Alfred
R. Rankin
(1876-1971)
Alfred
R. Rankin was born on Nov. 29, 1876 in Wharton Township, Fayette County, PA, the
son of Robert and Hester (Minerd) Rankin.
In 1902, when he was age 26, Alfred married 21-year-old Fannie Sutton Burkholder (1881-1923), the daughter of George and Margaret Burkholder. He was five years older than his bride.
The Rankins had nine children – Albert Thomas Rankin, Emmett Rankin, Harold A. Rankin, Orville Rankin, Gertrude Alverta Maust-Myers, Ethel Marie Hartman, Hazel Hilda Rodehaver, Robert Hamilton "Poke" Rankin and George Howard Rankin.
Sadly, their son Emmett died at the age of one of pneumonia.
The Rankins resided in Wharton Township.
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Fannie in a fanciful ostrich feather hat, and her grave marking her death at age 40, leaving behind nine children |
Tragically, Fannie
died of pneumonia at age 40 on March 3, 1923. She was laid to eternal rest in the Brown
Cemetery near Elliottsville, Fayette County. Her upright grave marker was still legible when
photographed in the summer of 1995.
In 1936, Alfred and his sons Harold and Robert made headline news when they helped rescue victims of a terrible airplane crash. That year, on April 6, 1936, a TWA airliner named the Sunracer plunged into the foggy mountains above Uniontown. Everyone was killed except the flight attendant and two passengers.
The attendant somehow escaped the wreckage and stumbled to the home of Alfred’s nephew, Ray Addis. Ray's wife Clara telephoned neighbors and friends for help. Alfred and his brother George and sons Harold and Robert all went together to the wreckage to help find and rescue survivors.
Once
on the scene, "they had to claw their way through trees and underbrush up the
steep hill to the wreckage," writes Uniontown historian Walter "Buzz"
Storey in his book Stories of Uniontown. Seen at left
is the tangled wreckage of the airplane's fuselage dangling in the mountain trees.
Harold and Robert are seen at right, as news photographers were eager to capture their image for publication.
Harold's eyewitness remarks later were printed in the Connellsville Daily Courier.
Alfred outlived Fannie by nearly a half-century, and made his home near Fairchance.
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Alfred, right, with his grandson and wife, Clifford and Betty Hartman |
In
the fall of 1968, when Alfred turned 93, he was profiled in an October newspaper
article following a birthday party thrown by his son Robert in Fairchance. The
article noted that Alfred had five children living, 21 grandchildren and 21
great-grandchildren. Those attending the party, reported the newspaper, were:
Mr. and Mrs. Joe Rodeheaver and children Michael and Wanda of Albright; Mrs. Jake Hartman and Ed, Skip, Ann and Harold; Mrs. Gertrude Myers, Pete Rankin, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Rankin and sons Fred and Bobbie of Fairchance; Mr. and Mrs. William Casteel and family of Terra Alta; Mrs. Melvin Strahin and daughters Patty Joe and Shirley Lynn of Albright; Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Loughry and son Randy of Newburg; Mr. and Mrs. Fred Shay and daughter Diane of Newburg; Mr. and Mrs. George Cramer of Albright; Mrs. Clyde Maust and daughters of Brownfield, Pa.; Jesse Hartman and son of Smithfield, Pa.; Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Rodeheaver of Albright and Kenny, Jesse and Mark Rankin of Smithfield, Pa.
Alfred died on Feb. 28, 1971, at the advanced age of 95.
He is buried with Fannie at the Brown Cemetery. He does not have a stone to indicate his final resting place, but his grave is marked with a small metal plaque that was legible when photographed in 1995.
Copyright © 2000, 2005, 2007 Mark A. Miner