0309 0205 02 - Rankin James Mellott and also by marriage 0309 0209 041 Rankin James Mellott.

A son (Cloyd Rankin MELLOTT)was born between Rankin James MELLOTT and Bertha Jeannette Shives (Memorial 90094903) before either were married.
After he was married the first time, he started housekeeping in the house across the water race to the tannery on the homeplace at Big Cove Tannery. He later bought the Lewis Harris place at Webster Mills and moved there with his first wife, Susan Annabelle and family.
During World War II, a phone call would be made to the store, at Webster Mills, the nearest hand cranked phone, to prepare for air raid drills. The message would be hand carried to him, since he had a large dinner bell, he became the Civil Defense Marshall to "sound the alarm", by ringing this large dinner bell, to start and end the "blackout". This would involve turning off all electric lights and extinguishing any other source of light until the "all clear" was sounded. He would also watch to see that all cars stopped on the road and turned out their lights.
He purchased a Peerless steam engine from Frick Company in Waynesboro, PA in 1917 for $1824. It took him three days to get the steam engine home. He stated, "that he took the back roads to avoid the tolls on the pike. I had to stop twice a day for coal to fill the bin. I saved enough money on the tolls to buy the coal." "I'm really proud of these four whistle that I put on this old buggy. The biggest one is from a steamboat, the second biggest is from a railroad locomotive and the others are just steam whistles." He also purchased a large 45 HP Case steam engine built about 1925, in the mid 1950's from the Arthur Young Company in Kinzer, PA. He owned various old tractors, OIL PULL, HART-PARR (later to became the Oliver tractor), threshing machines (FRICK), clover huller, and stationery baler. He advertised in the Fulton County News in 1928 as a dealer for Oil-Pull tractors. He used various steam engines, the 1917 Peerless, the 1925 Case, and later a portable Frick stationery engine to power a sawmill that he owned at Webster Mills.
The Oil-Pull tractors were rather unique in that they were cooled by oil circulated thru a chamber under the exhaust stack that caused outside air to be pulled through openings at the bottom of the chamber and exhausted with the engine exhaust through the top of the chamber. The tractor engine also had two carburetors, that allowed the engine to start on gasoline that was pressurized in a small external tank and injected into the intake manifold, after the hand pulling on the flywheel was successful, the kerosene was switched on. The other carburetor would inject water to allow a mixture of up to 50 percent when the engine was warmed and operating. The engine would "knock" very loud, when first started and until the water was adjusted to the correct amount. The water served two purposes; to cool the cylinders and to clean the cylinders. The engine had spark plugs that were needed to start the engine with the gasoline, but when switched over to the kerosene, they were no longer needed because the engine became a diesel. When the tractor was operating, it reminded your of a steam engine the way it puffed smoke from the large exhaust stack.
This equipment was used to do custom grain harvesting for farmers in Fulton County. The threshing machine was usually placed on the barn floor with a long drive belt out the barn door to the tractor or steam engine. The grain was threshed from the barn and the straw was blown outside the barn to either the barnyard straw stack or directly to a stationary baler placed in the barnyard. The straw was baled into large bales that were tied with wire. This same operation was also done in the field if the weather permitted. The power for these machines was supplied by one of his tractors or his steam engine. He later bought and used for several years, one of the first, John Deere combines that came into Fulton County that replaced his using the threshing rigs. He also owned a clover huller that was a threshing rig used to remove the clover seed from the clover hay. He also had custom built, a portable hammer mill mounted on the back of a 1941 Ford truck that was used to grind the farmer's grain for animal feed. His original hammer mill was powered by the same engine that was used to move the truck over the highway, but in the early 1950's, a sperate power unit (1950 Olds V-8) was installed on the back of the truck to power the hammer mill. His traveling hammer mill was used to do custom feed grinding for the farmers of Fulton County, PA and parts of Maryland from 1932 until the year 1957.
He bought the old General Store at Webster Mills from his son, J. Preston Mellott in 1947 and lived there until his death. He also owned a sawmill that was moved to the properties of the land owners in Fulton County to do custom lumbering. He moved this sawmill to a property and it was used to do custom work until the late 1960's when the sawmill was sold. Before his death, the store was sold to a daughter, Cleo in 1979. He was the Postmaster of Webster Mills until the post office was closed in 1958. He received a postmaster's pension until his death.
His death was at Webster Mills. There is no such place as Websters Mill.
His first wife Susan Annabelle Eader died as a result of their fouth child's birth. With his second wife, they had seven more children.
Parents - 0309 0205 - Rowe Chester & Anna Mary 'Annie' (Dorty) Mellott
1st Spouse - 0309 0205 021 - Susan Annabelle Eader DOM - 31 Dec 1913
2nd Spouse - 0309 0205 022 - Catharine Harriet Keefer DOM - 13 May 1922
12 (1+4+7) - Children