William Birch Rankine was born on January 4, 1858 at Owego, Tioga County, New York, where his father, the Rev. James Rankine, was rector of the local Episcopal church. His mother, Fanny (Meek), was an Englishwoman, but on his paternal side Rankine was of Scotch ancestry.
He entered Canandaigua Academy in 1868 and in 1873 was admitted to the freshman class of Hobart College, Geneva, which his father had served as president from 1869 to 1871. At the end of his junior year he enrolled in Union College, Schenectady, from which institution he graduated in 1877 with the degree of A. B. , summa cum laude. He then studied law for three years in the office of A. Augustus Porter in Niagara Falls. During this legal apprenticeship his attention was first drawn to the century-old plan of harnessing the tremendous volume of water going to waste over the great cataract for the generation of useful power.
In 1880 he was admitted to the bar and moved to New York City, where he became associated with the legal firm of Vanderpoel, Green & Cuming. A few years later he formed a partnership with Robert W. Hawkesworth, which lasted until 1890, when Rankine retired from active practice in order to devote himself to the Niagara power project. In 1886 a corporation, ultimately known as the Niagara Falls Power Company, had been formed under an enabling act of the New York legislature by residents of the western part of the state, who retained Rankine to interest leading capitalists in the contemplated enterprise.
After several years of effort, in 1889 he prevailed upon Francis Lynde Stetson, one of the leaders of the New York City bar, to further actively the new power project. The cooperation of the prominent banking house of Winslow, Lanier & Company was secured and the Cataract Construction Company formed to build the world's pioneer hydro-electric plant for transmitting power over long distances.
In February 1890 Rankine was made secretary (later also treasurer) of this concern, and he was subsequently appointed vice-president and treasurer of the Niagara Falls Power Company itself.
In 1897 Rankine moved to Niagara Falls, where until his death he was head executive of the Power Company's operating department. A severe illness that befell him in 1886 left his health permanently impaired.
A devoted churchman, he was elected in 1904 chancellor of the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York.
As one of an executive committee of four he for nine years supervised the work of construction and more than any one else helped solve the financial and mechanical difficulties that confronted the enterprise. In recognition of this service to the community a bronze bust has been erected in the city hall grounds at Niagara Falls, to his memory as the "Father of Niagara Power. "
He was a life trustee of Union College and a member of the bar associations of both New York City and New York State, and of many clubs.
Shortly before his demise he married, on Feburary 23, 1905, Annette Kittredge Norton.
