Josiah “Sie” Arvin

FROM 1908 newspaper obituary found in Arvin family bible.

Sie, son of Mr. and Mrs. O.W. Arvin, passed away at home, Saturday, Nov. 29th 1908 at 5:30, P.M. He was just in the bloom of young manhood, aged 20 years, but had been a sufferer of that dreadful disease consumption for several months, which affiction he bore patiently and with Christian fortitude to the end. Early in life he united with the Christian Church at Station Camp, and died with that assurance that robs death of its sting. The remains were laid to rest in the Wagersville burying ground Monday at 10 o'clock, A.M.

Family story about Josiah 'Sie' Arvin, told by his sister Mollie Franklin (Arvin) Flynn and written down her daughter, and his grandniece Sue Helen Flynn:

Josiah "Sie" Arvin was very talented and played many instruments. He was a popular performer at local barn dances. Sometimes he would be out very late and then come home through harsh weather. This was the reason that many thought that he was susceptible to catching TB at one of the dances. One of his sisters, Mollie Franklin (Arvin) Flynn, helped care for him until his death. He died in a small room over the smoke house at his father's house on Middle Fork of Station Camp Creek, Estill County, Kentucky, where the family had moved him to keep the TB from spreading to the rest of the family.

In about March 1908, he had been sick (pnemonia) and not fully recovered when some people wanted him to play for a dance at Uncle Bud's. When done, he came back home thru wet snow and got worse. He lay incapacitated on a cot in his parents room for a time before going to a Dr. Gibson's hospital in Richmond, KY for treatment. Then in July, he returned home from Richmond with the message that they had done all that they could because he had TB. He wanted to stay in the boy's room upstairs over parents room and did not come downstairs for about last 6 weeks. The last time he came downstairs was right before his death and on 6 or 8 October he came downstairs and went outside and ate snow off a fence rail saying that it cooled his burning chest. He was later moved to a small room over the smoke house. His sisters, Rose & Mollie, carried food and cared for him while sick. He had previously dated his sweatheart Armilda Henderson (Mrs. Coleman Benton's sister) who wanted to marry him even while ill but he made the decision (with his mother's advice) that his father had enough family to care for without the addition of another (Armilda Henderson was an orphan and had no family to fall back on).