Martin Luther Runneals (1842-1910)

RUNNEALS, WILLIAMSON, STODDARD, BUSH, HUNT

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 2/18/2017 at 23:26:58

From Nevada Representative November 4, 1910 (front page)

MARTIN L. RUNNEALS DEAD

Former Well-Known Story County Farmer Dies in Marshalltown

Death at nine o'clock Wednesday morning, November 2, claimed Martin L. Runneals, who till three weeks ago was a resident of Nevada. For a long period he was a well known Story county farmer, who resided on a farm near Colo. The Times-Republican publishes the following obituary:

Mr. Runneals died at the home of his son, Rhea R. Runneals, an Iowa Central engineer, living at 310 South Fourth street. Death was due to uremic poisoning following an illness that began last Friday. Mr. Runneals had been in failing health owing to a kidney disorder, for some time. he was 68 years old. Mr. Runneals' death followed that of his second wife just four weeks to a day.

Martin Luther Runneals was a native of Tiffin, O., where he was born Feb. 2, 1842. He moved to Jackson county, Iowa, where on Sept. 9, 1873, he married Miss Lydia C. Williamson. From Jackson county the couple moved to Story county, settling on a farm three and one-half miles north of Colo on March 1, 1874. There the couple lived until the spring of 1895 when they moved into Colo. Mrs. Runneals' health began to fail, and western trip was taken in the hopes of receiving benefit. The climate failed to restore Mrs. Runneals' health, however, and she died at Los Angeles on Dec. 10, 1908.

In the spring of 1907, Mr. Runneals moved from Colo to Nevada, and on Nov. 11, 1908, at Lyons, he married Mrs. Dorothy Stoddard, of Nevada. The second Mrs. Runneals died very suddenly, of heart disease, on Oct. 5, while on her way home from a church social. Since his wife's death Mr. Runneals had been making his home with his son in this city.

Mr. Runneals is survived by three of the four children born to him by his first wife. The children are Archie, of Danville, Ill.; Rhea R., of this city; and Mrs. Bertha Bush, of Waverly. The other child, a son, died in infancy. A sister of Mr. Runneals is Mrs. Sarah Hunt, lives at Findlay, Ohio.

Mr. Runneals was a member of the Methodist church of Nevada, and of the Odd Fellows' lodge of Colo.

A prayer service will be held Thursday morning at 7 o'clock from the Runneals home, in charge of Rev. W. H. Scott. The body will be taken to Colo on the morning train, and the funeral will be held from the Methodist church there at 10 o'clock. Interment in the Colo cemetery will be in charge of the Odd Fellows. Mr. Runneals will be buried beside the body of his first wife.