Admitted Accession No. 6 1895 WOOLLEY, ROBERT WICKLIFFE, Washington, D. C. Fourth in descent from John Howard (1732-1835); Battle of 195. REFERENCE: Collins' History of Kentucky, Vol. II, page In Memoriam. GEORGE W. RANCK, CHARLES SCOTT BRENT, HENRY B. McCLELLAN, WILLIAM C. P. BRECKINRIDGE. JAMES A. CURRY, RURIC N. ROARK. ! l. GEORGE WASHINGTON RANCK. On August 2, 1901, at 10:47 o'clock, while walking on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad tracks just below Tarr's Distillery in front of the old Ater place, in the west end of the city of Lexington, George W. Ranck, Lexington's distinguished historian and literateur, was struck and instantly killed by engine No. 18 of the L. & N. train from Louisville, due to reach Lexington at 10:59 a. m. At the time of his tragic death he had been examining a spot of ground associated with the first settlement of Lexington, and, evidently bent on fixing definitely a certain locality, had his attention wholly centered on the problem when the fast-moving train ran him down. The data he was collecting was to be used in a historical paper he had agreed to prepare for this Society. George W. Ranck was born in Louisville, February 13, 1841. His father, Solomon Ranck, a descendant from a Huguenot family, removed immediately afterwards to Shelbyville, Kentucky, where the son was reared. There, also, about 1855, he attended Shelby College, one of his teachers being J. Proctor Knott, afterwards Governor of Kentucky. During the school year of 1864 he attended Kentucky University at Harrodsburg, living in the family of President A. R. Milligan. He followed the University to Lexington in 1865 and became a teacher and later principal in its academy. In 1868 he married Helen Carty, daughter of John Carty, one of Lexington's prominent citizens of that time. In the year 1868, by becoming editor of the Lexington Observer and Reporter, he began the literary work which he continued until his death. But ill health forced him to abandon this paper in 1871. From his early life, Mr. Ranck's taste tended strongly to literature, and especially to the study of the history of his native State. There are few more valuable contributions to local history than those produced by his pen, and he was justly considered one of the closest and best-informed students of Kentucky history. He compiled his well-known History of Lexington in 1872; in 1875, "O'Hara and His Elegies"; and in 1882, the History of Fayette County. Since that time he has published "Bryan's Station," and "Boonesborough," always devoting himself to study. Colonel W. H. Polk, the antiquarian and historian of Central Kentucky, |