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Lemuel Harris Sanders and Mabel Scribner Lemuel Harris Sanders, the fifth child from the marriage of Isam Sanders, Sr. and Mary Jane Mayberry, was born May 16, 1877 in Prairie Grove, Washington County, Arkansas. Nothing is known about Lemuel’s childhood. In 1907, he is found at Yale, Oklahoma, not too far from Stillwater. He and his siblings had gone to Payne County prior to the turn of the century. Sometime around 1906 or 1907, the Scribner family had
moved into the Yale, Oklahoma area. At the age of 29, Lemuel met Mable Ethal Scribner,
then the age of 15. Mable was born February 5, 1892 in Missouri. During the first few
months of 1908, Mable had gone out of state to Clayton, New Mexico to Lemuel and Mable had moved to Pryor, Oklahoma, where
they had a farm. Lemuel, a farmer at trade, also did business relative to land
conservation and management. It would not be surprising to find his involvement in the
Oklahoma land management business once the territory became a state. In Mayes County,
their son, Lemuel Clyde was born in 1911. Hominy, Oklahoma, is recorded as
Clyde’s birthplace. Lemuel and the family stayed In 1940, while the family were still working the farm, Lemuel Harris contracted pneumonia. Lemuel Harris Sanders died on March 18, 1940 Pryor, Mayes County, Oklahoma. Lemuel Harris was 62 years of age. His son, Clyde, was still with the family and was 28 years old at the time of his father’s death. Son Clyde and his mother, Mable, continued in partnership on the farm even after Clyde was married in May of 1940, two months after his father’s death. An obituary appearing in a local newspaper for Lemuel states: “Well Known Dooley Farmer Succumbs to Pneumonia Sunday- Lemuel Harris Sanders, well known farmer in the Dooley district the past twenty-one years, died Sunday morning at 2:30 at the Whitaker hospital after twenty days illness with pneumonia. He was born May 16, 1880 [this is an error] at Prairie Grove, Arkansas, and was 59 [an error] years of age. For the past four years he has served as community committee-man for the soil conservation program. Survivors are his wife, Mabel, one son, Lemuel Clyde, one brother, Hurney of Drumright; and three sisters, Mrs. Maggie Wilson of Greenfield, Missouri, Mrs. Alice Hatcher of Oklahoma City, and Mrs. Mattie Ramsey of Ripley, Okla. Services will be held at two o'clock Tuesday afternoon at the Methodist church in Pryor, Rev. Grady N. Ross officiating. Green's funeral home of this city will direct burial at Chouteau cemetery.” In 1946, Mable moved to Siloam Springs, Arkansas. Clyde got his own farm about five miles from Siloam Springs. It wasn’t long until son Clyde had started a family and had two young daughters. Orena Sanders, the first daughter, tells a story about Christmas time with Grandma Mable Sanders. She was about age 6, the family living at Pryor, at the time of this story: “We were still living with Grandma Sanders there. I remember Grandma dressing up in a Santa Claus suit that she had. We had a back porch, and she threw in some presents through the back door, and later she entered the house in this suit dressed up like Santa Claus. I remember at school, the first year I was in school, the teacher asked us all to make a wish list at school of what we wanted. I remember asking for a Betsy Wetsy doll, and when I went to school for our Christmas program, I received a Betsy Wetsy doll. Later when we opened gifts at our house, Grandma Sanders had gotten me a Betsy Wetsy doll, but she had crocheted me a real pretty dress for it. I was afraid of Santa Claus though. That’s the main thing I remember about Christmas there.”
Sam Sanders recalls: “Grandma Sanders was a born-again Christian, so we believe that she abides with our Heavenly Father. She was a member of the Siloam Springs State Line Gospel Tabernacle, where my Dad was led to Jesus. When Grandma Sanders died, my dad came into my brother’s and my room one morning and announced that she died. Father had related that he had heard her take her last breath in the middle of the night. Our dad knew that it was best for her, because she had suffered with much pain on account of cancer spreading. At the funeral, I remember a lady singing one of Mable’s favorite Hymns, ‘The Old Rugged Cross’. It was the first time I saw my Dad cry and appear helpless. All of us shed tears that day.”
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Sam Sanders. All Rights Reserved |
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attend school. During
that time, Lemuel must have decided to propose to Mable, because postcards that Mable had
kept through the years hinted to his intentions. When Mable returned to Yale in the
Spring, they were engaged. Lemuel and Mable were married on August 10, 1908, in what was
Indian territory, now known as Payne County, Oklahoma. The postcard collection that Mable
had left the family tells the story in 1908, mentioning many names from the Sanders,
Ramsey, 
and
Scribner families. In fact, one of the cards inquires about how the new baby is doing. The
new baby was their only child, 
In 1959, it was discovered that Mable had cancer. Mable was still
living at her two story house in Siloam Springs at the time. Mable was admitted in
St.Louis to have breast surgery in the fall of 1959 in St. Louis. Mable wanted to return
to her home but it was found that she was not able to take care of herself. Mable was
never able to return to her home, and began living with her son and family then living in
New Haven, Missouri. In 1961, son Clyde (now a Baptist minister) and family took the
family and his mother, Mable, to Shelbyville, Missouri. While at Shelbyville, Mable Ethal
Scribner died December 22, 1961. The family missed the Christmas celebrations that year to
bring Grandma Sanders back to Oklahoma, where she rests beside husband Lemuel Harris
Sanders at the North Chouteau Cemetery.