Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Ceremonies Attendant Upon the Unveiling of a Bronze Bust and Granite Monument of Rev. John Rankin
This monument, chaste in design, and this bust, faithful in por traiture, modelled by the skillful hands of Mrs. Ella Copp, his grand daughter, is not needed to fix remembrance of the one who underlies it, in the minds and hearts of family and friends. That has been done long enough ago, and so indelibly have the virtues of the deceased been imprinted thereon that the blotting of them out is past a peradventure; but a new generation has arisen since the departure of the Rev. John Rankin from the sphere of his usefulness, and to them his name and works are simply history. It is too true, that in the progress of this busy world and amid the jostling of events, there is danger the pioneer may be forgotten: that the lessons of his life, active though they may be in principle, and as effective for good, may be attributed to others, and the justly earned reputation of a life full of good works, be obscur ed by failure to place his name, delineate his features. And mark hishallowed dust in such way that they may remain an object lesson and a reminder to youth. For such purpose a monument has been erect ed and I have been requested, upon this, the day of its dedication, to pronounce a brief sketch of the life of the one it is designed to com memorate; to touch upon a few points of his long career in hope it may render them familiar to those who had known him not in life. It is a grateful duty, and my only regret is I may not be able to present them in such able words as his many virtues warrant. In preparing this paper I have drawn largely from data furnished me by Capt. R. C. Rankin, known to you all as a gallant soldier and a good citizen.
The rev. John rankin was born in Jefferson County, East Ten hessee upon the fourth of February, 1793. His ancestry was good. He came of that sturdy scotch-irish Presbyterian stock, that for long has been noted for their sterling qualities of mind and heart. A people ever tenacious of their rights and bold in their defense of them above all lovers of human liberty - invincible in controversy and un daunted in action, capable, energetic and reliable. A people who adopted the scripture as the rule and guide of their daily walk in life and rarely deviated from the precepts taught therein. Their firmness occasionally reaching obstinacy, but never oppression. A stock, too, that transmits its characteristics from generation to generation, so much so that the qualities of the forefathers are plainly discernable in the latest generation. It was such conditions as these that gave Mr. Rankin his force of character and strength of mind.
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