This may be new news to a few Runyan/Runyon researchers out there. In the 15 years I've been doing research on the Indiana Runyans I have not once seen this story circulated. I found this clipping searching the newspaper archives at Footnote.
The Fort Wayne Evening Sentinel.
Tuesday, April 25, 1905.
AGED COUPLE IS FATALLY BURNED
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Noah Runyan Blistered Trying to Save Wife---Both of Them Will Die
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Muncie, Ind. April 25 - Mrs. Noah Runyan, 73 years old, was fataly burned, her husband perhaps fatally injured and their granddaughter, Miss Hazel Lamb, painfully injured in a fire today as the result of Mrs. Runyan's apron catching fire from a natural gas stove while she was preparing breakfast at her home, eight miles south of this city.
Seeing his wife's clothing aflame, the aged husband did his best to put out the fire, and finally succeeded but not until she had been burned beyond recovery. In his effort to save his wife Runyan was so seriously burned that it is doubtful if he can recover. Miss Lamb was seriously burned trying to save her grandparents.
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Noah died over a year after this accident. Lydia was Noah's second wife. Noah was a great grandson of Benjamin and Rebecca Barton Runyan, my 5th great grandparents. Noah, Lydia and Noah's first wife Ann Hewitt Runyan are all buried in the Batson Cemetery, Liberty Township, Henry Co., Indiana.
