After the war, Ankeny returned to Freeport before purchasing a large farm north of Des Moines, Iowa.
When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Ankeny helped to raise Company A of the 11th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment and transferred it to Smith D. Atkins.
[1] He moved to Winterset, Iowa after the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad connected to the city and traded in lumber.
After a failed enterprise in the Black Hills of South Dakota, he took a job with the United States Department of the Interior.
He was also a founding member of the first lodge of the Knights of Pythias and post of the Grand Army of the Republic in Des Moines.