No Portrait Available
Robert Rankin
Born in Virginia 1753 and Died
in Cold Springs, San Jacinto
County, Texas, 1837
Erected by State of Texas
1936
Back of headstone
Robert Rankin was an officer in
the Continental Army, Virginia
Troops, 1776, in the same Company
with his near kinsman, John
Marshall, who later became Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court of
the United States. * He participated
in the Battle of Brandywine,
Germantown and Stony Point
and in the Siege of Charleston *
Three of his sons, Joseph, John
Keith, and James Rankin, served
in the War of 1812 * Joseph was
massacred by Indians at Fort
Mims in Alabama in 1813 * John
Keith and James Rankin died in
Texas, as did two other sons,
Frederick and Thomas, who had
served in the Army of Texas
Footstone
Lt. Robert Rankin
1753 - 1837
Original Member
Virginia Society of the Cincinnati
Placed by the Lone Star Association
Society of the Cincinnati
|
| Full Name: |
Robert Rankin |
| Location: |
Section:Republic Hill, Section 1 (C1)
Row:U Number:10 |
| Reason for Eligibility: |
Veteran, American Revolution; Veteran, Republic of Texas |
| Birth Date: |
1753 |
| Died: |
November 13, 1837 |
| Burial Date: |
Reinterred June 11, 1936 |
| | 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. 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, 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 Cemetery 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
"RANKIN, ROBERT." The Handbook of Texas Online. [Accessed Mon Feb 17 14:15:10 US/Central 2003]. |
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