Jeremiah Eames Rankin

RANKIN, Jeremiah Eames. b. Thornton, New Hampshire, 2 January 1828; d. Cleveland, Ohio, 28 November 1904. Rankin was born into a preacher’s family. A graduate of Middlebury College, Vermont (1848), and Andover Theological Seminary (1854), Rankin served Congregational churches in New York, Vermont, and Massachusetts, before pastoring the First Congregational Church in Washington, DC (1869-1884), where the Sunday evening services often consisted entirely of his hymns. After briefly serving the Valley Congregational Church in Orange, New Jersey, Rankin was elected president of Howard University, Washington, DC (1889-1903), and was probably responsible for John Julian,* editor of A Dictionary...