Eliza B. Rankin 1815-aft 1886


Eliza B. Rankin (1815-after June 1886)
Composed and copyrighted by Linda Sparks Starr, August 2011


Eliza B. Rankin, the fourth child and second daughter of George and Mary (Rankin), was born Sunday December 24, 1815.  In all family records seen by this researcher, her name appears as Eliza B. (not Elizabeth) and only one record shows her middle name as Blair.  Blair is a reasonable guess for the initial “B” if she were named for her Aunt Elizabeth (Rankin) Blair.   Otherwise, it is not a known surname found previously in either Rankin line.

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Eliza appears in several Anderson County court records; it is finding which ones she appears in that is the challenge.  In the division of her father’s estate in 1855, she is mentioned (along with three sisters and their mother) as joint grantees in a deed for 410 acres.  She then signed, along with her other siblings and mother, various grantor deeds with her married sister and brothers as grantee. As discussed in the narrative for her sister Martha, the four daughters quietly and likely without public complaint assisted their aging mother as she grew older.  Then when their sister Mary Jane became ill, they took turns nursing her through her unspecified, but lingering illness.  This is what older, unmarried women did in the rural south in this era.

In 1874 Eliza B. and Margaret P. Rankin were the highest bidders for Mary Jane’s one-fifth interest in the shared 410 acre tract.  How the sisters came up with $300 cash isn’t known.  In the days of Reconstruction cash was in short supply and the land and house are the only known assets the two possessed. (What became of this 82 acres is a mystery to this researcher. Anderson County deeds after early 1890s have not been checked.)   

September 1880 the two surviving sisters, Eliza B. and Margaret P. Rankin, sold 327 acres on Twenty Three Mile Creek to their nephew, Wilson N. Rankin.  This was the remaining four-fifths of the original 410 acre tract that descended to the widow and four daughters of Col. George Rankin back in 1855. There is no mention within the 1880 deed of the future.  Wilson made no promises for future maintenance and the two ladies were not given use of the house for their lifetime.  Perhaps they were far more independent than we give them credit.

February 1886 Eliza B., the sole-surviving sister, applied for and was granted, Letters of Administration on the estates of Margaret P. Rankin and Martha A. Rankin. In my opinion, this was to forestall future problems for whomever inherited what of value she owned at the time of her death.  Did she still own the 82 acres once Mary Jane’s estate?  Eliza was 71 years old at the time. The last record we have located showing she was alive at the time is June 1886.  Her specific death date is missing from all family records seen by this researcher.


SOURCES

File #3688  from 1864-1871   L (C or E) 870 Estate of Martha A. Rankin dec’d located South Carolina Department Archives & History:  Anderson County Estate Papers,

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,

File #2912 from 1864-1871  L (C or E) 870  Estate of Mary Jane Rankin dec’d located South Carolina Department Archives & History:  Anderson County Estate Papers,



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