Biographical History of Pottawattmie Co., IA

. L. RANKIN is one of the intelligent, enterprising and successful citizens of Grove Township. He has been a resident of Pottawattamie County and identified with its best interests for the past seventeen years, having come to this place in 1873.

He was born in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, February 27, 1849. His father, Archibald Rankin, was born in Pennsylvania, and grandfather Rankin was a native of Ireland, born of Irish parents. His mother, nee Jane Brewster, also a native of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, was of Irish ancestry. Mr. and Mrs. Rankin were the parents of nine children, three sons and six daughters, all of whom are now (1890) living except two daughters, and all are in Allegheny County except John and S. L., who are in Grove Township, this county. The parents passed their lives in Pennsylvania and died there, the father at the age of fifty-two and the mother at the age of sixty-four years. Mr. Rankin was an honest tiller of the soil all his life, and in politics he was a Democrat. His wife was a member of the United Presbyterian Church and reared her children in the Christian faith.

S. L. Rankin worked on the farm and received his education in the public schools of his native county. In 1868, at the age of nineteen years, he came West and settled in Iroquois County, Illinois, where he engaged in farm work. In that county he married Miss Linda Downey, a lady of intelligence and refinement, who was born in Way County, New York. Her parents, Titus and Sally (Cole) Downey, both natives of Vermont, were married in the Green Mountain State and subsequently removed to St. Lawrence County, New York, and afterward went to Wayne County. When Mrs. Rankin was about six years of age they removed to Oneida County, same State, where they passed the rest of their lives, the mother dying at the age of forty-eight years and the father at sixty-seven. The Downey family were Methodists. Mr. Downey was an iron manufacturer, and in politics he was a Republican. Mrs. Rankin removed to Illinois one year previous to her marriage.

In 1873 the subject of this sketch settled on his present farm when the land was wild. Here he has since resided and has made many improvements in his property. He now owns 213 acres of land, of which 143 acres are in Grove Township and the rest in Carson Township. His comfortable frame house is situated on a natural building site and is surrounded by shade trees. He is engaged in general farming and stock-raising, and his farm is well supplied with suitable out-buildings and modern improvements for conducting agricultural pursuits in the most approved manner.

Mr. and Mrs. Rankin have four children: Warren, Edna J., Lulu May, and Edith Belle. May Eleanor, their first born, died at the age of three years and seven months; and Samuel, the second child, at the age of sixteen months.

Mr. Rankin is a man in the prime of life; is frank and cordial in manner and address, and honorable in all his business transactions. Politically he is a Democrat.

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