On the corner of Phillips and Main streets in downtown Franklin is a beautiful, well-kept garden maintained by the volunteers of the Franklin Garden Club. Called Rankin Square, it was named for MAJ. Nathanial B. Rankin.
Rankin was born in October 1828 in Guilford County, N.C. He was a graduate of Davidson College. He enlisted in the Confederate Army after the War Between the States – The Civil War – began. During his time in the Army, he rose to the rank of major in the 26th N.C. Regiment, but he became a teacher after the war ended in 1865.
In fact, Rankin started one of Franklin’s first schools. The schoolhouse where he taught stood at the corner of Iotla and Church streets. Rankin also became one of Franklin’s civic leaders. He was an elder at the Presbyterian Church, a mason, and a magistrate.
One of his tasks as a civic leader was to oversee a memorial to the more than 300 Macon County soldiers who died during the Civil War. He donated the land, now Rankin Square. The families of the men who never came home got behind an effort to establish a memorial for the soldiers. They desired a monument to represent brave fathers, sons, husbands, brothers, and friends.
Rankin began collecting money, and eventually a stone company, McNeel Marble Company, in Marietta, Ga., was contracted to make a marble and granite monument for the price of $1,650 [about $32,540 today].
Take the survey to determine the future of Macon Sense. Click here!
One day, huge slabs of marble arrived at the Franklin train depot via the Tallulah Falls Railway. Many wagons, oxen, mules, and horses were used to pull the stone pieces up the hill in town to Rankin Square. Using base parts made in Elberton, Ga., the pedestal was created.
Atop the completed marble pedestal was mounted an Italian-sculpted statue, intended not to represent any particular soldier – but to represent and honor any Macon County soldiers who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the 1860s war.
Commemorative Landscapes, an online source that offers information on the state’s monuments, describes the monument this way: “Three, wide-tiered slabs form the base of a 25-foot high, three-tiered square plinth. The four corners of the lower plinth section are accented with small spheres, representative of cannon balls. The plinth is topped with a six-foot tall Confederate soldier who stands, holding the barrel of his musket with two hands. Seven companies of Confederate soldiers formed in Macon County are memorialized on the monument. Company H, Sixteenth North Carolina Regiment, the first company formed, was honored with their inscription placed directly above the primary inscription. The three remaining sides of the monument display inscriptions to three cavalry and three infantry companies.”
Because the Macon County soldiers were primarily buried on battlefields throughout the states involved in the Civil War, the monument stands as the only “grave site” the families had where they could pay tribute to their loved ones. Today, great-great-great grandchildren still pay their respects to ancestors.
MAJ. Rankin was present for the dedication of the monument on Sept. 30, 1909, as was N.C. Governor W.W. Kitchin, along with S.C. Governor Martin Ansel and around 1,500 Macon County citizens and visitors.
“The monument was unveiled by a cord pulled by seven women who were descendants of the commanding officers of the seven companies from Macon County who served in the Civil War.”
Songs were sung during the dedication by the Franklin Choir. “A Miss Clyde McGuire recited a poem called ‘The Conquered Banner,’ which was the same poem her mother orated 20 years prior at the first reunion of Macon County veterans. The poems were both recited under a torn flag of the 39th N.C. Regiment,” noted Commemorative Landscapes.
Rankin died in 1913 and was laid to rest in Woodlawn Cemetery in Franklin. But his legacy lives on due to the plot of land and public park that bears his name.