John Rankin

John is first found in the records of Pendleton District, South Carolina when he witnessed a land transaction on 12 Feb 1790 involving his father, Robert. He also witnessed the will of Jesse Wood on 27 June 1796 in Pendleton District. By 1799, John had migrated with his brother, James, to Barren County, Kentucky. It was there he met Sally Ann Nelson. He and Sally Ann lived on Coles Creek and Mill Creek in what is now know as Monroe County, KY. Their neighbors between 1801 and 1808 were William Cole, Josiah and Andrew H. .;Goforth, David and Jesse Job, James and David Rankin, William Preston, James and Elihu Harlan, Thomas Means, Arthur Hogan, Joseph Bailes, John Nelson and Joseph Gist.

While in Barren County, they owned land on Line Creek, a branch of the Big Barren River. Their home was close to both the Cumberland County, KY line and the Tennessee state line. By 1810, their neighbors were James Holland, Thomas Means, John Nelson, Joseph Bailes and Arthur Hogan. Many of the families in this area had come to Kentucky from the Washington County, TN area with the Reverend John Mulkey who established the Mill Creek Baptist Church. Sarah Ann and her mother, Bathsheba, are on the original membership role of that congregation.

John and Sally Ann may have lived in Tennessee for a few years around 1814 since they do not appear in the tax records of Barren County at that time. A John Rankin appears in the records of Maury County, TN in the appropriate timeframe. However, they were enumerated in the 1820 census of newly formed Monroe County, KY and remained in Monroe County through the 1820s when they migrated to Clark (later Coles) County, Illinois. By 1835, they had made their final move to Hamilton County, IL settling near the town of Thackeray. John and Sally Ann, along with the Nelson family (who also trace their lineage to North Carolina), have left a large posterity many of whom still live in Southern Illinois. John and Sally Ann's children