Ohio History Journal

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edited by

edited by

MICHAEL SPEER

 

Autobiography of

Adam Lowry Rankin

 

 

 

At a time when American historians are turning more toward quantitative tech-

niques and psychological analyses of individuals, the autobiography of Adam

Lowry Rankin provides a refreshing first-person account from a man who partook

of some of the most important activities of his day.1 This work is an interesting

commentary on nineteenth century America and provides insight into the motives,

activities, and methods of those reformers who eagerly sought to improve the

American social, religious, and governmental system in the years before and imme-

diately after the Civil War. Even though the entire manuscript is not reproduced

here, the selections-which appear within quotation marks-give Rankin an oppor-

tunity to tell his story in his own characteristic style.

Adam Lowry Rankin, born November 4, 1816, in Jonesboro, Tennessee, was a

member of the fifth generation of Rankins to live in America. In 1727 his great-

great-grandfather John Rankin, a Scotch Presbyterian, had emigrated to Pennsyl-

vania for economic and religious reasons. John's son Thomas fought in the

Revolutionary War and received payment for his services in worthless Continentals.

Because of economic hardship, Thomas moved to the Tennessee frontier in the

early 1780's where he was soon joined by his son Richard, Lowry's (as he was

called by the family) grandfather.2

Richard Rankin was able to purchase 1000 acres in Jefferson County, Tennessee,

in 1786 and shortly became a Ruling Elder in the Presbyterian church. According

to his grandson, Richard was an antislavery man, though not prone to discuss his

proclivities in public, and his wife Jane held the same point of view. Richard's

intellectual pursuits, unusual on the rugged Tennessee frontier, tended toward

religion and theology, and he did not hold the typical Tennessee prejudice against

education for the clergy. (p. 2-3)3

 

1. A xerox copy of the typescript copy of the Autobiography of Adam Lowry Rankin as well as

a collection of Rankin family photographs was recently presented to the Ohio Historical Society by

Mr. and Mrs. Gerald DeGraf of Carmel, California. The handwritten manuscript was completed in the

early 1890's, and a typewritten copy was made of it about 1930 by one of Rankin's granddaughters,

Miss Belle Rankin. Location of the original manuscript is unknown. A newly typed copy of the tran-

script is in the Ohio Historical Society library, and the numbers appearing in parenthesis in the text

of the article refer to the page numbers of this copy. The editor has corrected obvious spelling

errors and has brought punctuation into conformity with modem usage.

2. The exact date is unclear; see John Rankin, "Life of Rev. John Rankin, written by himself in

his eightieth year," 1-2. Typescript copy in the Ohio Historical Society library.

3. See Richard Hofstader, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (New York, 1964), 55-116, for a

general discussion of frontier effects on education and religion in America.

 

Mr. Speer is a doctoral candidate at The Ohio State University.