Harvey Hutchinson Stringfellow & Arvie Elizabeth Runyan

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Our Van Valkinburgh, Moser

and Related Families

Husband: Harvey Hutchinson Stringfellow

   Born: 16 FEB 1881               in Alvarado (Johnson Co?) Texas
Married: 02 OCT 1897               in Yell County, Arkansas
   Died: about MAY 1932            in Mill Creek, Oklahoma
 Father: James C. Stringfellow
 Mother: Frances E. (Frannie, Fannie) Wesson
Spouses:

   Wife: Arvie Elizabeth Runyan

   Born: 16 FEB 1881               in Mena, Arkansas
   Died: 16 DEC 1965               in Sulphur, Oklahoma
 Father: William Alexander (Bud) Runyan
 Mother: Mary Elizabeth Dockins
Spouses:

Children

01  (M): William Richard (Willie) Stringfellow
   Born: 1899                      in Texas
   Died: before 1910
Spouses:

02  (F): Edna Ladell Stringfellow
   Born: 1902                      in Johnson Co., Texas
   Died: about 1975
Spouses: Cecil Hunter

03  (F): Oma Modena Stringfellow
   Born: 23 NOV 1903               in Hammon, Oklahoma
   Died: 06 DEC 1957               in Dougherty, Oklahoma
Spouses: John Biard Hendricks

04  (M): Arthur Lee Stringfellow
   Born: 1907                      in Roger Mills Co., Oklahoma
   Died: UNKNOWN
Spouses: Lilly Boatwright; Lela Swindle

05  (F): Ophelia Dee Stringfellow
   Born: 1909                      in Roger Mills Co., Oklahoma
   Died: UNKNOWN
Spouses: Bill Pruitt; Bruce Oats; James P. Wheatley

Additional Information

Harvey Hutchinson Stringfellow:

Buried: UNKNOWN, Mill Creek Cemetary
Occupation: Farmer
History: @N517@

Arvie Elizabeth Runyan:

Buried: UNKNOWN, Mill Creek Cemetary, Mill Creek, Oklahoma

Notes:
Becky (Hendricks) Hunt (Arvie's granddaughter) tells the following story about Arvie's elopement:

Arvie was 16, and her father suspected that she was planning to "run off with that Stringfellow boy", so he had two of her brothers (Jim and John) watch her constantly. So she and Grandpa (Harv) would write notes to each other and leave them in a hollow log in the woods.

Her father was right. In order to be ready when the opportunity arose to run away with Harv, Arvie had washed her extra dresses (she only had 3) and put them in a "poke" under the front porch.

One night she had been sitting up with a sick neighbor (possibly a cousin). Her father ("pa") came and told her she could go home and he'd sit for a while. But before Arvie left, the neighbor asked her to go to the well and get some water for her. Arvie came back, telling the neighbor that all the buckets were already full. But the neighbor insisted that she go get more water. When Arvie got to the well, Harv was waiting for her. (Obviously, the neighbor had been in on the plot.) Arvie got on his horse, behind him, and they took off as fast as they could go to Harv's brother (James David Stringfellow), who was a preacher, and he married them. They couldn't go by for her dresses, because her two brothers would have been there. Granny (Arvie) said they were scared to death every minute of the ride, thinking that, at any moment, "brother Jim" or "brother John" would jump out and stop them.

Three days later, they came back to get the dresses. Her pa was whittling, sitting on the porch with John and Jim. "Well, Arvie, you did it, didn't you?"
he asked. "Yes, Pa, I did." Then he asked "Harv, are you going to make her a good husband?" Of course, "Yes sir!" was the reply. So she got her dresses and they left to begin their life.

At first, they lived in a dugout with a dirt floor. (Becky doesn't know where.)
Granny made 12 quilts, one every month for a year. At some point, when they left that place, she had to leave some of the quilts behind, for lack of room to transport them.

(01) William Richard (Willie) Stringfellow:

Notes:
Died as a child of pneumonia.

Marriage Notes
Married by Elder J.D. Stringfellow, brother of Harvie.

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