Jeremiah Rankin

In 1903 Rankin published a fictional journal of Esther Burr (Jonathan Edwards's daughter and mother of the third vice president of the United States, Aaron Burr). Rankin was born in Thornton, New Hampshire, and graduated from Middlebury College in 1848. After completing his seminary studies at Andover Theological Seminary in 1854, he served as pastor of Presbyterian and Congregational churches in New York, Vermont, Lowell, Massachusetts, Charlestown, Massachusetts, Orange, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C. He was awarded a doctorate from Middlebury College in 1869. From 1870 on he was closely associated with Howard University, as trustee, professor of homiletics and pastoral theology, and president. He served twice as delegate to general conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and once to the Congregational Union of England and Wales. In 1869 Rankin became pastor of Washington's First Congregational Church. This appointment followed a split in the church over the issue of race. Those who remained with the church felt that he was prepared to lead the church in a properly unbiased direction. While pastor of the First Congregational Church (1869–84), Rankin's sermons were popular with Vice President Henry Wilson and numerous members of the United States Congress. Two sermons were published and circulated throughout the country ("The Bible, the Security of American Institutions" and "The Divinity of the Ballot"). Among Rankin's congregation were Frederick Douglass, John Mercer Langston, Blanche Kelso Bruce, James Monroe Gregory, and William T. Mitchell and their families. He collaborated in the publishing of a number of hymnals, including with E. Lorenz's The Gospel Temperance Hymnal (1878) and John W. Bischoff's Gospel Bells (1880). Aside from his hymns, Rankin's best known poem is "The Babie", in the broguish style of Robert Burns, whom Rankin liked for their shared Scottish ancestry. Rankin died in Cleveland, Ohio on November 28, 1904.

• Name — Jeremiah Rankin • Birth Name — Jeremiah Eames Rankin • Born — 2 January 1828 • Birthplace — Thornton, New Hampshire • Died — 28 November 1904 • Place of death — Cleveland, Ohio • Occupation — Clergyman, university president • Education — Middlebury College