Dr. Jesse Willis Rankin (1839 near Tallahassee, Florida – February 25, 1892, in Atlanta) was a leading Atlanta businessman of the 19th century. He cofounded the S. S. S. Company along with Charles T. Swift, which would become at one point the country's largest patent medicine company (its namesake "S. S. S. Tonic" is still in production). He also cofounded (and, for a time, led) the Metropolitan Street Railroad. The Metropolitan Street Railroad brought horsecar (and, later, electric streetcar) lines to the Washington-Rawson and Grant Park neighborhoods and to Clark Atlanta University. External links "To his rest: One of Atlanta's best citizens taken away: Death of Dr. Jesse W. Rankin", Atlanta Constitution, February 26, 1892 Photos of Lamar & Rankin Drug Company at Atlanta History Center Businesspeople from Atlanta 1839 births 1892 deaths 19th-century American businesspeople