Lieutenant Robert Rankin served in the Third Regiment of the Virginia line of the Continental Army in 1776.  His participation in the battles of Germantown, Brandywine, Stony Point, and the siege of Charleston earned him the commission of Lieutenant, which he received on his release as a prisoner of war.

He continued to serve until the war's end.  After the war, he served in the Virginia legislature as one of nine trustees for the newly established town of Washington, in Bourbon County, Kentucky.  He also served as an elector to the Kentucky Senate in 1792.

Robert Rankin was a friend and ally of Sam Houston during the war for Texas Independence.  He was instrumental in maintaining good relations with the Indians, in the spring of 1836, during the Texan retreat toward San Jacinto.

Robert Rankin was born in Colonial Virginia in 1753.  On October 1, 1781, he married Margaret Berry while on military furlough.  Four of his sons served in the War of 1812.  On November 13, 1834, he received land grants in Joseph Vehlein's Colony in Texas.  He was issued the necessary certificate of character on November 3, 1834, by William Grimes.

The town of Coldspring, Texas, was founded on Lieutenant Rankin's original land grant.  Robert Rankin died November 13, 1837, in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana.

In 1936, his body was re-interred at the State Cemetery in Austin.  Robert Rankin was a soldier, patriot, and good citizen.