WAKE UP, KENNY! It's time to play. >From # 17 846 ALBERT RANKIN WOODBURN FAMILY Shortly after the Civil War, my grandfather, Thomas Monroe Woodburn, and his brother, William Woodburn, came to Bladen County. They were hauling freight from Greensboro to Fayetteville over the plank road for A. E. Rankin Hardware in Fayetteville. Mr. Rankin was a cousin of their mother's. Thomas and William were the sons of Tennyson Monroe and Nancy Catherine Rankin Woodburn. They were descended from Erin Woodburn of Ireland, whose son, Thomas, came to America, settled in Guilford County, fought in the Revolutionary War, married Ann Forbis and had seven children, the oldest of whom was John Woodburn. John married Easter Cusick and their oldest son, Allen Woodburn, married Polly Nelson Mebane. They were the grandparents of Thomas and William. Thomas Woodburn and William Woodburn married sisters, Amanda Core and Elmira Core. Thomas and Amanda had thirteen children and built the old Woodburn homeplace in White Oak. My father, Albert Rankin Woodburn, born in 1890, was twelfth of the thirteen. He had six children, of whom I was the youngest. My oldest brother, Albert Benton Woodburn (January 13, 1914) worked in the shipyard in Hawaii during World War II and returned to Elizabethtown where he gained recognition as a master fisherman and a fine woodworker and carpenter. Iris Woodburn Taylor (May 16, 1916) married Ernest N. Taylor and lived in Dublin. Thomas Maurice Woodburn was a career serviceman (September 20, 1919-March 11, 1979). Erstine Woodburn Criscoe Bryant (November 21, 1923-May 20, 1976) lived in White Oak. Ruby Woodburn Council (April 2, 1926) married Kenneth Bradley Council on August 11, 1946 and resides in White Oak. As for me, Merle Woodburn Graham (November 6, 1930), I married Ennis Byron Graham on April 27, 1947 and we live in Elizabethtown. Before my father was born, Q. E. Rankin of Rankin Hardware in Fayetteville visited my grandmother who was expecting a baby. He suggested that it was time to name a baby after the Rankin side of the family and promised that, if my grandmother's baby was a boy and they named him Rankin, when the boy turned eighteen, he would buy him a new suit. So when Albert "Rankin" Woodburn turned eighteen, he went to see A. E. Rankin, who took him to a men's store in Fayetteville called "The Hub" where he bought him a brand new suit of clothes. My daddy worked for the State of North Carolina for a while in the 1920s and was called back to work for them in 1930 at a rate of fifty cents a day. My mother told him to go ahead and she and the children would finish bringing in the peanut crop and stacking them on poles in the field to dry even though she was expecting another child in November of that year. Apparently fifty cents a day was too good a wage to pass up in those days. Daddy worked for the state until one day in 1938 he was trying to hand crank a motor grader and suffered a stroke. He died several days later, leaving my mother to raise the three of their six children who were still underage alone. Later mama was the first woman to receive a widow's pension from the State of North Carolina to help in supporting her underage children. My mother, who never remarried, died in 1976 at the age of 87 and is buried, along with her husband and her husband's parents at the cemetery near the old Woodburn homeplace in White Oak. Submitted by Merle Woodburn Graham, P.O. Box 1226, Elizabethtown, NC 28337. 303 THE AMOS SIKES CAIN AND LAURINDA REGISTER FAMILY paraphrased: This family entry has the information on the marriage of Albert Rankin Woodburn to Florence Cain, and their children. 305 CALVIN MUSGROVE CAIN paraphrased: Mention of Leola Woodburn and husband, Alonza L. Tatum. 319 CAIN-WOODBURN paraphrased: The entire family of Florence Cain, wife of Albert Rankin Woodburn. 349 COBLE-BRYANT FAMILY paraphrased: The marriage of Maxine Bryant and Albert Benton Woodburn, son of Albert Rankin Woodburn. A list with dates of all the children from this marriage. 361 THE ROY COUNCIL FAMILY paraphrased: The marriage of Kenneth Bradley Council and Ruby Woodburn, daughter of Albert Rankin Woodburn and Florence Cain. A list with dates of al the children from this marriage. 460 GRAHAM-McDUFFIE FAMILY paraphrased: The story of Merle Woodburn who was the author of the first entry. Kenny, if you'll make a list of questions (as many as you can think of) and e-mail it to me, we can start filling in some of the family gaps for you. If you need an old Bladen map let me know. Dee For details on sources used, refer to this link: http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncbladen/lookups.htm