Rankin family

The collection strongly suggests that there were three Ziegler siblings: Fred, Henry and Carrie Ziegler, children of Mr. G. and Christina Ziegler.

Fred G. Ziegler was a resident of Port Blakely since 1888 and ran the Bainbridge Hotel at Port Blakely until at least 1920. After the hotel burned down on August 12, 1928, Ziegler ran a dairy with his herd of Jersey cows, whose milk he sent to the creamery in Bremerton. It was during such a delivery that Fred Ziegler died in 1931, in a drowning accident at Fletcher Bay when he accidentally backed his truck off the ferry dock. Ziegler was survived by his wife, Gertrude Zeigler, who seems to have been an active member of the Port Blakely community. The Zieglers had a son, Weldon.

Henry Ziegler worked for Port Blakely Mill and lived in the company housing with his wife M. Augusta Meins Ziegler, whom he married in 1898.

Carrie Ziegler married William Rankin, a manager of the Port Blakely Mill Company, in 1906. The Rankins had two sons, Elwood (b. 1908) and Weldon (1911- 1925), the latter dying of pneumonia at the age of 14. In 1925, the Rankin family lived in Seattle, having moved there from Port Blakely three years previously, and both sons attended Queen Anne High School. William Rankin died on June 30, 1926, after managing the Port Blakely Mill Company for the previous 25 years.

From the guide to the Ziegler and Rankin Families Photographs and Other Material, circa 1890-1933, (Museum of History & Industry Sophie Frye Bass Library)