870 Census, Cecil County, Maryland. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-D15S-Y4W?i=4&cc=1438024&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AMN38-D3L

[5] 1900 Census, Cecil County, Maryland. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/20341258:7602?tid=&pid=&queryId=66dc11368cf6a04f330078b4413841ae&_phsrc=Uwh3&_phstart=successSource

[6] 1910 Census, Cecil County, Maryland. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/10469167:7884?tid=&pid=&queryId=66dc11368cf6a04f330078b4413841ae&_phsrc=Uwh2&_phstart=successSource