Jacob Robertson Rankin

Jacob Robertson “Robert” Rankin (c1872-    ) and Ione McCoy (1877-1968)

Compiled and copyrighted June 2012 by
Penny Brookes   coppercoin@interbel.net 


J. Robertson Rankin and Ione McCoy are my great-grandparents.  They were married 26 November 1895 in Grayson County, Texas. It was not a happy marriage and there were many separations including the time of their son’s birth. They had two children, Arkley Foy (son) born January 1901, Liberty, SC and Flake (daughter) born Sherman, TX.  According to the stories passed down, the problems were mostly due to Robert’s heavy drinking. No one seems to know what happened to Robert after he left the Sherman, TX area. Rumors are he went to New Mexico and perhaps died there.  I’d love to know what happened to him. Arkley Foy Rankin was in the service during WWI.  He had two sons with his second wife; he ended his own life when the second wife asked for a divorce. My grandmother, Flake (Rankin) Henley lived to be 102 1/2 years old. She had only one child, my mother. 

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The stories told me go as follows:  The Sunday before they married, Robert got into a fight on the church lawn.  Ione was only 16 when they married and she thought she could change him by stopping him from drinking.  She was 18 when the first child was born.  After their final separation, he would get drunk and ride his horse back and forth in front of her house during the day.  One day she saw him passed out under her tree in the front yard.  She feared he would kidnap the children, so she home-schooled them until the daughter was in the 3rd grade.

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J. Robertson Rankin and Ione McCoy were known to be cousins of some degree, but they married anyway. How they were cousins was a mystery until the Orr connection was discovered. But one mystery solved produced another.  Within Ione’s family photos is one identified: "My Great-great-grandparents".   It’s a photo of Alexander Ramsay II and Sarah Hartgrove (Reid).  The Ramsay’s daughter married William Robertson Rankin – brother of George Alexander Rankin.  There is no known record within the Ramsay family of a marriage to a McCoy. 

The cousinship between J. Robertson and Ione is through their descent from Thomas Orr and Sarah (Wilson).  Daughter Sarah Ann Orr married Thomas Franklin Rankin.   J. Robertson Rankin is their grandson, son of George Alexander. Daughter Abigail “Abby” Orr married William Wilson. Their daughter, Mary Matilda Wilson, married A. H. “Tip” McCoy 7 January 1865. Their children: Julia Irene, Ione (married J. Robertson Rankin), and William Price McCoy.