William and Fannie Stinnett

Marriage license for William Stinnett and Fannie Kirkham

William Stinnett was the oldest known Stinnett sibling in my family. He married Fannie Kirkham in Harrison, Boone County, Arkansas in September 1881. According to the license William was a resident of Yellville, Marion County at the time and Fannie was a resident of Harrison. Unlike the marriage documents for his brothers Tom and John, there was no signed security bond; perhaps the laws were different in these neighboring counties.

1900 census

The license is the earliest record I have found for both William and Fannie and it is the only reference  I have seen that places William in Yellville. By 1900 William is a farmer living with his family in Harrison. He and Fannie have four children - Effie, Carrie, Sherman and Nettie. They moved to Muskogee, Oklahoma sometime before the 1910 census.

Their youngest daughter Geneva was born in Harrison in 1903 and their oldest daughter Effie was married to James Sturgeon in Muskogee in 1907. By 1910 only the two youngest daughters are in the household.


In 1910 Effie and James are living at 525 S. Second. A 1909 Wyandotte, Kansas marriage record for a Carrie Stinnett of Muskogee and an Edward M. Carpenter of Kansas City, Kansas may explain Carrie's whereabouts. 23-year-old Sherman is last recorded in 1910 boarding with a family named Hillstock and working as a laborer.

Geneva Stinnett - courtesy Lily Price

 Nettie married Ulysses Hickerson in Muskogee in 1913. She is listed in city directories as a teacher at a county school and is living with her sister Effie on Second St. Ulyssess and Nettie had their own place by 1925 then moved to Los Angeles, California by 1930. They had one son, Ulysses Jr.

Geneva married Milton Muston in 1918 and they were both living with her parents in the 1920 census. The marriage ended in divorce that same year and Geneva married Zeno Hickerson Jr. in 1924. Zeno was a well-known minister in the Baptist Church. Before he gained national prominence he ministered at my maternal grandfather's church in Parsons, Kansas.

They had one daughter while they were living in Mineral Wells, Texas.  Geneva died in Mineral Wells in 1948 from "surgical shock" after an operation to remove ovarian tumors.

Carrie Stinnett - courtesy Bill Stinnett

I have found no record of Carrie and her husband since the 1909 marriage record.

William and Fannie remained in Muskogee until their deaths - Fannie in 1938 and William in 1948. Effie and James Sturgeon also stayed in Muskogee. Effie died in 1937 and Sturgeon in 1961. They are all buried in the Booker T. Washington Cemetery.