Introduction

Biography

Jeremiah was the son of An­drew Ran­kin and Lo­is Eames, and hus­band of Ma­ry How­ell Birge.

He at­tend­ed Mid­dle­bu­ry Col­lege, Ver­mont, and An­do­ver Theo­lo­gic­al Se­mi­na­ry.

After or­di­na­tion in 1855, he held pas­tor­ates in New York; St. Al­bans, Ver­mont; Charles­town, Mas­sa­chu­setts; at the First Con­gre­ga­tion­al Church in Wash­ing­ton, DC, for 15 years; and at the Val­ley Con­gre­ga­tion­al Church, Or­ange, New Jer­sey.

In 1889, he be­came pre­si­dent of How­ard Uni­ver­si­ty, Wash­ing­ton, DC.

Works

• Francis Mur­phy’s Gos­pel Tem­per­ance Hym­nal, with Ed­mund Lo­renz (New York: A. S. [Al­fred Smith] Barnes, 1878)
• Gospel Bells, with Ot­is Pres­brey & John Bis­choff (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: West­ern Sun­day School Pub­lish­ing, 1880)
• Bells of Glad­ness No. 1, with Ot­is Pres­brey (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: West­ern Sun­day School Pub­lish­ing, 1882)
• German-Eng­lish Lyr­ics, Sacr­ed and Se­cu­lar, 1897