Rebecca, the only daughter of George Washington and Mary (McGranahan/McGranithan) Runkle(s), was reared from an early age by her grandmother, due to the death of her mother. Even after her father re-married, it was deemed best for her to remain with the grandmother.

During the period of 1820-1824, the family of Lyndes and Matilda Latimer moved into the community. Rebecca became acquainted with the children of this family and on Oct. 23 1834 Rebecca was married to the eldest child, Francis Henry Latimer. Soon after the marriage, the young couple packed their few belongings into a wagon and headed for the West. Settling on a farm in Kosciusko County, Indiana, they began their family. While living there, ten children were born, two of whom, George and Harriet, died as young children. Moving on farther west in 1854, the family settled on a farm near Kewanee, Henry County, Illinois, where two more children were born, making their family complete. But their westward journeys were not over yet. Their son, Lyndes, and his wife, Ellen, had moved their family to the state of Kansas and wrote often of the availibility of rich farm land. About 1864, Francis and Rebecca and most of their children decided to go to Kansas. where they found a lovely farm north of Holton, in Jackson County. This was to be their last move.

Sadness entered the family again when the youngest daughter, Amanda Jane, known as Janie, died of a mysterious illness on July 3, 1871. Tearfully, they laid her to rest there on the farm, beside her paternal grandmother, Matilda Latimer. A few years later, a new cemetery was opened near Holton and both Janie and her grandmother were moved there.

On Nov. 4, 1877, the frail mother passed from this life, leaving a grieving husband and nine children: Lyndes, Sarah Richards, Sophia Woodworth, Lyman, Ellen Bateman, Louise Bateman, Matilda Douglas, Marion and James and their spouses, and many grndchildren. Rebecca, too, was buried at Holton Cemetery.