John Rankin, died March 18, 1886

John and Jean Rankin
50th Wedding Anniversary
1866

John and Jean Rankin celebrated their Golden Anniversary of 50 years of marriege in 1866, surrounded by their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.  In his autobiography, written in 1872 when he was 80, John extensively praised Jean's virtues throughout their marriage. 

In every place she exerted a good influence, being exemplary in all

her intercourses and showing kindness to all the afflicted and speaking evil of none. But few women have filled as well the place of a minister’s wife. She contributed greatly to my success in the sacred office.

. . .  My wife proved to be a fruitful vine.  She brought me thirteen children, nine boys and four girls, all of whom lived to be married.  Eleven are still living now in November 1872.  We adopted an orphan niece whose father died before she was born and her mother died a few weeks after her birth . . . Thus we had fourteen children to bring up and educate. . . .   

Family worship, morning and evening, was never omitted for any purpose however urgent.  On Sabbath we shut up the house and all went to church. . . . The mother gathered her little ones all into the pew with her and kept them in order during divine service. . . . 

Three of my sons are ministers of the gospel, and all but two of my living children are church members.  May the Lord regenerate those tow, is my constant prayer.

. . . In addition to our fourteen children we brought up a girl who was partly colored. We treated her as we did our own children.  She stayed with us until she was twenty-five years of age and then married.  She was a woman of unblemished character and a church member. . . 

The mother of my son David's children died in a few years after he did, and his three children were left in my care.  . . . I had, in family for some years, two nieces and two of my brothers.  It may seem incredible that I could give myself to the ministry and support and educate so large a family and have a salary worth but three hundred and fifty dollars a year and that not very well paid.

. . . Having received an invitation to visit our children in Ohio, my wife and I are now paying that visit at Ironton and vicinity.  I do as much preaching now as when I had a charge.  Since I came to this place I preached at Ironton in the forenoon, rode seven miles to Sheridan in the afternoon, preached at that place, and returned to Ironton . . . I went to bed and rested as comfortably as if I had performed no labor, and no blue Monday followed.  Such is the strength the Lord has given me after being over eighty years of age.

 The Ironton Register of  February 3, 1876 reported on the Rankins' 60th anniversary:

PEARL WEDDING - Many of our readers know Rev. John Rankin. He has preached here several times, and has contributed interesting articles to the REGISTER. He lived at Ripley 44 years, and is now at his son’s in Lawrence, Kansas. Recently his wedding of sixty years ago was celebrated. We copy from the Lawrence (Kansas) Journal, an account of it.

The marriage took place at Washington College, Washington County, East Tennessee. . . . He moved to the State of Ohio; was settled as the pastor of the church at Ripley, where he preached forty-four years. In his advanced age, he resigned the charge of the church, and lives now with his youngest son at Emporia, Kansas. 

He is now eighty-three, and his wife, eighty years of age.  

The reunion took place at the residence of Hon. John K. Rankin, Mayor of the city of Lawrence, Kansas. The relatives of the family in attendance were Rev. Alex. Rankin, of Baltimore, Maryland, a brother of the groom, and Mrs. Adams, youngest sister of the bride and her three children, Alex. Rankin, Mary Merryweather, and Jno. K. Rankin, a grandson of the oldest brother of the groom, Joseph Rankin, of Kansas City.

The children present were R. C. Rankin and wife of Ripley, Ohio; J. T. Rankin of Mississippi; A. C. Rankin, M. D. and wife, of Illinois; Rev. A. T. Rankin, of Indiana; W. A. Rankin and family of Lawrence, Kansas; T. L. Rankin and family, of Emporia, Kansas; Mrs. Jas. Wiley and husband, of Quenemo, Kansas; Mrs. Fletcher and husband, of Douglas County, Kansas.

The children absent were Rev. A. L. Rankin, of California; Rev. S. G. W. Rankin of Connecticut, and Mrs. Humphreys, of Huntington, West Virginia.

Also cousins present were Mr. Thomas Rankin and wife, of Olathe, Kansas, and a grandson; John C. Rankin and wife, of Osage County, Kansas.

Jean Rankin died in Lyndon, Kansas 1878; the Rankins were living there with their youngest son, Thomas Lovejoy Rankin.  Rankin then moved back to Ohio to live in the the home of one of his granddaughters.  The Ironton Journal reported on April 5, 1883:

FATHER RANKIN, 94 years old, walked from Col. Gray's residence to the Water Works, through the snow, last Monday to vote. He believes in putting himself to some inconvenience in order to perform the duties of a citizen.

Before his death, Rankin suffered from a painful and slow cancer of the face, which finally attacked his brain.  He died on March 18, 1886 in Ironton, Ohio at the age of 93.  The Ironton Journal carried an article on his funeral:

REV. JOHN RANKIN - AN INTERESTING FUNERAL SERMON 

Rev. John Rankin died at the residence of his granddaughter, Mrs. Col. Grays, last Thursday evening. Old age and a cancerous affliction combined, brought him to the grave. His death, at any moment, had been expected for some days. 

On Friday afternoon, at 4 o'clock, the funeral services were conducted at the Presbyterian church. . . . There was a large audience, among whom were several colored people. The pastor, Rev. Robinson, delivered an eloquent and instructive funeral sermon, from which we note a few prominent facts: The deceased was born in Jefferson county, Tenn., February 4, 1793, and died March 18, 1886, being over 93 years old. He was one of ten sons, four of whom, with himself, were preachers. His parents were of the old Scotch Presbyterian stock. He entered Washington college, Tenn., when 20 years old and graduated in four years. He volunteered in the war of 1812, but was refused on account of bad health. He married the granddaughter of President Lowry, of the college he attended, before he graduated. He . . . went to Ripley, where he preached for 44 years. During all this time he was an active man, lecturing, preaching and founding churches. He established eight new churches in the region of Brown county, and got pastors for them; wrote and published four books and many pamphlets - all, too, outside of his regular church work which he did on a salary of $350 a year, and much of the time bringing up a family of thirteen children. 

He was a tireless worker for good. Want of means never kept him still. He was the Paul of the 19th century. He founded the Western Tract Society, and begged money to keep it going. His life was full of zealous work for his church. 

As a citizen, he was a great lover of his country, of freedom and equal rights, and he had the courage to stand up for his opinions on all occasions. 

He organized an abolition society in 1818 and was the first man in this country to take a public stand for immediate emancipation. This he did in pamphlets and lectures; and for which he was mobbed and rotten-egged repeatedly. A price was set on his head. He was a member of the American Anti-Slavery society and one of its lecturers, whose arguments brought into the society some of the leaders whose renown afterward overshadowed their brave and humble teacher. As a helper to slaves escaping northward, he was ever ready, and from his thrilling experiences in this, he recounted some facts on which Harriet Beecher Stowe based some of the most interesting characters of Uncle Tom's Cabin - notably, Eliza and George Harris.

. . . At the close of the services, the remains were taken to the boat, and then to Ripley where they were interred.

Rankin was buried in Ripley’s Maplewood Cemetery.  In May 1892, six years after his death, a monument named "Freedom's Heroes," was dedicated to Rankin and his wife on the grounds of the Maplewood Cemetery.  The Ironton Journal again carried the news:

UNVEILING - The Bronze Bust of Rev. John Rankin - Rev. John Rankin, the

noble hero of Freedom, lies buried in the cemetery of Ripley, amid the scenes of his great conflict for liberty a half century ago.

Last Thursday occurred a beautiful tribute to his memory, when a bronze bust was placed over his grave. The bust is the work of his granddaughter, Mrs. Ellen Rankin Kopp, a teacher in the Chicago Art School. It is life size and is a faithful representation of the brave abolitionist when he was in his prime . . . This beautiful work of art bears this inscription: 'John Rankin and Jane Lowrie Rankin - Freedom Heroes." Beneath the stone rests the wife, too, the faithful ally of the champion of abolition in all his struggles.

The ceremonies attending the unveiling were beautiful and suggestive. First there was an address at the Presbyterian church by Mr. J. C. Liggett, a merchant of Ripley. There was a large audience and a choir of 100 school children. Then a procession formed and proceeded to the cemetery, where the unveiling of the monument was conducted by Jackson Atwood, a colored man, who made a very eloquent address. He was followed by Rev. S. G. W. Rankin, of Glastonbury, Conn., a son of John Rankin, who spoke to the relatives. Rev. A. T. Rankin of Greensburg, Ind., also addressed the people. A colored choir furnished the music at the unveiling. Capt. A. C. Rankin, of Ripley, was the Master of Ceremonies.

Upon returning from the cemetery, 37 of the descendants of Rev. John Rankin sat down to dinner together. There were five sons and one daughter present. Attending the ceremonies that day were about 50 of the 100 descendants of John Rankin.

The Rankin House in Ripley is  is now a National Historic Landmark. The house was acquired by the State of Ohio in 1938 and is owned by the Ohio Historical Society.  It is open for tours by the Ripley Heritage Society.  

In Beyond the River, published in 2004, Ann Hagedorn tells the remarkable story of the participants in the Ripley line of the Underground Railroad, bringing to life the struggles of the men and women, black and white, who fought "the war before the war" along the Ohio River. 

"I could write a book about the writing of this book and the exceptional individuals with whom I connected, both living and dead.  What a privilege it was to spend a good part of each day for nearly three years with John and Jean Rankin, John Parker, John B. Mahan, and Issac M. Beck, among others.  Their strength and courage are an inspiration to me, and I will always feel that John Rankin is now somehow a part of my own spirit.  The phrase "touching greatness" has new meaning to for me.That greatness, it must be noted here, extends into the realm of the living, to those people who so generously contributed hearts, minds, and souls to helping me create Beyond the River."
~ Ann Hagedorn

RANKIN FAMILY CELEBRATES ITS ABOLITIONIST ROOTS

By RICH DAVIS, Courier & Press staff writer. Saturday, August 26, 2006

Lea Rankin recalls reading an article in The Evansville Courier & Press several years ago and going, "Wait a minute ..." 

It was an account of Underground Railroad activity from the 1830s to 1860s along the Ohio River or "River Jordan" in slave songs.  Piquing her curiosity was the mention of a Presbyterian minister named John Rankin of Ripley, Ohio, who helped take in an estimated 2,000 escaping slaves upriver from Cincinnati.  It required some research, including a visit to the Rankin House (a National Historic Landmark in Ripley), but Lea Rankin found her answer.  Her African-American family has white abolitionist roots. Her great-great-great-great grandfather was John Rankin.

Two of Rankin's sons, William and Arthur, had children by black women, one of them through marriage. Lea Rankin and her cousins, Larry and Michelle Rankin of Evansville, are descended through William Rankin and his son, Adam.

This weekend, about 200 Rankins from across the country are in Evansville. Many of those relatives gathered at a dinner and dance Friday at the C.K. Newsome Center.  . . . The gathering was organized after Lea Rankin, a mortgage banker, attended a reunion of Rankins in Cincinnati earlier this month - relatives she previously didn't know existed because they're descended from the other son, Arthur. . . .

"I grew up hearing stories from my auntie about my grandaddy," said Lea Rankin. Her grandfather's mother had been a slave, but he was so light-skinned he "could pass" when he came to Henderson County, Ky., to become a farmer.
Still, she didn't know the bigger picture until Gore accompanied her to the Rankin House, where she tracked down relations through a visitors sign-in book. . . . Gore describes the Maysville museum as a "healing station" where African-Americans find heritage and white Americans find inspiration. . . . Gore isn't surprised two of Rankin's sons had children by black women, given the respect which existed between the minister's family and slaves they were helping.

"My father was always ready and quick to get through any difficulty.  He firmly believed that a kind Providence assisted and guided those who earnestly tried to help themselves or others in dire trouble coupled with right."
~ John Rankin, Jr.