RANCK GENEALOGY
Descendants of
Adam Michael Ranck (1850-1922)
and Caroline Wenger (1850-1941)


ADAM MICHAEL5 RANCK (Adam4, Jacob3, Valentine2, John Philip1) was born at Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, on 20 February 1850 a son of Adam Ranck and his wife Barbara Resh. He died at Upper Leacock Township, Lancaster County, on 10 June 1922.[1] He married at West Earl Township, Lancaster County, on 6 November 1870 CAROLINE WENGER.[2] She was born at West Earl Township on 22 May 1850, a daughter of Christian S. Wenger and his wife Mary Royer. She died at Akron, Lancaster County, on 30 April 1941.[3]

Adam M. Ranck grew up on a farm in Upper Leacock Township, the fifth of five children, all of whom lived to adulthood. Caroline Wenger grew up on a farm in East Earl Township, the fourth of eight children, all of whom lived to adulthood. They farmed in Upper Leacock Township, where they were reported in the 1880 Census:[4]

Line Name Race Sex Age Related MS Occupation B FB MB
45. Ranck, Adam M. W M 30 M farmer PA PA PA
46. Ranck, Caroline W F 30 wife M keeping house PA PA PA
47. Ranck, Samuel W M 7 son S PA PA PA
48. Ranck, Amos W M 5 son S PA PA PA
49. Ranck, John W M 4 son S PA PA PA
50. Ranck, Adam W M 1 son S PA PA PA

Samuel and Amos were attending school.

The year 1881 brought tragedy to this young family. Their fifth child, and fifth son, Wenger, was born 6 March. Then small pox swept through the family: Amos died 26 June, Adam on 5 July, and John the following day. In ten days, this family of seven became a family of four. Eight year old Samuel and four month old Wenger survived. Adam and Caroline would have two additional children.

The 1900 Census described a family of very different composition:[5]

Line Name Related Race Sex Born MS B FB MB Occupation
3. Ranck, Adam M. head W M Feb 1850 M PA PA PA farmer
4. Ranck, Caroline wife W F May 1850 M PA PA PA
5. Ranck, Wenger W. son W M Mar 1881 S PA PA PA farm laborer
6. Ranck, Annie B. daughter W F Sep 1882 S PA PA PA
7. Ranck, Caroline W. daughter W F Oct 1888 S PA PA PA at school
8. Buckwalter, Jack servant W M Jul 1886 S PA PA PA farm laborer

Eldest son Samuel had married and lived on his own farm; the other children born before 1881 had died, and Adam and Caroline, now fifty years old, were raising their younger children. Other information from this census: Adam owned his own farm; Caroline had given birth to seven children, four of whom were living.

Grandson Charles remembered about his grandfather:

He went bankrupt building the Dunkard Church at Bird-in-Hand. This soured him on the institutional church.[6]

Adam Ranck left his family and moved toWilliamsport, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. He first appeared in the city directory there in 1907,[7] which indicates he probably moved there in 1906. By then he and Caroline were 56 years old; their children at home were aged 25, 24, and 18. Adam Ranck boarded at 704 Packer Street, Williamsport. The 1907 directory called him a driver, later directories called him a laborer.[8] He appeared in the 1910 Census as follows:[9]

Line Name Related Sex Race Age MS B FB MB Occupation
41. Clarke, Clara head F W 52 Wd PA PA PA washer woman,
working out
42. Clarke, John son M W 29 S PA PA PA none
43. Rank, Adam boarder M W 60 S PA PA PA laborer, packing house

That same census reported Wenger Ranck head of the household in Upper Leacock:[10]

Line Name Related Sex Race Age MS B FB MB Occupation
72. Ranck, Wenger head M W 29 S PA PA PA school teacher,
public school
73. Ranck, Caroline mother F W 59 Wd PA PA PA farmer, general farm
74. Ranck, Annie B. sister F W 27 S PA PA PA none

Daughter Caroline had married two months before the census and resided in her new home. Wenger married in 1911, and had moved away to farm elsewhere by 1915. Anna remained on the farm with her mother.

Although Adam called himself single and Caroline called herself a widow in the 1910 Census, they were reunited. According to grandson Charles:

His son Sam went to Williamsport to bring him home--this was a year and a half before he died. [11]
This would place his return about December 1920. The 1921 City Directory for Williamsport still located him at 704 Packer,[12] but that information was probably gathered sometime in 1920. He is not reported at either location in the 1920 Census, taken on 1 January. Adam and Caroline would have been 69 years old at the time. The 1920 Census reported Annie Ranck, 37 and single, farming in Upper Leacock Township; her mother Caroline, 69, self-styled widow, lived with her, no occupation.[13]

Grandson Charles, who would have been twenty-one years old at the time, told this story about his grandfather, Adam's, funeral:

At the funeral, Hershey Groff and Mark Ebersole were asked to preach at the house. Both were noted for being long-winded. Hershey preached and preached and preached. He said that brother Adam had strayed, but in the end he came home. The other preacher kept looking at his watch and trying to get Hershey's attention. He showed his watch to brother Groff, but that didn't deter the preacher. Finally, Hershey asked everyone to stand for the closing prayer, and brother Mark never did get to preach. [14]

Daughter Anna married about a year after her father's death, when she was forty years old, and did not have any children. The 1930 Census reported widow Caroline Ranck, 79, living in Manheim Township, Lancaster County, with her daughter Caroline, her son-in-law Nathan Zuck, and their seven children.[15] In 1940 she was reported at Akron in the household of her daughter Annie and son-in-law James Harshbarger.[16] She died there in 1941.

Grandson Charles said of his grandmother:

Caroline preferred to speak Pennsylvania Dutch, and liked anyone who would speak it to her. . . She always liked to attend the Brethren Church. [17]

Adam Michael Ranck and his wife Caroline Wenger had the following children:

  1. SAMUEL W.6 RANCK b. at Lancaster County on 21 October 1872.
  2. AMOS W.6 RANCK b. at Lancaster County on 245 June 1874; d. ther on 26 June 1881.[18]
  3. JOHN W.6 RANCK b. at Lancaster County on 17 April 1876; d. there on 6 July 1881.[19]
  4. ADAM W.6 RANCK b. at Lancaster County on 4 May 1879; d. there on 5 July 1881.[20]
  5. WENGER6 RANCK b. at Upper Leacock Township on 6 March 1881.
  6. ANNA W.6 RANCK b. at Lancaster County on 23 September 1882; d. on 1971;[21] m. about 1922-3 JAMES FLOYD HARSHBARGER,[22] b. at Huntington County, Pennsylvania, on 9 August 1865, d. at Ephrata, Lancaster County, on 1 November 1950, child of Budd Harshbarger and Maria Kervin.[23] .
  7. CAROLINE W.6 RANCK b. at Bird-in-Hand, East Lampeter Township, Lancaster County, on 16 October 1888.


NOTES

1Pennsylvania Department of Health, Death Certificates, 1906–1966, certificate 3723, Adam M. Ranck, 1922; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 10 June 2018); Records of the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Record Group 11, Series 11.90. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
2John Franklin Maginness, Biographical Annals of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J.H. Beers & Co., 1903), 1492.
3Pennsylvania Department of Health, Death Certificates, 1906–1966, certificate 39067, Caroline R Ranck, 1941.
4Tenth Census of the United States: 1880, population, Upper Leacock, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, enumeration district (ED) 115, roll 1140, p. 256C, household 377, Adam M. Ranck family; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 28 January 2019); NARA microfilm publication T9; Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
5Twelth Census of the United States: 1900, population, Upper Leacock, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, enumeration district (ED) 111, p. 2, household 22, Adam M. Ranck family; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 10 March 2018); NARA microfilm group T623; Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration.
6Charles P. Ranck, Interview by Charles A. Maxfield, 26 July 1982; notes, privately held by Charles A. Maxfield, Lansdale, Pennsylvania.
7Boyd's Directory of Williamsport, 1907 (N.p.: W. H. Boyd Co., 1907), p. 378, Adam Ranck; digital image, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 1 February 2019).
8Boyd's Directory of Williamsport, 1913 (N.p.: W. H. Boyd Co., 1913), p. 407, Adam Rank; digital image, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 1 February 2019). Boyd's Directory of Williamsport, 1916 (N.p.: W. H. Boyd Co., 1916), p. 428, Adam Rank; digital image, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 1 February 2019). According to the index at Ancestry Adam Ranck resided in Williamsport every year from 1907 to 1921. I viewed the above as representtive.
9Thirteenth Census of the United States: 1910, population, Williamsport, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, enumeration district (ED) 92, roll 1373, p. 5A, household 117, Clara Clark family; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 12 March 2018); NARA group T624, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
101910 Census, Upper Leacock, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, ED 102, roll 1355, p. 4B, household 80, Wenger Ranck family.
11Charles P. Ranck, Interview, 26 July 1982.
12Boyd's Directory of Williamsport, 1921 (N.p.: W. H. Boyd Co., 1921), p. 497, Adam Rank; digital image, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 1 February 2019).
13Fourteenth Census of the United States: 1920, population, Upper Leacock, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, enumeration district (ED) 131, roll 1585, p. 9A, household 177, Annie Ranck family; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2 October 2015); NARA microfilm record group T625, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
14Charles P. Ranck, Interview, 26 July 1982.
15Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930, population, Manheim Twp., Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, enumeration district (ED) 91, p. 13B, household 263, Nathan R. Zuck family; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 21 March 2018); NARA microfilm record group T626; Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration.
16Sixteenth Census of the United States: 1940, population, Akron, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, enumeration district (ED) 36-2, roll 3528, p. 1B, household 23, James Harshbarger family; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 29 January 2019); NARA microfilm group T627.
17Charles P. Ranck, Interview, 26 July 1982.
18Amos Ranck, Stumptown Mennonite Church Cemetery, Leacock Township., Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
19John and Adam Ranck, Stumptown Mennonite Church Cemetery, Leacock Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
20John and Adam Ranck, Stumptown Mennonite Church Cemetery, Leacock Township., Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
21Annie Ranck Harshbrger, Stumptown Mennonite Church Cemetery, Leacock Township., Lancaster County, Pennsylvania The Ranks of the Rancks (on-line edition, accessed : 31 January 2019). Ranck Family Heritage Society, Inc., http://Ranck.org., person I4630.
221930 Census, Akron, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, ED 2, p. 2A, household 32, Annie Harshbarger family.
23Pennsylvania Department of Health, Death Certificates, 1906–1966, certificate 94167, James Floyd Harshbarger, 1950.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

Boyd's Directory of Williamsport, 1907. N.p.: W. H. Boyd Co., 1907. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2019.

Boyd's Directory of Williamsport, 1913. N.p.: W. H. Boyd Co., 1913. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2019.

Boyd's Directory of Williamsport, 1916. N.p.: W. H. Boyd Co., 1916. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2019.

Boyd's Directory of Williamsport, 1921. N.p.: W. H. Boyd Co., 1921. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2019.

Maginness, John Franklin. Biographical Annals of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Chicago: J.H. Beers & Co., 1903.

Pennsylvania Department of Health. Death Certificates, 1906–1966. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2018.

Ranck, Charles P. Interview by Charles A. Maxfield, 26 July 1982. notes. Privately held by Charles A. Maxfield, Lansdale, Pennsylvania. Adam and Anna Ranck also participated in interview

The Ranks of the Rancks (on-line edition, accessed : 31 January 2019). Ranck Family Heritage Society, Inc., http://Ranck.org., person I4630.

Stumptown Mennonite Church Cemetery (Leacock Township., Lancaster County, Pennsylvania). Grave marker data.

United States Department of the Census. Tenth Census of the United States: 1880, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2019.

________. Twelth Census of the United States: 1900, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2018.

________. Thirteenth Census of the United States: 1910, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2018.

________. Fourteenth Census of the United States: 1920, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2015.

________. Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2018.

________. Sixteenth Census of the United States: 1940, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2019.

This family is also reported in the following:

Francis, Jay Gottwals. Genealogical Records of the Royer Family in America. Lebanon, Pennsylvania: n.p., 1928.

Wenger, Samuel ed. The Wenger Book: A Foundation Book of American Wengers. Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania German Heritage history, 1978.


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