Lexington history: Prominent Lexington author dies in 1901 train accident

Editor’s Note: As Lexington celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding, the Herald-Leader and kentucky.com each day throughout 2025 will share interesting facts about our hometown. Compiled by Liz Carey, all are notable moments in the city’s history — some funny, some sad, others heartbreaking or celebratory, and some just downright strange.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Lexington was shocked at the death of one of its beloved authors and historians after he died on the L&N railroad tracks.

But he died, one witness said, doing what he loved — digging for the truth of the past.

Officials said George Washington Ranck was walking down the middle of the train tracks on August 2, 1901, looking for a historic cemetery. The umbrella he carried shielded him from the wind and sun, but also may have prevented him from seeing the oncoming train.

The train’s engineer tried to reverse course, but was unable to stop in time. The train struck Ranck, sending his body flying into the air and killing him instantly.

Ranck was born in Louisville on February 13, 1841. He grew up in Shelbyville and attended Shelby College before transferring to Kentucky University, now Transylvania University, and later became a teacher at its academy.

By 1868, he became the editor of the Lexington Observer and Reporter until he stepped down from that role in 1871 due to ill health.

Shortly after, he started working on books, penning a History of Lexington in 1872, “O’Hara and his Elegies” in 1875, and a History of Fayette County in 1882. He published multiple other books, and Ranck was widely considered to be an expert in the area’s history at the time.

In a book about Ranck by Jennie C. Morton, published by the Kentucky Historical Society, Ranck was lauded for his knowledge and his work with the society.

“Among the writers of Kentucky in the seventies and eighties we find no more prolific and acceptable writer of historical sketches than George W. Ranck. He was a student of History. He loved the study,” Morton wrote.

“We are told that when, in 1875, when there was a proposition among men of his circle, to reorganize the State Historical Society his cooperation was sought at once. He was interested and immediately began a successful inquiry for helpful membership,” Morton continued.

The day before his death, he’d visited Albert Taylor, a man living along the railroad tracks near the Tarr distillery to ask him about the location of a family cemetery near the spring where the first pioneers in Kentucky were supposed to have camped.

When Taylor was not able to help him, Ranck returned the next day and went looking for the cemetery on his own, following the railroad tracks to find what he was looking for.

The train’s engineer said he was traveling about 15 to 20 miles an hour when he saw Ranck on the tracks. He blew his whistle, but Ranck’s view was obscured by the umbrella he carried.

Unable to stop in time, and with Ranck unable to get out of the way in time, the train struck the author and threw him some 50 feet into a nearby fence. Witnesses said he appeared deep in thought and to not notice the oncoming train.

A coroner’s inquest into the death determined that it was “an unavoidable accident on the part of the railroad.”

Ranck was 58 years old at the time of his death and was buried in Lexington Cemetery. His book, A History of Lexington, is available on the Library of Congress’s website.

Have a question or story idea related to Lexington’s 250-year history? Let us know at 250LexKy@gmail.com.