Editing Rankin, Illinois (section)

==History==
This town was named after W. A. Rankin, a wealthy landowner in the area.  In 1872, there was a dispute between him and W. H. Pells (who was on the board of directors of the<ref>{{cite web|title=Stories of a prairie town : history of Rankin, Ill.|url=https://archive.org/details/storiesofprairie00rank|publisher=Rankin Centennial History Committee|author=Rankin Centennial History Committee|year=1972 }}</ref>  Lake Erie and Western Railroad) over the location of a railroad station.  Ultimately, over the course of several years, Rankin won out over Pellsville, which was located a mile and a half to the west.  There were railroad maintenance shops in Rankin until 1932 when they were moved to [[Frankfort, Indiana]], and some of the residents of Rankin followed.<ref name="Stapp">{{cite book
  | last = Stapp
  | first = Katherine
  |author2=W. I. Bowman
   | title = History Under Our Feet: The Story of Vermilion County, Illinois
  | publisher = Interstate Printers and Publishers, Inc.
  | year = 1968
  | location = Danville, Illinois
  | pages = 41}}</ref>

In 1972 the town celebrated its centennial, and a small commemorative volume was issued with brief articles on many of the town's families.