Adam Rankin Archives - Digging Up Dead Relatives:

The Man Who Killed Jane Campbell

Here is the latest contribution from my friend Spade. Good stuff, as usual. Enjoy!

_________________

I was in my office on Powell Street when I heard a noise at the door. I got up and looked out. Nobody there. Down at my feet I saw a piece of paper. It was a page torn from a manuscript about a family named “Spear”.[i] From what I could make out, it was about a guy named Andrew Spear who was a member of the Upper West Conococheague Presbyterian Church in Franklin County, PA. The words “He married Jane Campbell” were circled with a Sharpie and somebody had written “I just killed your sixth great-grandmother!” I stuck my head out the window. There was nobody but a bunch of out-of-towners jumping on and off the cable car. I sniffed. “Not likely,” I thought, “And what kind of idiot writes with a Sharpie anyway?”

The name’s Spade. Like the tool you use for digging up dead relatives. I’m a Rankin — a descendant of Adam Rankin,[ii] to be precise. Adam left Ulster for Maryland sometime before 1720, married Mary Steele, widow of James “The Carpenter” Alexander, and had three sons and a daughter. He died in 1747, and left his eldest son James a tract of land that backed on Two Top Mountain at a spot called “The Corner,” a little south of Mercersburg, Pennsylvania.

James Rankin, not Andrew Spear, was married to Jane Campbell. Or so the evidence suggested. William Campbell, a close neighbor of James, had made a will in 1776 naming his daughter “Jane Rankin”.[iii] James’s 1788 will named his wife “Jean Rankin”,[iv] but “Jane” and “Jean” were just alternate spellings of the same name back in those days. After James died sometime before 1794, Jane took a warrant in the name “Jane Rankin” on the tract back up the side of Two Top Mountain.[v] No doubt about it: Jane Campbell was James Rankin’s wife. They had six kids between about 1750 and 1762, four boys and two girls, one named James who was my ancestor. They all spent Sundays over at the Upper West Conococheague Presbyterian Church.

Still… there was something about that Andrew Spear story that nagged at me. William Campbell’s will had also named three grandchildren named Speer (as he spelled it): Edward, William and Frances. I’d figured they were the children of some unnamed daughter who died before William did. Now I felt like I had to prove it. I poured myself a stiff shot of Cutty Sark and rolled up my sleeves. It was time to go Spear fishing.

When I’m looking for a mystery spouse, I always like to check around the neighborhood.[vi] Sure enough, a guy named Edward Spear had been granted a warrant in 1755 for a tract kitty-corner from James Rankin.[vii] When I found his will,[viii] though, I realized he couldn’t be the right guy. He’d died not two years later leaving his estate to his children Benjamin, Andrew and Eleanor.

I kept flipping through the will book and found Benjamin Spear’s will a few pages on.[ix] It was dated 6 Mar 1764 with letters testamentary issued 8 Nov 1764. The will was witnessed by James Rankin. Dougal Campbell, brother of Jane Campbell, was named as executor, along with another neighbor named John Kyle. Benjy had no wife or kids, so he’d left his property to brother Andrew and sister Eleanor, and five pounds to his nephew, Edward Spear. That had to be the same Edward Spear named as a grandson by William Campbell. Andrew was the father of those three grandchildren alright. Now who was the mother?

I couldn’t find a will for Andrew, but it turned out I didn’t need one. He’d died intestate and letters of administration had been granted to his widow.[x] I cursed when I saw her name: Jane Spear. But maybe this was a different Andrew Spear and that was a different Jane? “Andrew Spear” couldn’t have been that uncommon a name. Then I noticed the date the letters were issued: 8 Nov 1764. The same date letters testamentary were issued for Benjamin Spear. Jane and Dougal must have gone to court together and killed two birds with one stone.

Damn. Jane Campbell really had married Andrew Spear. She couldn’t have married James Rankin until after 1764, which was after all of his kids were already born. James’s first wife must have died not that long before, and he was Johnny-on-the-spot to console the grieving widow.

That joker with the Sharpie really had killed off my sixth great-grandmother. It left a hole the size of the Stockton tunnel in my family tree. It was going to take some time to fill that hole. I needed another shot of Cutty.

* * * * *

[i] See chart here.. The source has numerous errors and should be used only for evidence that even bad genealogy sometimes contains a grain of truth.

[ii] A descendancy chart for Adam Rankin can be found at this link. The author has attempted to catalog all descendants who bore the name “Rankin” and their spouses, and to connect spouses to their parents and other spouses to the extent possible. Sources have been attached to support vital dates and relationships whenever possible. Records without sources, as well as names and dates more precise than supported by the sources, are not endorsed by the author, but were left in place in hope that supporting evidence may turn up in the future. The tree at FamilySearch is essentially a wiki: a single tree shared by all users and subject to frequent error and alteration. Accordingly, all personal records and relationships there should be treated with skepticism when not supported by primary sources.

[iii] Franklin County, PA, Will Book A, p. 108. https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/sources/viewedit/QPRR-N8J?context.

[iv] Franklin County, PA, Will Book A, p. 345. https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/sources/viewedit/QPRL-2TC?context.

[v] Franklin County warrants R46 to Jane Rankin dated 1 Apr 1794. https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/sources/viewedit/7NJS-WG3?context.

[vi] The best way to check out the neighborhood of Montgomery Township is a Google Earth project called “Early Land Surveys of Montgomery Township.” https://earth.google.com/web/@39.78528401,-77.9018602,183.73397146a,33386.66955467d,30y,0h,0t,0r/data=CgRCAggBMikKJwolCiExdXc2aWlUdDBTTVlGYUUzMWlfZzZvSmE0aG1ubU1jZXIgAUICCABKCAijrpruAhAB. This is a virtual plat map showing the name of each landholder with links to land surveys.

[vii] Cumberland County warrants S51 to Edward Speer dated 3 Feb 1755. https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/memories/GWM6-YMC. Franklin County was created from Cumberland County in 1784.

[viii] Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Will Book A, Page 27. https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/sources/viewedit/7NWH-C7D?context.

[ix] Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Will Book A, Page 80. https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/sources/viewedit/7NW8-TGS?context.

[x] Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Administrators Book, Vol. A, Page 60. https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/sources/viewedit/7NW6-ZFP?context.

Spade strikes again: John Mason Rankin’s information

The caller ID said “Spade.” It was 5:30 p.m. Good. By now, Spade would have had a shot of his favorite cheap scotch. Enough to take the edge off his sometimes fractious personality, while leaving his faculties intact.

I accepted the call. “Hello, doll,” he said. “What are you doing?”

Just so you know, “doll” is not a term of affection. Spade has several women friends who do genealogical detective work, and he calls us all “doll.” I don’t think he can remember which of us is which.

I rolled my eyes. “You know perfectly well what I’m doing! You’re the one who called me at 3 a.m. and dropped this mess in my lap.”

“I just want to bounce my theory off you,” he said, clearly aggrieved. “Namely, how do you assess the credibility of the Mt. Horeb legend, the John Mason Rankin letters, and the John Mason Bible? What’s real, and what smells fishy? Most importantly, what do we really believe about Adam Rankin?”

“That’s a pot load of information, Spade. We’ll need to lay it out in pieces to do it justice.”

“Go for it, doll,” he said. Naturally, he gave me the tough job. I heard ice clinking in his highball glass. I pictured him leaning back in his wooden swivel chair and putting his feet on his desk.

I sighed. “OK, let’s take them one at a time. See if we can boil each one down to essential facts.”

I pulled out my summary of all this stuff. I started with a bit of Rankin lore known to every Rankin researcher: the so-called Mt. Horeb legend. This story is literally cast in bronze on a memorial in the Mt. Horeb Presbyterian cemetery in Jefferson County, Tennessee. It is a colorful tale featuring two Rankin brothers, unnamed, who were supposedly martyrs to their Presbyterianism in Scotland. One allegedly died in a smokehouse, the other murdered on a road. This was presumably during the 1680s Killing Times. A third brother, William, allegedly escaped to County Derry, Ireland, as did their father Alexander. The legend claims William and Alexander were in Londonderry during the 1689 Siege.

William had three sons, according to the legend: Adam, John, and Hugh. Adam was allegedly born in Scotland in 1699; John and Hugh in Ulster. The three sons came to Chester County, Pennsylvania — Adam and Hugh in 1721 and John in 1727. Adam’s wife, Elizabeth May, died shortly after their arrival; he then married Mary Steele. Hugh died in a mill accident. John married Jane McElwee and had two sons, Richard and Thomas, and eight daughters. Richard settled in Augusta County, Virginia; Thomas went to East Tennessee.

“Let’s take stock, Spade. Which of these Mt. Horeb claims do we know to be true?”

“Easy,” he said, slurping. “Virtually nothing. That story has more holes than a fishnet.”

“Gee, thanks,” I replied. Spade’s colorful way with words is not always helpful. “OK,” I said, “here are the few facts supported by documentary evidence:

(1) there was in fact an Alexander Rankin who was present during the Siege of Londonderry;

(2) an Adam Rankin did marry Mary Steele, widow of James Alexander, in Pennsylvania or Maryland (Adam died in Lancaster County. Pennsylvania);

(3) a John Rankin of Lancaster County did have sons Thomas and Richard and eight daughters; and

(4) John’s son Richard did settle in Augusta County, Virginia; Thomas in fact went to east Tennessee.”

“Mm-hmmm,” Spade graciously agreed, pouring himself another shot. I clearly needed to move this along before he pulled his usual move: abruptly hanging up.

I continued. “And here’s what cannot possibly be true:

(1) The Adam Rankin who married Mary Steele Alexander and the John Rankin who had sons Thomas and Richard and 8 daughters were NOT brothers. They weren’t genetic kin of any sort, according to Y-DNA, and DNA doesn’t lie. Nevertheless, the legend persists.

(2) If Adam Rankin was born in Scotland in 1699, then he wasn’t a son of William, who was allegedly at the Siege of Londonderry in 1689. Alternatively, if William was Adam’s father in 1699, then William wasn’t in Ireland during the Siege.”

“Mm-hmmm,” said Spade, again. He was being uncharacteristically agreeable. I wondered if he had upgraded his Scotch to a single malt.

“You’re batting a thousand so far, doll. And what in the legend has no documentary evidence one way or the other?”

“I’m not painting that fence, Tom Sawyer!” I said, drawing a line in the sand. “The short answer is everything else. Everything. But I’m not going into that level of detail, Spade, it would take us forever. Also, I’ve written about it on my blog ad infinitum. Just look it up.”

“Relax, doll. You’re too uptight. Why don’t you go get yourself a glass of your wussy chardonnay?”

“Because I want to get this over with before Christmas, you old reprobate! Let’s move on to the John Mason Rankin letter and what it says about Adam. And how about you take a shot at it? I want to know what you think.”

There was silence for a few moments while Spade considered this.

“That’s a really long letter,” he said. “In fact, there are two letters, plus John Mason Rankin’s Bible.”

“You’re right. And that’s not all: the current location of those documents is an issue. One online claim is that it they are owned by Robert Rankin of McAllister, Texas. However, there is no such place as McAllister, Texas. That probably refers to McAllen, an actual town in the Valley. Another claim is that a woman identified as KHULSM — her Ancestry name, perhaps? — posted the 2 letters and the Bible on Ancestry in 2008, asserting that she had received them during the 1990s. I found a website years ago where KHULSM posted these items and tried unsuccessfully to contact her more than once. I have no reason to believe she ever had her hands on those documents, because she does not claim descent from that line (or did not at one time).”

I continued: “Striking out so far, I eventually traded emails with Susan F., another Rankin researcher, who said she found a Robert Rankin in McAllen. He was a descendant of John Mason Rankin descendant the original owner of the documents. He told Susan he had transcribed them and that they are now in a museum in San Augustine, Texas. Unfortunately, there is no museum in that little East Texas town. That is, however, where John Mason Rankin lived.”

No response. I wondered whether Spade had fallen asleep. This sometimes happens when I get too prolix.

I persisted, with some asperity. “All of that made me wonder if one or more of those documents might be a fraud. You should probably address that question, Spade. After all, you’re the famous private eye.”

“OK, OK! Don’t get your knickers in a twist. I have some issues with the Bible, but I think the John Mason Rankin letters are the real McCoy. Some of the info checks out for which he would have had no evidentiary basis. Also, what fraudster has the patience to spend all that time and effort inventing facts about corn and cotton yields and other bucolic economic crap?”

“OK, then,” I said mildly — the ball now solidly in Spade’s court — “what do you think about John Mason Rankin’s statement of his early family history, specifically, about his ancestor Adam Rankin?”

“I think the long letter from September 1854 is a gold mine,” said Spade, “both for what it says and — even more importantly — for what it doesn’t say. It’s probably the closest we will ever get to Adam Rankin’s actual oral family history. And as close as we will come to the truth.”

“O-kay,” I said, “now we’re getting somewhere! What does John Mason say that caught your eye?”

“He is responding to a request from a relative for information about their family. He begins with this, providing his source:”

‘I will take pleasure in doing as far as known to me and will commence as far back as I find recorded in my father’s family bible.’

“Wow,” I said. “I had not realized that John Mason’s source for early information was the Bible of Reverend Adam Rankin, a son of Jeremiah and Rhoda Craig Rankin and a grandson of Adam and Mary Steele Alexander Rankin. You’re right, that provides instant credibility.”

“OK, here comes the history:

‘Adam Rankin moved from Scotland to Ireland had three sons – Adam, John and Hugh and one daughter named Jane.’ “

Spade paused to top up his glass and savor the impact of his analysis. “Note two very important distinctions with the Mt. Horeb legend: first, he names Adam’s father as Adam rather than William of the Mt. Horeb version. John Mason, a man who made a living by loaning money and made careful notes on crop yields, is definitely not the kind of person to make an error on such an important matter. If he said Adam’s father was named Adam, then … Adam’s father was named Adam, not William. The only issue is whether the person who transcribed the letter made an error.”

A brief silence ensued. “Once again,” I said, “we find ourselves needing to look at the original. If we can find it. Ergh.”

“But that’s almost not the best part,” Spade continued. He left me in suspense for a moment, one of his favorite ploys.

“The best part is what John Mason (and therefore Rev. Adam’s Bible) did NOT say … there is no story of Rankin martyrs during the Killing Times; no mention of the Siege of Londonderry. I take that as compelling evidence that those events were not part of Rev. Adam’s oral history, or they would have been included in his Bible.”

“For a change, Spade, I’m with you 100%. No caveats or minor disagreements. That means the Killing Times and Londonderry stories, to the extent they actually happened, belong to the line of the John Rankin with sons Thomas and Richard and eight daughters, who wasn’t kin to Adam’s family.”

“But wait … there’s more!” teased Spaded. “Rev. Adam’s Bible provides names and dates:”

“In 1720 Adam and Hugh came to America. Adam was married to Elizabeth May in Ireland. She died soon after her arrival in America. He then married Mrs. Steel, by her he had three sons James, William, and Jeremiah and died 1750.”

Spade elaborated. “Adam’s marriage to Mary Steele Alexander and the fact that he had three sons is conclusively proved, as everyone knows. And Adam’s death date as recorded in the Bible is close enough for oral family history: he actually died and left a will in 1747, not 1750, in Lancaster County. Finally, this probably settles the lingering controversy over whether Elizabeth May or Mary Steele was the mother of James. Or at least provides the only credible evidence on that issue.”

“OK, Spade, you’ve outdone yourself. While you are on a roll, why don’t you evaluate John Mason Rankin’s Bible?”

“I have a problem with the Bible, but only because it has entries dated after John Mason died. It also claims that William, not Adam, was the father of Adam m. Mary Steele Alexander. I strongly suspect that entry — which echoes the well-known Mt. Horeb legend — was added by a well-meaning descendant who had done some cursory family history research. Rev. Adam’s Bible is better than John Mason’s, especially if those entries are relatively contemporaneous.”

A long silence ensued, during which I considered that chardonnay.

“OK, Spade, how ’bout you join me for a trip to San Augustine, Texas, and let’s see what we can find in a local library or genealogical society? We obviously need to see that Bible to assess whether William’s name was in different handwriting than the original Bible entries. And to see whether John Mason’s letter identified Adam’s father as Adam.”

“Nope. You’re on your own, Doll. Texas is too far away from California, and I need to earn a living. Also, I think there may be an extant arrest warrant for yours truly somewhere in East Texas.”

With that, he hung up. I headed for the kitchen, hoping that chardonnay was already chilled.

See you on down the road.

Robin

Enter Spade and Columbo: Autosomal Evidence

It pays to have friends who excel at family history research and know DNA stuff. In that category, I am lucky to know Spade and Columbo. Y’all have met Spade before at least twice.[1] He is a California guy, famous for slurping Cutty Sark and hanging up on people. I don’t know where Columbo lives or what he drinks, if at all. Like Spade, though, he usually gets his man.

The two genealogy detectives are distant cousins. Both are descended from Adam Rankin who died in 1747 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and his wife Mary Steele Alexander. Spade has a solid gold paper trail back to Adam and Mary. Columbo’s chart has one, um, interesting link, but it is still golden. Spade is descended from Adam and Mary through their son James and his wife Jean Campbell Rankin. Columbo descends through their son William and Mary Huston Rankin.

That brings us to an article published here on October 29, 2023 concerning Joshua and Mary Rankin Cox and her purported parents, John and Anna Craig Rankin.[2] That article wonders whether there was a relationship between those Rankins and Adam’s line. The article suggests some speculative possibilities — with no evidence as far as the eye could see.

It also pays to admit it when you don’t know nuthin’ and ask for help. Enter Spade and Columbo, both of whom have done autosomal tests, as have three of Columbo’s close relatives. Between them, they have numerous Cox matches. Spade sums up the autosomal evidence as follows:

“There’s zero chance that Mary Rankin Cox was not a very close relative of Adam Rankin d. 1747.”

Of course, we are still in the dark about how Adam and Mary Rankin Cox were related. DNA leaves that for us to figure out. Here are some possibilities:

… Mary Rankin Cox and Adam Rankin were siblings.

… Mary Rankin Cox was Adam’s niece; thus her alleged father John and Adam would have been brothers.

… Mary Rankin Cox was Adam’s daughter.

Here is what Spade has to say:

“Lady, you ask so many questions I’m going to have to demand my usual retainer pretty soon. But this one’s on me: I go with siblings as the relationship between Adam Rankin and Mary Rankin Cox. Her oldest child would have been born about 1726, while Adam and Mary Steele Rankin were also having children in the 1720s. Joshua Cox, Mary Rankin Cox’s husband, died the same year as Adam, 1747, also in Lancaster County. That looks like Mary and Adam were from the same generation. I think she would have been Adam’s younger sister. Looks to me like there are too many matches at too many centimorgans to say that the connection extends back another generation.”

Columbo, on the other hand, opines that the John who was allegedly Mary Rankin Cox’s father was Adam’s brother, which puts Mary in the role of Adam’s niece. That theory gets support from the oral family legend that Adam of Lancaster County had a brother John.

The notion that Mary Rankin Cox may have been Adam’s daughter seems like forcing Cinderella’s shoe to fit. The argument in favor is that Mary had a proved brother William, while Adam had a proved son William. The glaring flaw here is that Adam’s will didn’t name a daughter Mary or a son-in-law Cox. Adam did give his married daughter Esther Rankin Dunwoody a cash bequest, so he wasn’t just omitting daughters. If there was ever a surefire way to stir up resentment, or even a will contest, failing to give a child at least a token bequest qualifies.

The other issue with the theory that Mary Cox was Adam’s daughter arises from the plethora of William Rankins in the area. Why pick on Adam’s son William to be Mary Cox’s brother out of all the William Rankin possibilities who appeared in Franklin County? Equally as reasonable — although just as speculative — Adam Rankin and Mary Rankin Cox could well have had a brother William, who would then have been the Rankin named in Joshua Cox’s will.

Spade’s argument sounds more persuasive. My only addition is the fact that Joshua Cox’s will, written in April 1747, provides that his children should be “put to trades” at age sixteen.[3] That suggests some of his children were born in the 1730s. His son John, named an executor, was probably indeed born by 1726. That seems to support Spade’s opinion that Mary Rankin Cox may have been Adam’s younger sister.

In short, there doesn’t seem to be any compelling logic dictating the type of family relationship between Mary Rankin Cox and Adam Rankin. Also, there is the niggling matter of evidence, which is entirely lacking in this matter. Does anyone reading this have any other ideas, evidence, or suggestions? If so, please share!

Meanwhile, I owe you the next installment in Adam and Mary’s descendant chart. Soon.

See you on down the road.

Robin

[1] See articles written by or featuring Spade here and here.

[2] See the article about Mary Rankin Cox and her possible parents at this link.. So far as I know, the only evidence of the existence of John and Anna Craig Rankin is a Cox researcher’s letter in a Franklin Co. historical society.

[3] Lancaster Co., PA Will Book A: 131. The clerk’s transcription twice calls the testator Joshua and once John. In the margin where the deceased’s name is written, “Joshua” is struck through and “John” is written in. This may be the reason many people refer to this man as “John Joshua Cox” or “Joshua John Cox.” In any event, the will names as executors Joshua’s wife Mary and son John, with Joshua’s brother-in-law William Rankin to assist his wife. Joshua left two-thirds of his estate to his children, but identified by name only his sons John and Richard and a daughter Mary. The will also provided that his children should be “put to trades” when they reached age 16. That suggests at least some of the children were born after 1731, since the will is dated 22 April 1747. John, named an executor, was probably of age in 1747 and thus born by 1726.

Imagine that! A chart for Adam and Mary Steele Alexander Rankin (Part 1 of n)

THIS JUST IN!!! A Big Y test and well-documented papyrus trail prove that Adam Rankin, who died in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in 1747 (wife Mary Steele Alexander), is descended from Adam Rankin of the Garden of Eden (wife Eve, birth surname unknown).

Just kidding. There were no surnames back then.

Enough fun. I’m attempting to construct an outline descendant chart for Adam’s and Mary’s family, including citations to evidence so that readers can evaluate issues for themselves. This will make for copious footnotes, although not for entertaining reading. My hope is that it will be useful reference material. The chart will expand to an unknown number of posts, thus the “Part 1 of n” in the title.[1]

We will begin with Adam, the original immigrant in his line, and the four children he named in his will.

1 Adam Rankin d. 1747, Lancaster Co., PA. Adam arrived in the colonies by at least 1722.[2] His only proved wife was Mary Steele Alexander, widow of James “the Carpenter” Alexander and daughter of John Steele of New Castle County, Delaware. Deeds establish that Adam and Mary married between August 1718 and 1724 in the Colonies.[3]

The only evidence I have seen for Adam’s acquisition of land is a 1742 warrant.[4] Adam willed that land to his son James Sr., and a deed executed three-quarters of a century later by James Sr.’s son James recited the tract’s provenance.[5] The family probably lived on or near Conococheague Creek (also spelled Conogocheague) close to Greencastle, then in Lancaster County, now Franklin.

Adam’s 1747 will names three sons, a daughter, and a wife, although it doesn’t mention his wife’s given name.[6] There is evidently no documentary evidence[7] for — take a deep breath here — Adam’s birth year, the birth years of his children, the identity of any wife prior to Mary, where he was born (although it was undoubtedly either Scotland or Ulster), his parents, or any siblings.[8] Anything to the contrary, no matter how “many online trees” claim otherwise, is unproved absent evidence. In that regard, the oral family history and “many online trees” identify a John Rankin who died in Lancaster in 1749 as Adam’s brother, although Big Y testing conclusively negates that claim.[9]

2 James Rankin Sr. d. 1795, Franklin Co., PA.[10] Adam’s son James Rankin Sr. appeared on the 1751 tax list for Peters Township in Cumberland County, which would then have comprised the southwest part of modern Franklin County (including Peters and Montgomery Townships).[11] James appeared in the records of Peters or Montgomery Townships from 1751 until he died.[12]

Based on his first appearance in county records in 1751, James Sr. may have been born about 1726. Adam’s 1747 will, which states that James was already in possession of some land, suggests an earlier birth year, perhaps 1722.[13]

James Sr.’s wife was Jean/Jane Campbell, daughter of William Campbell.[14] James Sr.’s tract in Montgomery Township was on Licking Creek.[15] He died in 1795 in Franklin County, leaving a will identifying his wife and six children.[16] This family attended the Lower Conococheague or “Welsh Run” Presbyterian Church.[17]

2 William Rankin died in 1792 in Antrim Township, Franklin Co., PA. This William is well-known to Rankins, some of whom claim descent from him in error.[18] His wife was Mary Huston (died about 1824), daughter of Archibald and Agnes Huston.[19] Both William and Mary left wills. His named all his children and describes locations of the tracts devised to his sons. That makes it possible to find them thereafter with confidence. Mary’s will named inter alia four grandchildren for whom I have found no other documentary proof.[20] There is also a family Bible containing birth dates of their children and some grandchildren.[21] With those foundations, this is a fun and easy family to track.

William’s birth date is not proved. He began appearing in county records in 1751, when he was named on a tax list for Antrim Township.[22] As with his brother James, that suggests he was probably born by 1726. William lived in Antrim Township until he died.

His Revolutionary War service is deemed sufficiently proved to admit descendants into the S.A.R., although he was probably too old to have been in active military duty. His will proves seven sons and one daughter, as does the family Bible.[23] All of William and Mary’s children were born before Franklin was created in 1784, suggesting they were born in Cumberland Co., the predecessor county. Quite a few members of William and Mary’s family are mentioned in the records of the Upper West Conococheague Presbyterian Church.[24]

William appeared in a plethora of county records, but is never shown with a middle initial, much less a middle name. I have asked a number of people who assert he had one to share any evidence on that issue. So far, no takers. It is a solid gold bet that the middle name “Steele” frequently claimed for him is fiction.

2 Jeremiah Rankin died in 1760 in what was then Cumberland County in an accident in his mill (or perhaps the family’s mill? I don’t know) on Conococheague Cr. near Greencastle.[25] He married Rhoda Craig about 1754. After Jeremiah died, Rhoda remarried to a Mr. English.

I have found no records for Jeremiah in Pennsylvania except for his mention in his father Adam’s 1747 will. There should be guardian’s records since he left four minor sons, and presumably probate records concerning his land, but I have found neither. Jeremiah and Rhoda’s sons went to Fayette and Woodford Counties, KY.[26]

Fortunately, there is secondary evidence concerning Jeremiah’s family. It includes (1) a letter written in 1854 by John Mason Rankin, a grandson of Jeremiah and Rhoda,[27] and (2) a history of Kentucky Presbyterianism, which includes information about Rev. Adam Rankin, a son of Jeremiah and Rhoda.[28] History is based in part on Rev. Adam’s autobiography, establishing its credibility. It identifies Rev. Adam as a son of a Miss Craig and confirms that his father died in 1760 in a mill accident.

2 Esther Rankin, the only daughter named in Adam’s 1747 will, married a Mr. Dunwoody. I apologize for my failure to research daughters, including Esther. My focus is on the paternal line in an effort to identify potential Rankin Y-DNA test volunteers. The omission is likely shortsighted, since families frequently intermarried and/or migrated together. The Dunwoody family might provide helpful information. If you are a descendant of Esther’s, I would love to hear from you.

And that’s it for this installment. Next, assuming I don’t get diverted, will be the children of James Sr. and Jean/Jane Campbell Rankin.

See you on down the road.

Robin

[1] Disclaimer: a friend and blog reader has pointed out my regrettable tendency to promise follow up articles but then fail to do so. My usual excuse is that some cool new puzzle became a distraction. Then life went on and I forgot about the follow up. I will try to do better. No guarantees.

[2] Some Adam Rankin, almost certainly the same man as the Adam who m. Mary Steele Alexander, was among the signatories to a 1722 petition to Lord Baltimore saying the petitioners believed they lived in MD, not PA. Calvert Papers, Maryland Historical Society Manuscript Division MS 174, Microfilm No. 6, Document No. 279. Family oral tradition says that Adam came to the Colonies in 1720, although I’m not aware of any records for him prior to 1722.

[3] For evidence of Adam and Mary’s marriage date and Mary’s parentage, see the article at this link.

[4] 11 Nov 1742 warrant to Adam Rankin, 100 acres “situate at Conegocheage between the lands of Samuel Owen, James Swaster?, Samuel Brown and the Blue Mountains.” See the grant here.

[5] Franklin Co., PA Deed Book 12: 28, deed dated 27 March 1818 from James Rankin and wife Mary to Jacob Kline, all of Montgomery Twp., conveyance of land including a 107-acre part of a tract of 188 acres surveyed per a warrant to Adam Rankin dated 11 Nov 1742. Adam devised the tract to his son James Rankin Sr., dec’d at the time of the deed, who then devised it to his son James Rankin, the grantor, on March 25, 1788. That is the date of the will of James Sr., proving James the grantor in the deed was a son of James Sr.

[6] Lancaster Co., PA Will Book J: 208, will of Adam Rankin dated 4 May 1747, and proved 21 Sep 1747. His wife was mentioned although her given name not stated. Sons James, William, and Jeremiah; daughter Esther Rankin Dunwoody. The deed establishes that James was already in possession of some of Adam’s land. Adam devised the home tract to William and Jeremiah.

[7] When I say, “there is evidently no documentary evidence,” it simply means I have not found any relevant records, nor have I found anyone who claims to have any.

[8] Family oral history claims Adam first married an Elizabeth May in Ireland. She allegedly died after arriving in the colonies and was reportedly the mother of Adam’s son James. While it is certainly possible that Adam had a marriage prior to Mary Steele Alexander, there is evidently no evidence for a prior wife other than oral family history. Adam’s alleged parents and Rankin grandfather are also identified in the oral history, also despite an apparent lack of evidence. Adam’s purported ancestry is nevertheless cast in bronze in a tablet located at the Mt. Horeb Presbyterian Church cemetery in Jefferson Co., TN. It is therefore cast in concrete in online trees. I don’t find the legend entirely credible, in part because there is evidence that it was a relatively recent creation, probably in the early twentieth century. Also, the fact that the legend is mistaken about Adam d. 1747 and John d. 1749 being brothers is significant. See an article about the legend here.

[9] There was another John Rankin whose daughter and son-in-law reportedly went to Chester County (predecessor to Lancaster, Cumberland, and Franklin Counties) circa 1720, when Adam also allegedly arrived. That John’s wife was reportedly Anna Craig, or perhaps Mary Craig. Their daughter Mary Rankin m. Joshua Cox. It is possible that John Rankin was Adam’s brother. Alternatively, John and Miss Craig could conceivably have been Adam’s parents. I have found no evidence for either possibility, both of which qualify as rank speculation. Probably the only way to assess them is to find a male Rankin descendant of John and Anna and persuade him to Y-DNA test. See a brief article about John and Anna Craig Rankin at this link.

[10] Franklin Co., PA Will Book A: 345, will of James Rankin Sr. of Montgomery Twp., will dated 25 Mar 1788, proved 20 Oct 1795.

[11] FamilySearch.Org Film No. 7856871, Image No. 29, 1751 tax list for Peters Twp., Cumberland Co., PA.

[12] E.g., Cumberland Court of Quarter Sessions Docket 2: 115, James Rankin, constable in Peters Twp., March 1764; Id. at Docket 5: 270, James Rankin et al. appointed supervisors of roads in Peters Twp., 27 Mar 1778. His 1788 will states that he was “of Montgomery Township,” which had been created in 1781. Franklin Co., PA Will Book A: 345.

[13] My observation is that colonial men consistently began appearing in county records and/or marrying around age 25. I have no actual evidence for that estimate, just a quarter-century of looking at county and other records. If I were estimating James Sr.’s birth year, I would choose “about 1724” and deem him a son of Mary Steele Alexander Rankin. In that regard, there is an 1854 letter written by John Mason Rankin (son of Rev. Adam Rankin of KY, grandson of Jeremiah and Rhoda Rankin, and great-grandson of Adam and Mary) which asserts that James Sr. was Mary’s son.

[14] Cumberland Co., PA Will Book A: 108, will of William Campbell of Peters Twp. dated 16 Aug 1776, proved 16 Mar 1787. William Campbell named inter alia his daughter Jean (Campbell) Rankin and a son Dugal Campbell. Dugal was the father of Frances (“Fanny”) Campbell, who was thus Jean Campbell Rankin’s niece. Fanny married David Rankin, a son of William and Mary Huston Rankin. David was thus James Rankin’s nephew. If I have this straight, one of James and Jean Campbell Rankin’s nieces (her Çampbell niece) married one of James and Jean’s nephews (his Rankin nephew).

[15] Franklin Co., PA Deed Book 1: 36, deed dated 10 Mar 1785 from James Rankin Sr. of Montgomery Twp., Franklin Co., to William Rankin, son of James Sr., one moiety (i.e., half) of 279 acres, where William now lives, containing 133.5 acres on Licking Cr. by the division line of the original 279-acre part to Jeremiah Rankin. James Rankin’s land was located in part of Montgomery Township now called “The Corner,” south of Mercersburg, at the foot of Two Top Mountain.

[16] Franklin Co., PA Will Book A: 345, will of James Rankin Sr. of Montgomery Twp., will dated 25 Mar 1788 and proved 20 Oct 1795. Wife Jean to live with son David. Sons David, William, Jeremiah, and James; daughter Ruth Tool; SIL Samuel Smith and granddaughter Mary Smith. James Sr. had earlier deeded half of his 280-acre Licking Cr. tract to his son William. See id. In 1809, William’s son James, a grandson of James Sr., sold the tract on Licking Creek. Franklin Deed Book 8: 380.

[17] Virginia Shannon Fendrick, American Revolutionary Soldiers of Franklin County, Pennsylvania (Chambersburg, PA: Historical Works Committee of the Franklin County Chapter of the D.A.R., copyright 1944) 180, “Jeremiah Rankin, Ranger on the Frontier, served in 1778, under Capt. John McConnell and as Ensign, 1780-81, with Captain Wm Huston; a son of pioneer James Rankin of Montgomery Township … James, Jeremiah, David and William Rankin were pewholders in the “Lower Conococheague” or Welsh Run Church.” James Sr.’s will proves sons James, Jeremiah, David, and William. Franklin Co., PA Will Book A: 345.

[18] See an article describing some of the confusion about this family at this link.

[19] Franklin Co., PA Will Book A: 110, will of Agness Huston, widow of Archibald Huston, dated 15 Nov 1776, proved 14 Mar 1787. She named William Rankin executor and identified him as the husband of her daughter Mary.

[20] See an article about Mary Huston Rankin’s will here. I don’t have a citation for this will.

[21] A transcription of information in the family Bible can be found on Disk 4 of the so-called “Cloyd tapes,” available from the Tennessee State Library and Archives. I do not have references to the relevant disk page numbers. Wading through Flossie Cloyd’s materials is a daunting task guaranteed to induce glassy eyes. Rev. J. O. Reed, a former pastor of a Presbyterian Church in Opelousas, LA, was a descendant of William and Mary Huston Rankin and owned the family Bible. He sent a transcription of information in the Bible to Ms. Cloyd in a letter dated May 6, 1954.

[22] FamilySearch.Org Film No. 7856871, Image No. 26.

[23] Franklin Co., PA Will Book A: -B: 256, will of William Rankin of Antrim Twp., Franklin, dated 20 Oct 1792, proved 28 Nov 1792. William named his wife Mary and children, in this order: Adam, Archibald, James, William, Betsy, David, John, and Jeremiah. He identified Betsy, John, and Jeremiah as being less than 21 years old.

[24] E.g., Archibald Rankin died 24 Jun 1845, an entry in the records of the Upper West Conococheague Presbyterian Church. Several other family members also appear in entries, including some children of David Rankin, son of William and Mary Huston Rankin. The original records may be viewed at an LDS Family History Center or with an Ancestry subscription at this link.

[25] Here is an article containing sources for information about Jeremiah.

[26] Id.

[27] See a transcription of John Mason Rankin’s letter online at this link. It is somewhat controversial, not least because the location of the original is a mystery. I for one haven’t communicated with anyone who has seen it. I exchanged emails with a Rankin researcher who talked to someone who claims to have seen the letter. She was informed the letter is in a museum in San Augustine, Texas. However, there is no museum in that city, although there is an historical/genealogical society. Further, the letter has so much information in it that either (1) John Mason had an astonishing memory or a source such as a family Bible, or (2) the letter is an elaborate fraud based on recent research. To the extent I have researched this family, the information in the letter is mostly accurate. It is noteworthy that John Mason’s letter says the father of Adam d. 1747 was named Adam, although the oral family legend claims his name was William. Also, the letter makes no mention of the oral legend’s stories about martyred Rankin ancestors in Scotland and the Siege of Londonderry. Prepare for a broken record here: there is apparently no documentary evidence for those ancestry claims. I believe John Mason’s letter is genuine in part because it is clear the writer was not familiar with the fabulous oral legend. Someone perpetrating a 20th century fraud would surely have included its stories. Also, the letter includes extensive comments about the local economy which suggest a contemporaneous familiarity.

[28] Rev. Robert Davidson, History of the Presbyterian Church in the State of Kentucky (New York: R. Carter, 1847) 95.

Dr. Seuss again: “Thing 4,” need help!

Sometimes one has to belly up to the bar and admit she hasn’t a clue. This is one of those times.

Also, how could I possibly have omitted Thing 4 from my last post? He is one of the William Rankins who gives some of us gray hair. Or, to be accurate, more gray hair. If you are mystified by the Dr. Seuss and “Thing 4” references, please read the previous article on this website.

There are at least two sources attesting to the existence of Thing 4:

The 1747 Lancaster County, Pennsylvania will of Joshua Cox naming as executors his wife (given name not provided) and his brother-in-law William Rankin.[1]

A letter dated April 13, 1995 from Lucille Cox Thompson to the Kittochtinny Historical Society in Chambersburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Ms. Thompson identified a John Rankin and Anna Craig as the parents of (1) Mary Rankin who married Joshua Cox and (2) William Rankin. It also says that Joshua and Mary Rankin Cox’s daughter married John Craig.

The letter goes on to say that John and Anna Craig Rankin arrived in the Colonies circa 1720 and settled in “Upland, Pennsylvania.” That borough is now in Delaware County, which was created in 1789 from Chester County.

Here’s the scanty outline chart the above information defines:

1 John Rankin m. Anna Craig

2 William Rankin

2 Mary Rankin m. Joshua Cox

3 Mary Cox m. John Craig

So … who was the William Rankin with a sister Mary Rankin Cox?

I don’t know. The Rankin DNA Project doesn’t have a member who claims descent from William, son of John and Anna Craig Rankin.[2] He could be the same man as the William who married Victory Alcorn in Cumberland County and went to North Carolina, AKA “Thing 1.” Or he could be the same man as the William who married Mary Stewart in Franklin County and went to Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, AKA “Thing 2.” He might even be the same man as “Thing 3,” William Rankin of Indiana County, Pennsylvania. If anyone out there has a theory, please say so.

Here is another question: who was the John Rankin whose wife was Anna Craig?

Again, I don’t know. He was almost certainly not the John Rankin who died in Lancaster County in 1749. That John Rankin’s will named his wife Margaret,[3] while his family’s oral history identifies his wife as Jane McIlwee.

However, the surname Craig – which appears twice in the above minimal chart – caught my attention. If you are a Rankin researcher or follow this blog, you know that Adam and Mary Steele Alexander Rankin of Lancaster County (created from Chester) had a son named Jeremiah. He died in a mill accident in Cumberland (created from Lancaster) in 1760. Jeremiah Rankin’s wife was Rhoda Craig.

As you undoubtedly know, colonial families frequently intermarried. If you find Rankins and Rankin descendants who married Craigs — e.g., John Rankin/Anna Craig, Jeremiah Rankin/Rhoda Craig, and Mary Cox/John Craig — a reasonable inference is that the Rankins were related. Alternatively or additionally, that the Craigs were related. But how? That, my friends, is the $64,000 question, to use an outdated metaphor.

Jeremiah’s father Adam Rankin allegedly had a brother John, according to an oral family legend that has become the conventional wisdom. Adam’s brother John, claims the legend, was the John Rankin who died in Lancaster County in 1749, two years after Adam died there. The problem with this part of the legend is that Y-DNA tests of both men’s descendants conclusively establish that the Adam who died in 1747 and the John who died in 1749 were not genetically related in the paternal line. They could not possibly have been brothers.

There are several possibilities here. Perhaps (1) the legend is just flat wrong about Adam having a brother John, or (2) the legend identified the wrong (albeit extremely convenient) John Rankin as Adam’s brother.[4] Enter a hoary genealogy maxim: family legends nearly always contain some element of truth, even if the details are frequently in error. What immediately sprang to mind was this: could the oral legend be right that the Adam who died in 1747 had a brother named John, but Adam’s brother was the John Rankin who married Anna Craig rather than the John who died in 1749?

Alternatively, might it be possible that John and Anna Craig Rankin were the parents of Adam died 1747, rather than John and Adam being brothers? The Cox family oral history, which is probably due as much deference as the Rankin family oral history, is that John and Anna’s daughter Mary Rankin Cox and her husband Joshua came to the colonies about 1720, which is supposedly when Adam arrived.

Those theories suggest two alternative speculative short charts for the line of Adam d. 1747:

Theory 1: John and Adam were brothers …

1 Unknown Rankin parents

2 John Rankin m. Anna Craig

2 Adam Rankin m. Mary Steele Alexander

OR Theory 2: John was Adam’s father …

1 John Rankin m. Anna Craig

2 Adam Rankin m. Mary Steele Alexander

2 Mary Craig m. Joshua Cox

2 William Rankin

I am not endorsing these theories, just throwing them out there as food for thought. I hope to find someone having relevant information and/or thoughts to offer on the subject.

See you on down the road.

Robin

[1] Lancaster Co., PA Will Book A: 131.

[2] Not all members of the Rankin DNA Project provide a family tree. One of them could be descended from John and Anna Craig Rankin.

[3] Lancaster Co., PA Will Book J: 211.

[4] The fact that Adam d. 1747 and John d. 1749 were not related in the Rankin line is one of several aspects of the legend that make me wonder whether it was created relatively recently — i.e., in the 20th century — rather than having been handed down from generation to generation since the 18th or 19th century. Some of Adam’s and John’s descendants appear never to have heard the legend. Rev. Adam Rankin (son of Jeremiah and Rhoda Craig Rankin and grandson of Adam and Mary Steele Alexander Rankin) was apparently not familiar with the legend. Nor was Richard Duffield Rankin, a great grandson of the John Rankin who died in Lancaster in 1749. See this article about the legend.

With apologies to Dr. Seuss: Thing 1 (William Rankin), Thing 2 (William Rankin) … etc.

If you have children and/or grandchildren, or were a child yourself by the 1950s, you are almost certainly familiar with The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss. It features two characters named “Thing 1” and “Thing 2.” My friend Jess “Gams” Guyer, a talented Rankin researcher, suggested those would be appropriate names for any of the vast number of William Rankins who lived in southern Pennsylvania in the mid- to late 1700s. The only problem is that two “Things” aren’t enough.

With a large population of Williams to choose from, it was inevitable that some of the Things would be conflated with some of the other Things. “Same name confusion” is the easiest family history mistake in the world. Anyone who hasn’t made it yet just hasn’t been at this hobby long enough.

The clear winner in the “Thing Confusion Contest” is the William Rankin who married Mary Huston and died in Franklin County in 1792.[1] William d. 1792 was a son of Adam and Mary Steele Alexander Rankin of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.[2] Adam and Mary are the first proved generation of a famous Rankin line from which numerous people aspire to descend, many erroneously. That may be attributable to a fabulous legend associated with Adam’s and Mary’s line.[3] Also, William d. 1792 was a Revolutionary War soldier, which often attracts hopeful descendants.[4]

So far as I know, at least three Williams have been mistakenly identified as either William d. 1792 or his son William of Centre County, Pennsylvania. Let’s call them Thing 1, Thing 2, and Thing 3. There are undoubtedly others.

Thing 1: the William Rankin who married Victory Alcorn and moved from Franklin County, Pennsylvania to Orange County, North Carolina.

Thing 2: the William Rankin who married Mary (probably née Stewart) in Franklin County and moved to Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

Thing 3: the William Rankin with wife Jane who died in Armstrong Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania.

Despite giving it the old college try, I have not made a dent in slowing proliferation of the above errors. These Things are a great case of “Whack-a-Mole.” Wictionary gives the example of spam e-mails: as soon as you delete one, another appears.[5] More like ten more. This article is therefore an attempt to whack some of the moles — AKA Things — into submission.

Thing 1: William Rankin m. Victory Alcorn

Thing 1 William is easy to distinguish from William d. 1792 thanks to their different locations, another example of the “follow the land” theory. The William who married Victory lived in Hamilton Township, Cumberland (later Franklin) County.[6] William d. 1792, on the other hand, lived and died in the same county but in Antrim Township, appearing there in tax, court, and deed records consistently from mid-century until he died.[7]

Here are records locating William m. Victory in Hamilton Township, Cumberland/Franklin, Pennsylvania …

In May 1751, William Rankin obtained two surveys on Conococheague Creek in Hamilton Township when it was still in Cumberland County. Adjacent landowners were George Galloway and Thomas Armstrong, who help us track him with confidence. Samuel Moorhead, who also helps ID him, filed a caveat against one survey, claiming prior entitlement.[8]

In 1752, William Rankin appeared on the tax list for Hamilton Township.[9] He was the only Rankin on the list for that township.

In 1760, the will of Joseph Armstrong of Hamilton Township devised to his son Thomas Armstrong “land between Robert Elliot’s and Willm Rankins.”[10]

By 1761, William was married to Victory Alcorn, daughter of James Alcorn. The Alcorns owned land in the Conococheague “settlements” adjacent to Samuel Moorehead, the man who caveated William Rankin’s survey in Hamilton Township.[11]

In October 1765, William Rankin executed a deed conveying warrants for 150 acres in Cumberland County. It said, “William Rankin of Orange Co., North Carolina, farmer, to James McFarlan of Cumberland Co., Pennsylvania, blacksmith, 2 warrants by Rankin for a total of 150 acres in Hamilton Twp., Cumberland, adjacent James Dickson, George Gallaway, Thomas Armstrong.”[12]

The last deed proves that William and Victory moved to Orange County, North Carolina by at least 1765. William died in Caswell County, a successor county to Orange. William’s 1788 estate distribution in Caswell establishes that his widow was named Victory, his only son was named James (the name of Victory’s father), and they had a daughter named Victory.There seems to be no reasonable doubt that the William Rankin whose estate was probated in Caswell County was the same man as Thing 1, William who married Victory Alcorn of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.

William and Victory’s son James married as his first wife Elizabeth Fuller in Caswell County.[13] He later moved to Logan County, Kentucky, where he married Hannah Forbush. He ultimately migrated to Sumner County, Tennessee, where his estate was probated.[14]

The good news for Whack-a-Thing is that a male Rankin descendant of William and Victory has Y-DNA tested. He is not a match to descendants of Adam and Mary Steele Alexander Rankin. Thus, William m. Victory — Thing 1 — cannot possibly be the same man as William d. 1792, a son of Adam and Mary.

This article is already overlong. I will try to make short shrift of Thing 2 and say even less about Thing 3.

Thing 2: William Rankin and wife Mary (probably née Stewart) of Allegheny County

There are some major differences between Thing 2 and William d. 1792. They establish that Thing 2, the William Rankin buried in Allegheny County, cannot possibly be the same man as William d. 1792 of Antrim Township, Franklin County. Here are the big ones …

Thing 2 died in Allegheny County and was buried there in Round Hill Cemetery in 1813, while William, husband of Mary Huston, died in 1792 in Franklin County.

Thing 2’s wife Mary died in 1808, five years before her husband, and is buried in the Round Hill Cemetery in Allegheny. William d. 1792 named his wife Mary in his 1792 will. Mary survived him by more than three decades, leaving a will dated 1818 and proved in 1824.[15]

William d. 1792 lived in Antrim Township, Franklin County, as his will explicitly states. He appeared in the records there for roughly four decades. I’m betting his family didn’t wait until 1813, twenty-one years after his death, to bury his remains to a cemetery 150 miles away in a county where he most likely never set foot.

Thing 2 had two children named Andrew and Mary who died in 1794 and 1795, respectively. They have tombstone styles which are identical to their father William’s. The family Bible of William d. 1792 in Franklin names eight children. So does his 1792 will. None are named Andrew or Mary, both of whom died after William d. 1792 signed his will.[16]

Thing 2 and his wife Mary (and children Andrew and Mary) are buried in the Round Hill Cemetery in Elizabeth Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The Find-a-Grave entry for Thing 2 has more errors than I can count, so I’m not going to provide a link to it, hoping you won’t be exposed to all that misinformation.[17]

Incidentally, there were a number of other Rankin families in Allegheny County. The William who died there in 1813 may well be related to one of the others, although I haven’t established any credible connection. Or even a speculative connection, for that matter. If you find one, I hope you will let me know.

Thing 3: the William Rankin with wife Jane who died in Armstrong Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania in 1826.

Thing 3 has been wrongly identified as William and Mary Huston Rankin’s son William, who moved from Franklin to Centre County, Pennsylvania. A number of descendants of Thing 3 claim to be descended from Adam and Mary Steele Alexander Rankin, no matter how many Williams in Adam’s line it took for them to get back to Adam.[18]

I will cut to the chase, courtesy of science. A descendant of William and Jane Rankin of Indiana County has Y-DNA tested. His result places him squarely in Rankin DNA Project Lineage 2. He does not match descendants of Rankin Lineage 3B, which is the line of Adam and Mary Steele Alexander Rankin. Thus, the William Rankin with wife Jane who died in Indiana County cannot possibly have been either the son of, or the same man as, Adam and Mary’s son William d. 1792.

For the evidence, here is a link to an article about William Rankin of Indiana County with wife Jane.

It is a gorgeous day here, mild temps with a high, cloudless blue sky that makes you squint. It is time to bid adieu to the laptop and go outside.

See you on down the road.

Robin

[1] Franklin Co., PA Will Book A: 256, will of William Rankin of Antrim Twp., Franklin Co., dated and proved in 1792. William named his wife Mary, sons Adam, Archibald, James, William, David, John, and Jeremiah, and daughter Betsy. William’s wife Mary is proved as a daughter of Agnes Huston (widow of Archibald) by Agnes’s will. Franklin Co. Will Book A: 110, will of Agness Huston dated 1776 and proved 1787. Agnes bequeathed a gift to her daughter Mary Huston, “alias Rankin.” One of her executors was her son-in-law William Rankin, “husband of my daughter Mary.” Also, you can find articles about William d. 1792 and Mary Huston Rankin’s line here , and here , and here , with still another here.

[2] Lancaster Co., PA Will Book J: 208, will of Adam Rankin dated and proved in 1747. Adam named his wife (although he did not mention her given name), sons James, William, and Jeremiah, and daughter Ester Rankin Dunwoody. His wife is proved as Mary Steele Alexander, widow of James “the Carpenter” Alexander, by a series of deeds that are a great example of the “follow the land” theory of family history research. Here is a link to an article containing the evidence.

[3] The oral family traditions of Adam and John who died in Lancaster Co. in 1747 and 1749, respectively, are memorialized in a bronze tablet in the Mt. Horeb Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Jefferson Co., TN. The legend has several problems, not least of which is that it identifies Adam d. 1747 and John d. 1749 as brothers. Y-DNA testing has conclusively disproved that possibility, leaving this interesting question: does the oral family history “belong” to Adam d. 1747 or to John d. 1749? The only part of the legend related to Scotland and/or Ireland that has been substantiated is that an Alexander Rankin was present at the Siege of Londonderry in 1689. There is no evidence SFAIK that Alexander was an ancestor of either Adam d. 1747 or John d. 1749. Here is a link to an article about the legend.

[4] Virginia Shannon Fendrick, American Revolutionary Soldiers of Franklin County, Pennsylvania (Chambersburg, PA: Historical Works Committee of the Franklin County Chapter of the D.A.R., 1969, copyright 1944), citing PA Archives 5^th Series, Vol. 6, 576, 583: “WILLIAM RANKIN of Antrim Twp., appears as a private under Capt. James Poe, 1782, on an undated roll. He married Mary Huston, daughter of Archibald, as shown by the will of Agnes Huston, widow of Archibald. The will of William Rankin of Antrim Twp., was dated Oct. and prob. Nov. of 1792.” See also PA Archives, 3d Series, Vol. 20: 254 for additional evidence of William d. 1792’s Rev. War service.

[5] Here is a link to a definition of Whack-a-Mole.

[6] Here is a link to a Franklin Co. map showing Hamilton and Antrim townships, which are adjacent. Hamilton Township was founded in 1752; Franklin County was formed in 1784, so Hamilton was originally in Cumberland County, from which Franklin was created. Antrim Township is adjacent to and south of Hamilton. This was a crowded area for Rankins.

[7] See Note 1. I’m not going to cite records for William d. 1792 proving that he lived in Antrim Township because there are so many of them. See tax lists at Family Search for an easy start.

[8] William Henry Egle, Pennsylvania Archives Third Series Vol. II (Harrisburg: Clarence M. Busch, State Printer, 1894) 264, Samuel Moorhead entered a caveat against the acceptance of a survey made by William Rankin on a tract on the west side on Conecocheague Cr., in Hamilton Township, Cumberland Co. Moorehead alleged a prior warrant for part of the tract.

[9] FamilySearch.org film 7856871, image 30, 1752 tax list for Hamilton Township, Cumberland Co., PA.

[10] Cumberland Co., PA Will Book A: 79, will of Joseph Armstrong.

[11] Cumberland Co., PA Will Book A: 88, will of James Alcorn. See Note 8.

[12] Franklin Co., PA Deed Book 6: 124, FamilySearch.org Film # 8,035,192, Image 361. The deed was executed in 1765 when the warrants were located in Cumberland, but recorded in the Franklin County deed records in 1803, when the warrants were for land then located in Franklin.

[13] Caswell Co., NC Will Book B: 341, LDS Film #004754650, image 333, will of Henry Fuller dated 1788, proved 1790, names his daughter Elizabeth Rankin.

[14] James Rankin’s widow Hannah was party to a deed in which the male devisees of James’s land (all named as parties to the deed) divided his land, see Sumner Co., TN Deed Book 12:43.

[15] See an article about Mary’s will here.

[16] See Note 1 for information about the will of William d. 1792.

[17] Instead, read this article for an explanation of what Find-a-Grave got wrong, plus citations to information about Allegheny County William AKA Thing 2 and his wife Mary.

[18] An erroneous S.A.R. application is probably to blame for many of the faulty claims by Thing 3 descendants to be descended from Adam and Mary Steele Alexander Rankin, see this article.

Don’t Trust, Just Verify: The Perils of SAR[1] Applications

I called my friend Spade yesterday evening. He picked up on the first ring.

“Hey, doll, what’s cooking? Have you found one of my cousins who will Y-DNA test?” I could hear ice clinking in a glass. He was no doubt having some Cutty Sark to celebrate yet another successful case in which he dug up someone’s long-dead relative.

Spade has a Rankin line with a solid paper trail back to Adam and Mary Steele Alexander Rankin. But we all want Y-DNA confirmation. He supplied the names of a half-dozen Rankin men in his line — his distant cousins. My job was to recruit just one to Y-DNA test. I failed miserably.

“No. Your cousins are a frustrating lot. I wrote to four or five of them but received no replies. But never mind them. My beef is with you, Spade.”

He sighed, and I clearly detected the sound of a generous splash into a glass. “Now what have I done?” Spade is definitely not the long-suffering type, but he can play that role on occasion.

“I was looking at your otherwise excellent online tree and found a SAR application you included as evidence for one Rankin family. It has a terrible error which is a zombie that won’t die. I’m holding you partly responsible for its survival because you are publishing that thing.”

There was a momentary silence. I knew it wouldn’t take him long to demur, so I wasn’t holding my breath.

“I know the one you mean. Yep, it does contain an egregious error. But I like to attach all relevant evidence, even if it’s partly wrong.”

Now the momentary silence was on my end of the line. “Well,” I finally said, “that’s an interesting notion. But how are people supposed to know which parts of the evidence are correct and which parts are error?”

“Because I file an explanatory comment explaining what’s what,” he quickly rejoined.

I thought I detected slurping. I didn’t know anyone slurped Cutty. This conversation was clearly heading downhill quickly.

“That’s helpful, but what if people don’t read your comment? I, for one, missed it altogether.”

Another slurp. He ignored my first question. “You missed it because I haven’t written a comment yet. Why don’t you post an exposé on your blog?”

With that, he hung up. Spade is famous for hanging up on people.[2]

* * * * * * * *

Spade left me no choice. As it turns out, there is no way for him to comment on that accursed SAR application. So here is my exposé. Don Quixote would be proud.

I am going to quote the SAR application, putting the crummy information in boldface with a comment clearly indicating error.

The SAR application in question was by WILLIAM STEWART RENKIN,[3] whose great-great-great grandfather was, according to the application, a member of the Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania militia during the Sandusky Expedition in 1782. That was an engagement on the western front and one of the last operations in the Revolutionary War.[4]

William Stewart died in 1967, but I communicated with his daughter[5] for several years. She has since died as well. Her father did the initial family history research for their Renkins and prepared the SAR application. She diligently supplemented his work with excellent, thorough research of her own. I enjoyed arguing with her.

Unfortunately, the information on her father’s SAR application has one flaw — and the flaw is not even relevant to his claim to SAR membership! Put another way, the error wasn’t needed to establish whether William Stewart was eligible. He could have omitted two generations and his application would have been perfectly fine.

The bad information in that SAR application has, of course, multiplied like Tribbles on the starship “Enterprise” in the original Star Trek. The error is included in countless online trees.

We have ALL made research errors, so I am not being critical of William Stewart’s work. I do confess to an occasional eye-roll when people accept assertions on Find-a-Grave, SAR applications, and online trees despite lack of evidence. Or, worse yet, without verifying the assertions for themselves.

Here is what the application says. My comments are in either italics or boldface.

William Stewart Renkin, born on June 16, 1913, was:

(1) the son of William Oran Renkin, 1875-1943, and Jane Fulton Stewart.

(2) the grandson of William Wilson Renkin, 1842-1922, and Sarah Hefron Hunter.

(3) the great-grandson of William Johnson Rankin, 1813-after 1870, and Nancy Johnson Anthony.

(4) the great-great-grandson of William Jackson Rankin, 1788-1870, and his first wife Margaret McHargus Ramsey.

(5) the great-great-great-grandson of William Rankin Jr, 1743-1823, and his wife Jane Taylor. “Jr.” is handwritten on the application, although William never used that designation SFAIK. His most likely death date is 1826 rather than 1823. This is the man whose service was the basis of the SAR application. He died in Indiana County and left a will dated 1822, proved 1826.[6]

(6) the great-great-great-great-grandson of William Rankin, died 1798, and Mary Huston. THIS IS WRONG: the William Rankin who died in Indiana County in 1826 was NOT a son of William and Mary Huston Rankin. That couple did have a son named William, but records (see discussion below) conclusively prove he moved to Centre County, Pennsylvania, and died there in 1847. He cannot possibly have been the same man as the William Rankin who died two decades earlier in Indiana County. Also, the William Rankin who married Mary Huston died in 1792 rather than 1798.

(7) the great-great-great-great-great-grandson of Adam Rankin died 1750 and his “2d wife Mrs. Mary Steele.” Adam died in 1747 rather than 1750. There is apparently no evidence in the records for a first wife. That is an assertion in the oral history of two genetically unrelated families, one of whom claims descent from the Adam who died in 1747 in Lancaster County. The other claims descent from John Rankin who died in Lancaster in 1749. Y-DNA testing proves those families are not related through the paternal Rankin line. Given the error in item (6), it follows that William Stewart Renkin was not descended from Adam and Mary Steele Alexander Rankin. Big Y testing confirms that.

Below is the evidence concerning William, son of William and Mary Huston Rankin. It is yet another example of what I call the “follow the land theory.” That is a solid form of genealogical proof if you want to be certain, for example, that the William you are following around was the same man as William, son of Adam and Mary Steele Alexander Rankin.

Let’s start with a will. Specifically, the will of William Rankin of Franklin County whose wife was Mary Huston.[7] We are concerned with two provisions, those dealing with land devised to four of their sons:

Sons James and William jointly received 900 acres in Penns Valley, Mifflin County.
Sons John and Jeremiah jointly received 408 acres on Spring Creek in Penns Valley, Mifflin County.

Now let’s check out Mifflin County, Penns Valley, and Spring Creek to make sure we know where these two inherited tracts wound up.

… “Penns Valley” is located in southeastern Centre County and includes Potter Township, which appears often in the records for these men.

… A “Spring Creek” runs through the middle of Bellefonte, the county seat of Centre County.[8]

… Centre County was created in 1800 from parts of four counties, including Mifflin.

We therefore know that the two tracts William devised to four of his sons were located in what is now Centre County. John and Jeremiah should be located close to each other, since they jointly inherited one tract. James and William should also be located near each other for the same reason.

Voila! There they are, all four brothers in Centre County, paired off geographically just as one would expect. In the 1800 Pennsylvania Septicentennial Census for Potter Township, James and William are entries #150 and #151, respectively, indicating they were surveyed sequentially and thus lived adjacent to each other. John and Jeremiah did not appear in that census, and may have still been home in Franklin County.

In the 1810 census for Potter Township, James Rankin is listed two households down from William Rankin.[9] The prior page for Potter Township has listings for Jeremiah and John, a dozen households apart.[10] All four men were enumerated in the age 26 < 45 category, so they were born during 1765–1784. The family Bible establishes the birth dates of the four men as follows: William, 1770, James, 1776, John, 1779, and Jeremiah, 1783.[11] Fits like a glove! Finally, Centre County cemetery records show John Rankin’s birth year as 1778 (off by one year, a common error since the deceased wasn’t there to provide a correction, or possibly a typo or misread by the abstractor) and Jeremiah’s as 1783 (correct).[12]

There is just no reasonable doubt that the four Rankins in Centre County were sons of William and Mary Huston Rankin and grandsons of Adam and Mary Steele Alexander Rankin. There is also no reasonable doubt that William Rankin of Centre County, who died there in 1847, was a different man than the William Rankin who died in Indiana County in 1826 and who was William Stewart Renkin’s ancestor. As one would expect, a Y-DNA test by one of William Stewart’s grandsons confirms that, since his results don’t match those for descendants of Adam and Mary.

At the risk of piling on, here are excerpts from a county history published in 1883. It identifies James, John, Jeremiah and William as brothers who came to Centre County from Franklin County, home of William and Mary Huston Rankin.

First, the following from History of Centre and Clinton Counties:[13]

“Rankin, William, was born in Franklin County, Nov. 5, 1770. He removed to Centre County and settled upon a farm two miles west of Potter’s Mills.”

A footnote to the above adds that “James, John, and Jeremiah Rankin, brothers of William, came to Penn’s Valley” from Franklin County.

History continues about William’s brother John, with the correct birth date:

“Rankin, John, Esq., died at the residence of his son-in-law, John Irvin, in Penn’s valley, April 22, 1848, aged sixty-nine. He was born in Franklin County, May 1, 1779, and was an early settler in Penn’s valley …”

And that is all.

I am fairly sure I haven’t heard the last on this subject from Spade, though.

See you on down the road.

Robin

[1] “Sons of the American Revolution.” That organization is obviously the male equivalent of the DAR, although their due diligence was deficient in this case.

[2] For proof of Spade’s propensity to hang up, please see a fun post at https://digupdeadrelatives.com/2023/01/01/john-mcginley-rankin-too-many-have-lived/

[3] “Renkin” and “Rankin” are genetically equivalent. My Rankin cousin’s closest match at 37 markers is a man named Renkin.

[4] See, e.g., https://emergingrevolutionarywar.org/2018/09/04/the-crawford-campaign-1782-battle-on-the-sandusky/

[5] I hope I spelled Jeanne’s name correctly but am not certain.

[6] Indiana Co., PA Will Book 1: 140.

[7] Franklin Co., PA Will Book A-B: 256, will of William Rankin of Antrim Twp. dated 20 Oct 1792, proved 28 Nov 1792. Wife Mary. Sons Adam, Archibald, James, William, David, John, and Jeremiah. Daughter Betsy.

[8] See, e.g., https://bellefontechamber.org/attractions/fly-fishing#:~:text=Anglers%20enjoy%20the%20world%2Dclass,the%20historic%20borough%20its%20name.

[9] 1810 census for Potter Township, Centre Co., PA. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/430206:7613

[10] Id.

[11] Birth dates are from the family Bible, a transcription of which (along with the cover letter from the Bible owner) are contained in electronic storage of Flossie Cloyd’s materials at the Tennessee State Library and Archives. She was the premier Rankin historian of the 20th century, although she did very little research herself except on her own line. For the most part, she assembled materials from a number of other Rankin researchers.

[12] Mary Belle Lontz, Tombstone Inscriptions of Centre County, Pennsylvania (1984).

[13] John Blair Linn, History of Centre and Clinton Counties, Pennsylvania (Louis H. Everts, 1883, reprinted Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1975) 222-23 and footnote at 222.

Allegheny County Rankin Families (Part 1 of ?)

We are back to “normal” writing style. This article has no alleged first-person account by someone who has been dead for more than a century. Nor does it have a whimsical story of research by a private eye named Spade. The purpose of this article, rather than entertainment, is simply to provide information about several Rankin families in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania beginning in the late 1700s. I hope someone finds it helpful. I fully expect a couple of emails featuring “yawning” emojis. 😉

Fortunately, the five Rankin families in this county are easy to distinguish by township location. I don’t know whether any of them are genetically related, because only one of the lines has a descendant who has Y-DNA tested. The Rankins here include: a family in Allegheny City, who are descendants of Adam and Mary Steele Alexander Rankin; a family in Mifflin Township which may have had three Revolutionary War soldiers; a Baldwin Township family who came to Maryland from Ireland, then lived in both Westmoreland and Allegheny Counties; a Robinson Township family which is a total mystery to me; and a family in Elizabeth Township which arrived from Ireland in two migrations decades apart. There is so much information in the records about these families that more than one article is surely in the works.

Allegheny City Rankins

Dr. David Nevin Rankin jumps out of the records in Allegheny City, which was a separate city until it was annexed by Pittsburgh in 1907. He was a great-great grandson of Adam and Mary Steele Alexander Rankin of Lancaster County.[1] Dr. David graduated from Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia in 1854, then practiced with his father in Shippensburg until the Civil War.[2] He was in Company A of the 20th Pennsylvania Artillery, became an Assistant Surgeon, and helped open many of the largest Union Army hospitals during the war. He worked for many years as a prison doctor. He and several members of his family are buried in the Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh.[3]

Here is an outline chart showing how Dr. David fits in Adam and Mary’s line:

1 Adam Rankin d. 1747, Lancaster Co., PA, wife Mary Steele Alexander.

2 William Rankin d. 1792, Franklin Co., PA, wife Mary Huston.

3 William Rankin, 1770 – 1847, moved to Centre Co., PA. Married first Abigail McGinley, second Susannah Huston.

4 Dr. William Rankin, b. 1795, Centre Co., PA, d. 1872, Shippensburg, Cumberland Co. Wife Caroline O. Nevin. Dr. William was a son of Abigail McGinley Rankin, his father’s first wife.

5 Dr. David Nevin Rankin, b. 1835, Shippensburg, d. 1901, Allegheny Co. Wife Ann Catharine Irwin.[4]

6 Lilly J. Rankin, b. abt 1864.

6 Dr. Henry Irwin Rankin, 1869 – 1914.[5] Married Hester McCaughey, both of Philadelphia, license issued 5 May 1908. No children found.

6 Edith N. Rankin, 1873 – 1926, Allegheny County. Husband Henry A. Plumer. Buried in the Allegheny Cemetery.[6]

So far as I have found, Dr. Henry H. Rankin was the last male Rankin in the Allegheny City line. That’s a shame, because Y-DNA results for Adam and Mary Steele Rankin’s line are scarce as hen’s teeth.[7] If you are a male having the Rankin surname and think you are descended from them, please go take a “Big Y” test ASAP!

Mifflin Township Rankins

Hugh Rankin was the apparent patriarch of the Mifflin Township Rankin family. His tombstone says that he was a Revolutionary War soldier who served in the 8th Pennsylvania Regiment of Infantry as of 1777. That unit completed an epic winter march across the mountains from western Pennsylvania to New Jersey, leaving many men sick or dead. It was engaged at Bound Brook, Brandywine, the massacre at Paoli, and Germantown in 1777. It was also at Valley Forge. Wow.

The military records at Fold.3 have limited information, although they provide a possible clue about Hugh’s family. Two other men named Rankin(s) served in the same company as Hugh: Isaac and Solomon Rankin. It would be unusual if they were not kin. Based on no evidence other than names, it is possible (but rank speculation) that the three men were from the line of David and Jeanette McCormick Rankin of Frederick County, VA.[8] That couple definitely had a son Hugh and a grandson Solomon.

If I were a descendant of Hugh and Mary, I would head straight to the muster and payroll records available at the National Archives and Records Administration to see what is there for Hugh, Isaac, and Solomon. NARA is without question the best source for relatively complete Revolutionary War military records.

Hugh first appeared in the Allegheny records in the 1790 census. The county was organized in 1788, so he may have been from one of the Rankin families of Westmoreland or Washington County. Two of David and Jeanette Rankin’s children appeared in the latter county. Although Hugh’s family of origin is unproved, one thing is certain: they were Presbyterian through-and-through. That means that he (or his family of origin) were almost certainly Scots-Irish who immigrated from Ulster or, although it is less likely, Presbyterians who came to the colonies straight from Scotland.

Hugh’s tombstone is also inscribed with his wife’s name: Mary Stewart, 1769-1851. It is clearly a fairly new stone, so it could be either a replacement or a first-time marker installed well after the couple died. It gives Hugh’s dates of birth and death as 1764 – 1844-45. The uncertainty about his death date is a pretty solid clue that the stone wasn’t installed at the time Hugh died.

Neither Hugh nor Mary left a will. Census records suggest one son and three daughters. Deed records confirm a son, but only two daughters:

Archibald Rankin, 1802 – 1853.[9]
Mary Rankin Livingston, probably born 1790 – 1794.[10]
Another daughter, also born 1790-1794, who likely married a Mr. Torrence.[11]

Hugh and Mary’s son Archibald kindly left a will identifying his children. There is an outline chart for Hugh’s line below, along with a plethora of footnotes. There are a sufficient number of male Rankins in this line that there is surely a surviving Rankin male descendant who could Y-DNA test!

And that’s all the room available in this article for the first two Allegheny County Rankin families. Next up: William and Ursula Rankin of Bedford Township.

1 Hugh Rankin, 1764 – 1844-45?, wife Mary Stewart, 1769 – 1851, b. PA.[12] Their fairly new tombstone in the Mifflin United Presbyterian Cemetery is inscribed 8th PA Regiment, 1776 – 1779. NASA records could undoubtedly provide evidence for anyone in this line interested in a DAR or SAR membership.

2 Mary Rankin, married a Mr. Livingston. Possibly William R. Livingston, who was an executor of her brother Archibald’s will.

2 Miss Rankin m. Mr. Torrence.

2 Archibald Rankin, 1802 – 1853, probably born and died in Allegheny Co. Wife Jane Brewster or Bruster, 1814 – 1876. Arch still had minor children when he died.[13] Both Arch and Jane are buried in the Miffllin United Presbyterian Church Cemetery.[14]

3 Sarah Rankin, 24 Apr 1832 – 10 Sep 1914, b. Jefferson Twp., Allegheny Co. Sarah married Samuel J. Chamberlain.[15] Her Allegheny County death certificate identifies her parents as Archy Rankin and Jane Bruster.[16]

3 Mary Rankin, 14 Jan 1834 – 19 Dec 1910. Her death certificate identifies her parents as Archibald Rankin and Jane Brewster, a minor spelling difference. She married a John Rankin, relationship unknown.[17] If you can figure it out, I would love to know.

3 William Rankin, b. abt 1836. Wife Mary Ann McClure, daughter of Francis McClure.[18]

4 Howard M. Rankin, 7 May 1860 – 24 Feb 1914.[19]

4 William A. Rankin, 1861 – 1902.[20]

4 Frank Rankin, 1867 – 1892.

4 Rebecca C. Rankin, 1864 – 1868. The find-a-grave memorial for this family in the McKeesport and Versailles Cemetery indicates that Rebecca’s birth date is unknown and that she lived into the twentieth century, both of which are incorrect based on the family memorial, see Note 20.

4 Fannie F. Rankin, 1868-1870.

3 John Rankin, 1839 – 1892. Wife Alice Giles, 1836 – 1906. John sold his 1/3rd interest in his father’s land to his brother William.[21] John had moved to Oakalla, Iroquois Co., IL by 1870 and then to Pottawatomie Co., IA.[22]He is buried with his wife and two of their children in the Carson Cemetery in Pottawatomie.

4 Archie Rankin, b. abt 1865, WV.

4 Laura J. Rankin, 1867 – 1883, b. IL. Carson Cemetery.

4 John P. Rankin, b. IL 1870 – 1883. Carson Cemetery.

4 William S. Rankin, b. IL abt 1872. Married Winnie or Minnie Gertrude Pace. Their marriage record identifies his parents as John Rankin and Alice Giles.

4 Son, b. abt 1874.

4 Alice Rankin, b. IA abt 1877.

3 Eliza Rankin, b. abt 1841-42

3 Jane Rankin, b. abt 1844, m. Dr. William D. Riggs. Lived in Pittsburgh.[23]

3 Evaline Rankin Martin, 15 Jul 1846 – 7 May 1923. Buried in the Mifflin United Presbyterian Church Cemetery.[24]

3 Samuel L. Rankin, 27 Feb 1849 – 11 Apr 1912. Wife Sarah Downay, 1848 – 1934. Samuel went to Iroquois Co., IL and then Pottawatomie Co., IA.[25] The couple is buried in the Carson Cemetery in Pottawatomie along with two of their children.[26]

4 Ella Rankin, 1874 – 1877. Carson Cemetery.

4 Sammy Rankin, 1876 – 1877. Carson Cemetery.

4 Warren Rankin

4 Edna J. Rankin

4 Lula M. Rankin

4 Edith Belle Rankin m. Mr. Breneman.[27]

And that’s all for now on some Allegheny Rankins. See you on down the road.

Robin

[1] There are several articles about the line of Adam and Mary Steele Alexander Rankin on this website.

[2] Appletons’ Cyclopedia of American Biography, 1600-1889, Vol. V: Pickering – Sumter 180. There is a great picture of Dr. David and his wife Caroline Nevin at this link.

[3] Dr. Rankin’s find-a-grave memorial can be found here.

[4] See 1870, 1880, and 1900 census entries for Dr. David Rankin; Allegheny County death certificates for son Dr. Henry and daughter Edith N. Plumer. Here is Catherine’s find-a-grave memorial.

[5] See cemetery memorial here. There is also an Allegheny County death certificate for Henry.

[6] See cemetery memorial at this link.. There is also an Allegheny County death certificate for Edith Rankin Plumer.

[7] Ironically, more Rankins claim descent from Adam and Mary than you can throw a stick at. If you think you might be from that line, please go to the Rankin DNA Project website and send me an email. I will answer questions and do whatever I can to help.

[8] See Frederick Co., VA Deed Book 12: 46, lease and release from Hugh Rankin to William Rankin, proved sons of David and Jeanette McCormick Rankin, witnessed by Solomon and David Rankin. Solomon was a fairly unusual name. I have not tried to track Hugh’s family.

[9] Allegheny Co., PA Deed Book 21: 250, FHL #8091674, image #432, deed dated 1815 from William and Tabitha Reed to Hugh Rankin, all of Allegheny Co., 401.5 acres called “Tabermore” to Hugh Rankin for his life or the life of his wife Mary, at the death of the survivor to their son Archibald in fee simple. See also Deed Book 55: 183, FHL #8036728, image #110, Hugh Rankin and wife Mary of Allegheny to their son Archibald “all … land … now in their occupation.” Hugh Rankin and his family were listed in the federal census for 1790 through 1820 in Mifflin Township. In the 1830 census, Hugh was probably living with his son Archibald.

[10] Allegheny Co., PA Deed Book 118: 181, FHL film #8091702, image #109, deed dated 1853 from Mary Livingston of Jefferson Twp, Allegheny Co., daughter of Hugh Rankin, dec’d, and one of his heirs at law, to my brother Archibald Rankin of Mifflin Twp., for $200, all my claim to Hugh Rankin’s property.

[11] Allegheny Co., PA Deed Book 70: 163, FHL Film #8091683, image #532, deed dated 1845 from Mary Torrence and Jane Torrence of Mifflin Twp., heirs at law of Hugh Rankin, all our claim to Hugh’s real and personal property to Hugh’s son Archibald.

[12] Hugh and Mary’s shared tombstone can be found here.

[13] 1850 Allegheny Co., PA census, household of Archibald Rankin 48, Jane 36, Sarah 18, Mary 16, William 14, John 11, Eliza 9, Jane 6, Emiline 4, and Mary Rankin 81; 1860 census, Mifflin Twp, Allegheny Co., household of Jane Rankin, 46, widow, $7,550/560, b. PA, John Rankin 21, Eliza Rankin 18, Jane Rankin 16, Emeline Rankin 13, and Samuel Rankin 11. They are enumerated adjacent the household of William Rankin, 24. For proof of their five daughters, see Allegheny Co., PA Will Book 26: 36, FHL film #5538, image #396, will of Jane Rankin of Mifflin Township dated 11 Jul 1871 proved 13 Mar 1876. To be buried in Mifflin graveyard, Presbyterian rites. Divide all property into 5 parts, 1/5th each to daughter (1) Sarah Chamberlin, (2) Mary Rankin, (3) dec’d daughter Eliza Forsythe’s children, (4) Jane Riggs, and (5) Emiline Martin. Executor Samuel J. Chamberlin. Witnesses Harvey Sheplar, C. D. Phillips.

[14] Archibald and Jane’s find-a-grave memorials can be found at here and here, respectively.

[15] Allegheny Deed Book 290: 682, 1866 deed from Samuel J. Chamberlain and wife Sarah to John Rankin, tract in Jefferson Twp.; Deed Book 381: 99, FHL film # 8092431, image #285, 1877 quitclaim deed from Samuel J. Chamberlin (or Chamberlain) and wife Sarah, formerly Sarah Rankin, of Jefferson Twp., Allegheny Co., to William Rankin of Mifflin Twp. for $300. All claim by Sarah to tract “bequeathed to her by her father Archibald Rankin.”

[16] Sarah Rankin Chamberlain’s memorial in Mifflin United Presbyterian Church Cemetery can be found at this link.

[17] Allegheny Co., Deed Book 396: 684, quitclaim deed dated 1878 from John Rankin and Mary Rankin (daughter of Archibald Rankin, dec’d) of Jefferson Twp., to William Rankin of Mifflin Twp. The grantors John and Mary were married, as is proved by her separate examination re: dower release. The deed conveys all of Mary’s claims to the legacy willed her by Archibald, including a 150-acre tract on the headwaters of Lewis Run, Mifflin Twp. Who the heck is John? I don’t know.

[18] See Allegheny Co., PA Deed Book 243: 475, FHL Film # 8092177, image #413, 1869 deed from Mrs. Jane Rankin, widow of Archibald Rankin late of Mifflin Township, Allegheny, to William Rankin, son of Archibald, all of her right, title, interest to a tract in Mifflin Township containing 100A, part of the real estate which Arch devised to his wife for life known as the Adersen (sic, Anderson) farm. See also Allegheny Co., PA Deed Book 352: 670, film #8092385, image #18, 1875 quitclaim deed from Robert Day and wife Catharine J. of Allegheny City, Francis N. McClure and Margaret his wife of Allegheny Co., Sarah Rhodes, widow of David Rhodes of McKeesport, and William Rankin and wife Mary A. Rankin of Mifflin Twp., grantors, to Richard McClure of Mifflin, $3,500, 275A. Signatures reveal Wm. Rankin was married to Mary Ann McClure, daughter of Francis McClure. See 1860 census, Mifflin Twp, Allegheny Co., household of William Rankin, 24, farmer, $400, b. PA, Mary Anne Rankin, 23, PA, and Howard M. Rankin, b. May 1860, listed adjacent William’s widowed mother Jane and her children still at home; 1870 census, Mifflin Township, household of William Rankin, 34, farmer, $15,200/$15,000, b. PA, Mary Ann Rankin, 23 (sic, should be 33), $800, PA, Howard Rankin, 10, William Rankin, 8, Francis Rankin, 3 (male, Frank), and Fanny Rankin (female), 1.

[19] Howard M. Rankin’s Allegheny Co. death certificate states his birth and date dates and identifies his parents as William Rankin and Mary McCure (sic, McClure).

[20] William A. Rankin, three of his siblings, and his parents William and Mary Ann are buried in the McKeesport and Versailles Cemetery in McKeesport, Allegheny Co. There is an impressive monument inscribed with the names and birth/death dates of Mary Ann Rankin (1836 – 1896), William Rankin (1834-1904), William A. Rankin (1861-1902), Frank Rankin (1867 – 1892), Rebecca C. Rankin (1864 – 1868), and Fannie F. Rankin (1868 – 1870). I don’t know who erected the monument, but Howard M. Rankin, who survived all six of them, is a good bet.

[21] Allegheny Co., PA Deed Book 177: 299, FHL film #8092152, image #490, deed dated 1864 from John Rankin and his wife Mary Alice to William, undivided interest per the will of Archibald Rankin, father of the parties; Allegheny Co., PA Deed Book 301, FHL film #8092388, image #3421872 deed from John Rankin and wife Alice of Iroquois Co., Illinois to William Rankin of Allegheny for $5. Quitclaim to tract in Mifflin Township adj James and Robert Rath, et al. Archibald Rankin died owning tract and by his will devised it to his three sons John, Samuel, and William. Both Samuel and John are listed in the 1870 census in Iroquois Co.

[22] 1870 census, Iroquois Co., Illinois, Oakalla PO, household of John Rankin, 31, farmer, $5,100/700, b. PA, Olive? Rankin, 33, England, presumably Alice Giles. Jennie Rankin, 7, PA, Archie Rankin, 5, VA, Laura Rankin, 3, IL, and John Rankin, 6 months, b. Jan 1870, IL; 1880 census, Grove Twp., Pottawattamie Co., IA, household of J. Rankin, 41, farming, b. PA, parents b. PA, wife Alice, 43, b. England, son Archie, 15, b. WV, daughter Laurie, 13, b. ILL, son John, 11, IL, son William, 8, IL, unidentified son, 6, IA, and daughter Alice, 3, IA.

[23] Allegheny Co., PA Deed Book 369: 94, FHL film #8092392, image #108, 1877 deed from William Riggs, M.D., and wife Jane, formerly Jane Rankin, of the 28th ward of Pittsburgh, acknowledging receipt from William Rankin of Mifflin Twp payment of the $300 legacy bequeathed to Jane Riggs by her father Archibald Rankin in his LW&T dated 5 Sep 1853. Also, grantees quitclaim tract devised by Archibald to William and his brothers John and Samuel Rankin.

[24] See memorial here.

[25] Allegheny Co., PA Deed Book 301: 477, FHL film #8092388, image #342, 1872 deed from Samuel Rankin of Iroquois Co., Illinois to William Rankin of Allegheny Co., Samuel’s undivided 1/3rd of tract in Mifflin Twp., Allegheny, adjacent James Rath, Robert Rath, Hays, McElhenny, Livingstons, Hope et al. Devised by Archibald Rankin’s will to the parties.

[26] Samuel L. Rankin’s find-a-grave memorial is at this link. His wife Sarah Downay Rankin’s memorial is here. Their daughter Ella and son Sammy Jr. are also buried in the Carson cemetery and have similar tombstones.

[27] Edith Rankin’s delayed birth record says she was b. 9 Apr 1886, in Grove Twp., Pottawatamie Co., IA, and identifies her parents as Samuel Rankin, b. Pittsburg, and Sarah Downay, b. Oneida Co., NY. She signed the birth certificate as Edith Belle Breneman.

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 12^th, 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.

Rankin families in the darn book

I hope this is the last time I blather about The Compleat Rankin Book, which continues to nip at my heels. I’m ready to move on to Volume 2.

I’ve received two emails asking me which Rankin families are included in the book. Also, one blog commenter speculated that her line is not in it. In response, here are some short blurbs for the lines in the book to let you know which Rankins are included and generally who they are …

Robert and Margaret (“Peggy”) Berry Rankin of Virginia, Kentucky, Alabama, Texas, and Louisiana. Lt. Robert and his brother William were both Revolutionary soldiers. Their fabulous individual war stories are covered in some detail. Lt. Robert died in Louisiana, but is buried in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin … or so the Cemetery believes, despite some hilarious evidence to the contrary. Lt. Robert’s brother William died in Mason County, Kentucky, as did his brother John. The three brothers (there may be others) left large families — twenty-eight children among them. Their descendants should be legion. Their parents are not proved. The next article I post will share my opinion about their family of origin, assuming I am able to formulate one that isn’t just rank speculation.

Joseph and Rebecca Rankin (“J&R”) of New Castle County, Delaware. Their sons John and William went to Guilford County, North Carolina. Their descendants are well-documented in a book by Rev. Samuel Meek Rankin.[1] J&R’s son James went to Washington County, Pennsylvania. Only J&R’s sons Joseph (Jr.) and Lt. Thomas Rankin stayed in New Castle. J&R’s probable son Robert is a mystery. Their daughter Ann lived with her brother Joseph (Jr.) and apparently never married. No, Samuel Rankin who married Eleanor (“Ellen”) Alexander was not J&R’s son, despite Rev. Rankin’s speculation on that issue.

Four of J&R’s sons fought in the Revolution, assuming Rev. Rankin is correct about John and William fighting at Guilford Court House. His family tradition that they fought in that battle accords with the fact that every able-bodied patriot for miles around reportedly participated. Ostensibly a British victory, it was nevertheless a major blow to Cornwallis in the Southern Campaign. If you haven’t been to the Guilford Courthouse National Park in Greensboro, it is worth a trip.

Robert and Rebecca Rankin (“R&R”) of Guilford County, North Carolina. Their son Robert died there in 1795, leaving one son named George and four daughters. R&R’s son George married Lydia Steele and died in Rowan County (from which Guilford was created) in 1760. George left two young sons, John and Robert, who left Guilford for Kentucky and Tennessee, respectively. R&R also had at least three daughters: Ann Rankin Denny (proved), Rebecca Rankin Boyd (probable) and Margaret Rankin Braly/Brawley (also probable).

R&R’s line includes at least one Revolutionary War soldier and the famous Rev. John Rankin of the Shaker colony in Logan County, Kentucky. Shaker Rev. John was kind enough to pen an autobiography identifying where the family lived before they came to the colonies. That is a rare case of certainty about a Rankin family’s specific Ulster location. Otherwise, Rev. John’s autobiography is a piece of work. I challenge you to get through it.[2]

David and Margaret Rankin of Iredell County, North Carolina. David may have been a son of Robert and Rebecca Rankin of Guilford. Y-DNA tests allow that possibility, although there seems to be no evidence in the paper records. David and Margaret’s son James died at the Battle of Ramsour’s Mill in 1780, leaving four underage children in Lincoln County. Their son Robert survived Ramsour’s and moved to Gibson County, Tennessee, where he filed a Revolutionary War pension application.

Robert had proved sons David and Denny Rankin, both of whom remained in Iredell and married McGin sisters. Robert also had a daughter Margaret Rankin Finley, who appeared with him in Gibson County in a deed of gift. Descendants of Robert and his wife, probably Jean Denny of Guilford County, still live in Iredell County.

John Rankin of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He died there in 1749, leaving a will naming a wife Margaret, two sons, and eight daughters.[3] His son Richard went to Augusta County, Virginia. Son Thomas also went to Augusta, then moved on to East Tennessee. Thomas was the patriarch of the line of Rankins celebrated in the famous Mt. Horeb Presbyterian Church Cemetery tablet in Jefferson County, Tennessee. This family has also been thoroughly documented, especially by a 19th- century descendant named Richard Duffield Rankin. One descendant is Rev. John Rankin, the famous abolitionist whose home in Ripley, Ohio was a waystation on the underground railroad. He deserves an article of his own. Another fairly well-known descendant is John Knox Rankin, who was among those who faced Quantrill’s Raiders in Lawrence, Kansas in 1863. Both Rev. John and John Knox Rankin are high on my to-do list.

Adam and Mary Steele Alexander Rankin of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Adam died there in 1747, leaving a daughter and three sons. This is perhaps the best known of all Rankin families. Adam and Mary’s children, possibly not in birth order, were James, Esther Rankin Dunwoody, William, and Jeremiah. James married Jean/Jane Campbell and lived in a famous location in Montgomery Township, Franklin County called “the Corner.” Tales of “mint julip” (moonshine?), evil groundhogs, and a haunted house in the Corner abound. Story to follow. James and Jean had four sons and two daughters. David, William, and Jeremiah remained in Franklin. The fourth son, James Jr., is elusive.

Adam and Mary’s son William married Mary Huston and had seven sons and a daughter, Betsy Rankin Robison. Four of their sons — William Jr., James, Jeremiah, and John — went to Centre County, Pennsylvania, where they owned land devised by their father. William and Mary’s son Adam, their eldest, became a doctor and moved to Kentucky. Son Archibald married Agnes Long and remained in Franklin County. Son David married Frances Campbell and wound up in Des Moines County, Iowa.

Adam and Mary’s son Jeremiah (wife Rhoda Craig) died in a mill accident in Franklin County, Pennsylvania in 1760. Jeremiah seems to be totally absent from Pennsylvania records other than his father’s will. His four sons went to Kentucky.

Famous descendants of Adam and Mary include Confederate Brigadier General Adam Rankin “Stovepipe” Johnson, who was the father and grandfather of two major league baseball players. Stovepipe is also buried in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin. He is from the line of William and Mary Huston Rankin through their Kentucky son Dr. Adam. Another famous descendant of Adam and Mary is Rev. Adam Rankin of Lexington, Kentucky, a son of Jeremiah and Rhoda. Rev. Adam was well-known among Presbyterians for his obsession with the so-called “Psalmody controversy.”

Samuel and Eleanor (“Ellen”) Alexander Rankin of Lincoln/Gaston Co., NC. His nickname was “Old One-Eyed Sam,” according to a descendant who grew up across the Catawba River from Sam’s home in Lincoln. I haven’t found many good stories about this family, other than their grandson Samuel who was indentured as a thirteen-year-old. Indentured servitude was fairly uncommon in a family as prominent and wealthy as the Lincoln County Rankins. Sam’s two brothers escaped that fate, making me suspect that young Sam was a handful. He married Mary Frances Estes in Tishomingo County, Mississippi and wound up in Jefferson County, Arkansas.

Sam and Mary had eight sons and two daughters. Four of their sons were Civil War soldiers. Two joined the Confederate army and two fought for the Union, probably after having been first captured as Confederate soldiers.[4] One of Sam and Mary’s sons, my ancestor John Allen Rankin, deserted the Army of the Confederacy after a terrible loss at the Battle of Champion Hill east of Vicksburg. Private John Allen’s war story intersects with a good love story about meeting his future wife, Amanda Lindsey. One of John Allen and Amanda’s great-grandchildren still flies a Confederate battle flag on his front porch, citing his “proud southern heritage” as justification. He might not know about his ancestor’s desertion. My cousin and I fly different flags.

Robert Rankin of Rutherford County, North Carolina and Caldwell County, Kentucky. Robert married Mary Witherow in North Carolina. The couple apparently divorced, which was evidently rare at that time. Alternatively, Robert may have just walked away. He left North Carolina while Mary W. Rankin was still alive. He eventually remarried. I haven’t found any fun stories about his family, although I haven’t looked very hard. Their descendant Francis Gill is the expert on Rutherford Robert’s line. The Compleat Book contains entries from several family Bibles that Francis kindly shared. If this is your crowd, the Bibles provide good information. The book also has an article about Robert’s son Jesse, who married Cynthia Sellers and went to Gibson County, Tennessee. He has been confused with another Jesse Rankin, a son of Shaker Rev. John Rankin.

William and Abigail Rankin of Washington County, Pennsylvania. William was a son of David and Jeanette McCormick Rankin of Frederick County, Virginia. William and his brother David were easy to track; their brother Hugh, not so much. That translates to the fact that I have unfinished business with this line. William and his wife Abigail left a passel of children, many of whom remained in Washington County. Their son David left Washington County for Kentucky. One son, Zachariah, died of hydrophobia after being bitten by a rabid wolf. The most charming stories about this family concern the detailed list of Zachariah’s clothing in his inventory and the amount of whiskey purchased for his Washington County estate sale. Who says probate records are dry and boring? You can bet that estate sale was neither.

William Jr. and Jane Rankin of Fayette County, Pennsylvania. This is an interesting line in early Pennsylvania which also deserves more research. Some of their line remained in Fayette County, where the cemeteries are awash with their descendants. Some went “west,” which often meant “the Ohio Country.” That referred to land roughly west of the Appalachian Mountains and north of the Ohio River.[5] One of their sons who went “west” had accumulated an overwhelming amount of debt from lenders in at least two states, leaving mind-boggling deeds about it. What, I wonder, did he spend all that money on? If I could suss it out, it would surely be a good story.

Jeanette Pickering Rankin and her sister Edna Rankin McKinnon. It isn’t easy finding famous women in family history research. Jeanette is known for her terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, where she was the first female. She is famous (or infamous) for her votes against entering both World Wars. She was a woman of integrity and courage, no matter what one thinks about those votes. She also did considerable work obtaining the vote for women in her home state of Montana. In her eighties, Jeanette led an anti-Vietnam war march in D.C. The marchers dubbed themselves the “Jeanette Rankin Brigade.” Her little sister Edna is famous for her work in Planned Parenthood. If those two Rankin women had been around at the right time, there would undoubtedly have been some rousing good speeches in favor of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Now … I need to see if I have sufficient evidence to formulate a semi-cogent opinion about the parents of Lt. Robert Rankin and his brothers William and John. If not, there are plenty of other genealogical mysteries and interesting Rankins waiting in the wings.

See you on down the road.

Robin

[1] Rev. S. M. Rankin, The Rankin and Wharton Families and Their Genealogy (Greensboro, NC: J. J. Stone & Co., printers and binders, 1931, reprint by Higginson Book Co., Salem, MA).

[2] John Rankin, “Auto-biography of John Rankin, Sen.” (South Union, Ky., 1845), transcribed in Harvey L. Eads, ed., History of the South Union Shaker Colony from 1804 to 1836 (South Union, Ky., 1870). You can obtain a copy of Ead’s transcript from the Special Collections Library, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, Kentucky (WKU), where it is designated “Shaker Record A.”

[3] More accurately, John Rankins’s 1749 will named six daughters and two sons-in-law.

[4] Captured Confederates were sometimes allowed to play a “get out of jail free” card by renouncing the Confederacy and joining the Union Army. Usually, the ex-prisoner served in the west, where he was unlikely to be shooting at members of his family.

[5] The “Ohio Country” consisted roughly of modern-day Ohio, eastern Indiana, western Pennsylvania, and northwestern West Virginia.