Rankin, Henry B.
Born: 1837-04-07 Athens, Illinois
Died: 1927-08-14 Springfield, Illinois
Henry B. Rankin, farmer, author, and authority on Abraham Lincoln, studied law at the office of Lincoln & Herndon. After leaving the Lincoln & Herndon law office, Rankin took up farming and banking. In 1860, he was farming in Menard County, Illinois, and owned real property valued at $4,000, with a personal estate of $2,500. Rankin married Alma Hurd in May 1864, and in 1880 the couple had two sons and a daughter. Later in life, he penned the works on Lincoln, including
Evening Star Journal and Lincoln Daily News (NE), 20 August 1927, 2:2; The Daily Journal-Gazette and Commercial-Star (Mattoon, IL), 15 August 1927, 1:3; The South Bend Tribune (IN), 22 August 1927, 18:5; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, La Salle County, 4 May 1864, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Menard County, IL, 175; U.S. Census Office, Tenth Census of the United States (1880), Menard County, IL, 25; The History of Menard and Mason Counties, Illinois (Chicago: O. L. Baskin, 1879), 725; Gravestone, Indian Point Cemetery, Athens, IL.