Francis M. Rankin, of this review, was born in Hagerstown, Indiana, June 20, 1848, and was only a year old when his parents returned to Ohio and took up their residence in Covington, where he has since made his home. He attended the public schools until fourteen years of age, and then laid aside his text-books to enter the service of his country during the dark days of the rebellion, enlisting, at Covington, for one hundred days' service, in Company I, One Hundred and Forty-seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, under Captain Class and Colonel Rawson. After serving that term he came home and re-enlisted, February 7, 1865, for one year, in Company B, One Hundred and Ninety-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, under Captain Class and Colonel Anson B. McCook. During his first term of enlistment he was stationed most of the time in Washington, D. C., and vicinity, and was in the Fort Stevens fortifications during the fight with Early. As a member of the One Hundred and Ninety- fourth Regiment he was in the Shenandoah valley and at Washington, being on duty constantly until discharged at Washington, in October, 1865. Before entering the army he had been employed in the Covington Woolen Factory, but after his return home he served an apprenticeship to the plasterer's trade, which he has since followed with good success.

In 1874 Mr. Rankin married Miss Laura B. Hart, and to them were born three children: Mamie F., Bessie G., and Martha M. Mrs. Rankin was born on the Hart homestead in Newberry township, Miami county, November 11, 1853, and is a daughter of Ebenezer Hart, who was born in the Tuscarora valley, Juniata county, Pennsylvania, November 4, 1806. Her grandfather, Hugh Hart, was born in Londonderry, Ireland, March 17, 1764, and was married, April 28, 1794, to Mary Ard, a native of the same country, then twenty-one years of age. On their emigration to America they settled in the Tuscarora valley, where they spent the remainder of their lives. The grandfather was a well-to-do farmer, a member of the United Presbyterian church, and a highly educated man of literary tastes, who wrote many beautiful poems. In his family were the following children: Naomi H., born January 25, 1795, married a Mr. Stewart; Nancy, born January 2, 1799, died in childhood; Hugh, born November 15, 1800, died in Preble county, Ohio; Jeanette, born November 9, 1802, married James Elliott and spent her last days in Sidney, Ohio; Mary, born October 17, 1804, married a Mr. Cummin, and was the mother of judge Cummin, of Pennsylvania; Ebenezer, father of Mrs. Rankin, was next in order of birth; William, born February 7, 1809, married Prudence Ann Robinson; and Joseph, born in 1811, married Miss Sarah Irwin, and settled on a farm in Pfoutz's valley, three miles from Millerstown, where he died.

Ebenezer Hart, Mrs. Rankin's father, grew to manhood on the homestead in Tuscarora valley, Pennsylvania, and received a good education in the schools of his time and also from his father. He was reared to agricultural pursuits, but when quite a young man went to Baltimore, Maryland, where he worked at the carpenter's trade for a time. Being industrious and economical,