Margaret Poage Rankin 1818 Margaret Poage Rankin 1818-1884


Margaret P. Rankin (1818 – 1884)
Composed and copyrighted by Linda Sparks Starr, August 2011


Margaret P. Rankin was born April 18, 1818 in Anderson County, South Carolina. She was the sixth of ten children and third daughter of George and Mary (Rankin).  Although only the initial “P” is found in family and court records, Poage is thought her middle name.  It is the surname of her great-grandmother.  But more importantly, current researchers think George and Mary named three daughters after George’s three sisters and one of them was  Margaret (Rankin) Poage.

Little is known about the four unmarried daughters of George and Mary. Even less is known about Margaret than the other three. Although women were the glue that bound ante-bellum society, those women who didn’t marry and have children left few footprints.  Lack of records with Margaret’s name might indicate she was the one who managed the farm land the five women shared.  Or perhaps she was the neighborhood nurse, routinely called to the bedsides of the ill or dying.  We’ll never know unless family letters are found and shared.  The only surviving records of Margaret, other than her tombstone and name listed as a child within this family, are a few Anderson County deeds and Margaret’s own probate packet that includes her will.

Margaret outlived all but one of her siblings who remained in South Carolina.  The death date of her brother James, who moved to Mississippi, is not known at this time.   Margaret died October 5, 1884 and is buried in the old Rankin Cemetery with other members of her family.


SOURCES

File #3689 from 1864-1871 L (C or E) 870   Estate of Margaret P. Rankin dec’d located
South Carolina Department Archives & History:  Anderson County Estate Papers,




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