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From: "Sharon Karns" <>
Subject: [KYMONTGO-L] Rankin
Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2003 21:29:23 -0800

Handbook of Texas Online: RANKIN, ROBERT
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RANKIN, ROBERT (1753-1837). Revolutionary War veteran Robert Rankin
was
born in the colony of Virginia in 1753. He entered the service of the
Continental Army in 1776 with the Third Regiment of the Virginia line
and
participated in the battles of Germantown, Brandywine, and Stony
Point, as
well as the siege of Charleston, where he was captured; he remained a
prisoner of war until exchanged, at which time he received a promotion
to
lieutenant. On October 1, 1781, during a furlough, he married Margaret
(Peggy) Berry in Frederick County, Virginia. He returned to active
duty on
October 15 and served until the war's end. Robert and Margaret Rankin
had
three daughters and seven sons, one of whom was Frederick Harrison
Rankin.qv The family moved to Kentucky in 1784. In 1786 Rankin was
named
by the Virginia legislature as one of nine trustees for the newly
established town of Washington, in Bourbon County (later Mason
County),
Kentucky. In 1792 he served as a delegate from Mason County to the
Danville Convention, which drafted the first constitution of Kentucky.
He
also became an elector of the Kentucky Senate of 1792. The last
mention of
Rankin in Mason County, Kentucky, is in the 1800 census. The Rankins
moved
to Logan County, Kentucky, in 1802 and to the Tombigbee River in
Mississippi Territory in 1811; the area of their home eventually
became
Washington County, Alabama. Four of the Rankin sons fought in the War
of
1812. The family suffered a severe financial reversal around 1819-20,
probably in conjunction with land speculation and the panic of 1819.
In
July 1828 Rankin first made an application for a pension for his
Revolutionary War service.
In 1832 the Rankins moved to Joseph Vehlein's colony in Texas, along
with the William Butler and Peter Cartwright families. Rankin was
issued a
certificate of character by Jesse Grimes on November 3, 1834, as
required by the Mexican government. He applied for a land grant in
Vehlein's colony on November 13 of the same year and received a league
and
labor in October 1835. The town of Coldspring, San Jacinto County, is
located on Rankin's original grant. Rankin had the reputation of being
a
just and diplomatic man. He was a friend of Sam Houston,qv and his
influence with the Indians in the region was well known. Houston
reputedly
called upon him in the spring of 1836 to encourage neutrality among
the
Indians during the crucial Texan retreat toward San Jacinto. Toward
the
end of 1836 Rankin became ill, and he and his wife moved to St. Landry
parish, Louisiana, where he died on November 13, 1837. His body was
brought back to the family home near Coldspring, in the new Republic
of
Texas, and buried in the old Butler Cemetery. In 1936 he was
reinterred
at the State Cemeteryqv in Austin. His widow lived in Texas with her
sons,
William and Frederick, in Polk, Montgomery, and Liberty counties until
her
death sometime after December 1852.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Louis Wiltz Kemp Papers, Barker Texas History Center,
University of Texas at Austin. Veterans Administration Records, U.S.
National Archives, Washington.
Ann Patton Malone
Recommended citation:
"RANKIN, ROBERT." The Handbook of Texas Online.

<http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/RR/fra40.html>;
[Accessed Wed Jan 8 18:17:54 US/Central 2003 ].


The Handbook of Texas Online is a joint project of The General
Libraries
at the University of Texas at Austin (http://www.lib.utexas.edu) and
the
Texas State Historical Association (http://www.tsha.utexas.edu).
Copyright ©, The Texas State Historical Association, 1997-2002
Last Updated: July 23, 2002
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