This was especially true when he went west and secured for his bride, Edith Rankin, who proved to be admirably fitted to help him in every way. Clayton and Edith were both blessed with happy dispositions; they were the soul of hospitality, and best of all, they possessed that faith and unswerving character which belonged to former generations. The place which they won for themselves in the life of the community and in the love and esteem of the family, was second to none among Father and Mother’s children. That this Christian tradition is being carried on by Rankin, their son, is the source of the greatest pride and pleasure to all who cherish our family’s highe'st ideals. It is a source of added confidence when we remember Lenore, Rankin’s lovely wife and children, who give the strongest assurance that this home which has been maintained through so many decades, will not fail in days to come. This sketch would not be complete without a special word of highest appreciation for Edith, who for more than forty years, shared with her husband the responsibility of the farm, and since his death still survives as a blessed benediction in the life of the family. When Edith Rankin came to the farm, the burdens and the problems which were hers to share were no lighter, but in some respects even heavier than those which Martha Elizabeth Murdock as the bride of James MacMillan, faced the generation before. Father and Mother both were in failing health. While for a short time they moved away fropi the farm, the ties of home were too strong, and they soon returned, almost total invalids, to be cared for until they passed away. And here again we have repeated one of those strange providences which would seem to be a pattern so far as our family is concerned—a daughter-in-law taking the place and assuming burdens and responsibilities which no daughter could have done with more thoughtful consideration, or with greater faithfulness and devotion. Her rich reward in part is that no one appreciated this devotion more than Father and Mother, who loved and respected her for her real worth. Probably the truest thing that could be said about Jason, next in the list of the children of James and Martha MacMillan, is that when he and the younger children began to play their role on the farm, the older brothers, Fred, Harlan and Homer, had 31
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