Ellwood Rankin

Island story

Ellwood Rankin—recorded as Ernest in the 1931 census—grew up in the George Rankin and Christena Whiteway household on Pictou Island. Ruth Munro’s history places him in a long line of Rankins farming at the west end of the Island and remembers him as one of the last Islanders to continue the older mixed-farming way of life. His work also connected the Island to the mainland. The federal vessel card records Pictou Island, official number 192306, as built at Pictou in 1950; its card dated 29 January 1951 names Ernest Rankin as owner of all 64 shares. This conflicts with Munro’s later 1949 build account. Munro associates Rankin with the ferry service and a 1967 grounding, but the vessel card does not establish service dates or the grounding circumstances. Farming and ferry work made him part of both sides of Island survival: producing food and keeping people and supplies moving across the Strait. PIHS uses Ellwood as the preferred public name. He is commemorated in the Church Cemetery at C-022.