Stephen Ranney was born May 24, 1761, in Bethlehem Parish, Litchfield, Connecticut, to Jeremiah and Martha (Stowe) Ranney.
Stephen enlisted June 12, 1776, was discharged January 1, 1777, and re-enlisted in Captain Matlock's Company of the Eighth Connecticut Regiment, and was transferred in January 1781, to Captain Burton's Company of the Seventh Connecticut Regiment, which was commanded by Col. Isaac Sherman. He was made Corporal June 1, 1781, was transferred several times, and was injured in one of his legs and in his hands by gunshot wounds at Monmouth. He went on to be appointed as a Captain in the 4th United States Infantry on June 18, 1808, and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel by May 15, 1814. He was honorably discharged in 1815.
After the war he married Margery Camp in April 15, 1785, with whom he had the following children: Jeremiah Ranney married (Susan Beach); Mary Ranney(?); Johnson Ranney married (first Emily Neal and 2nd Mary Carter Gayle) and Stephen Ranney (died at 2 years of age). Stephen is known to have married a total of four times: second marriage to Rhoda Landon, third marriage to Hannah Cooper, and fourth marriage to Elizabeth Hawthorne on October 11, 1812, in Salem, Massachusetts. Children born to the fourth marriage include the following: William Canton Ranney married (Elizabeth Giboney) and John Hawthorn married (Caroline Wahl). Other children may have been born of the second or third marriages and they may be as follows: Margery (1797); Reuel (1798); Norman; Stephen Jr (1805); Rhoda (1807); Elizar (1809) Hannah (1811). Other children of fourth marriage may be as follows: Julius Augustus (August-November 1813) and Benjamin Herbert (March-November 1821). Children Johnson, William Canton and John H are known to have lived in Missouri.
The Ranneys moved from the east coast to Indiana and finally to Missouri sometime after 1823. Stephen served as Adjutant General in Indiana under Governor Hendricks (1822-1823). He spent the last years of his life in Cape Girardeau County. One family history describes him as “having a large and powerful frame and was physically a very strong man”. Stephen died on September 4, 1827, and is reported to have been buried at Jackson, Missouri. However, the exact location of his grave is currently unknown.
Sources:
Find a Grave for Stephen Ranney, Margery Ranney and Elizabeth Ranney
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/139760542/stephen-ranney
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/170134174/margery-ranney
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/139886463/elizabeth-ranney
History of Southeast Missouri
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:History_of_Southeast_Missouri_1912_Volume_1.djvu/692
The Ellisfamily.Ellis and Ranney families collection
The State Historical Society of Missouri
https://files.shsmo.org/manuscripts/rolla/R0251.pdf
The Ranney Family
http://dunhamwilcox.net/bios/ranney4a.htm
List of Adjutants General of Indiana
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Adjutant_General
Middletown upper houses: a history of the North society of Middletown, Connecticut from 1650 to 1800
https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/13493
Missouri, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1766-1988 for Stephen Ranney
Cape Girardeau County, Missouri Bond Book, Vol B-E 1825-1877:Image 30
https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/9071
https://www.semissourian.com/history/from-the-morgue-spring-farm-home-of-the-ranney-family-060690aa
Compiled by Pamela Johnson, John Guild Chapter NSDAR
