Lemuel Harris Sanders and Mable Ethal Scribner
January 24, 1999

Lemuel Harris Sanders, the fifth child from the marriage of Isam Sanders 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 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, Lemuel Clyde Sanders.

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 near Pryor until they later moved to Greenfield, Missouri around 1924. Lemuel brought the family back to Pryor eleven years later. They continued to work the farm there at Pryor. They had horses, cattle, pigs, chickens, and various crops. Lemuel, with his son, would haul produce and eggs to neighboring areas selling what they had produced on the farm.

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 daugther, 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."

Grandson, Sam Sanders recalls: 
"Grandma Sanders had a nice big two story house in Siloam Springs. Throughout the years she lived there, we enjoyed visiting her. Mable had a well furnished house. In the back part of the house she had a place where she stored all of her jars of canning. When we slept in that house, the nights seemed cool, and you could hear the whistle of a train somewhere in town. The beds were high enough where you could find a chamber pot under it. In the yard, Grandma Mable had figurines of chickens and little black men who seemed to be tending the yard. The house still stands today and has been remodeled."

Mable Sanders was the daughter of Thomas Harvey Scribner and Rosina Agnes Lorett. Around 1906, Mable’s family came from Caldwell County in the northern section of Missouri. The Scribners and Loretts migrated to Oklahoma together. Many of Mables siblings and Lorett family friends went to school together. Mable kept for many years a miniature yearbook giving the roster of schoolmates. It is not known from where the Scribners had come. The Loretts were from Germany. 

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.

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."

©  Sam Sanders.   All Rights Reserved
Last updated:  Saturday, September 09, 2000