Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1854-10-05
C5e daily SPY,
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1854.

. 3
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EXTRAORDINARY CASE OF LoNGEvITY.--A
Stare Of gen. Washington stu Licing--120
Years OH.-Marveous and incredible as it
may seem, there Is at present living in Fay
cite county, Pennsylvania, an aged negro
| who was slave of Gen. Washington, and
who cannot now be less than 100 years old
! His history is briefly this He was brought
IN slave-ship from the coast of Guinea, to
the port Of Philadelphia, sometims between
the years 1860 and 10, and was purchased,
together with nine others, for farm hands on
the Mount Vernon estate, then owned by Col.
George Washington, (already man of note
in the Colonies, from his services in the
French and Indian wars) His name in his
native country, was g Fuhtemau," but at Mt.
Vernon they gave him the less barbarous name
of " Simon" to which he afterwards added
the name OF g Washington i'll honor of his
good master. Simon continued to reside at
Mount Vernon until the time of the Reyolu-
ton, when, with others, he was sent out to
tract Of land i'll Fayette county, Pennsylvania,
owned by Gen. Washington, to assist in the
erection of a MILL After laboring here for
some years he was sold to BAIL Brown, from
whom the town Of Brownsville is named, and
he sold him to Col. Edward Cook, in whose
service he remained as long as he was recog-
nized as a slave
These are the main points of his life. In
proof of their authenticity, we have the ven
cradle old negro's own story, which he told
in the same way, and without shadow of va
ration, 10 his neighbors, time out of mind,
and his exceeding simple mindedness, entire
ly precludes the slightest suspicion OF its be-
ing an invention. Besides, there are those
who remember him when Washington was
yet living, and the fact of having been his
slave no wonder at all Hen-only grown so
by his surviving him SO long. Gen. Joseph
Markle, Wing candidate fot Governor in 1914
himself now IS years of age testified that he
" has known Simon for more than 5S years,
and that when he first knew him he was APP
parently an aged man." Every one at all ac-
quainted with the characteristics of the negro
race Especially the native African), knows
that they rarely exhibit marks of age until they
are beyond three score years. Hon. James
Todd, Of Greensburg, formerly Secretary of
this Commonwealth. says in an affidavit, that
6 the facts of the case as above stated, aIe
such as have been credited by all his neigh
bors for tho last Sirty years. and he regards
them as indisputably true.
Andrew Luin, Esq, a respectable farmer of
WestmoIeland county, now nearly ninety
years of age, testites that " in the year 1879
or so, he went to Washington's mill, as it
colored man Simon, residing-that he was
slave Of Gen. Washington, and that he has
known him ever since, ano can vouch for the
truth and accuracy of his statement regarding
himself" With all these proofs it would
seem the yeriest inhdelity to disbelieve that
old Simon was in reality the slave of Wash
ington, and that his age cannot be short of six
score years-perhaps it exceeds it.
Old Simon has of late years been benef-
ciary Of Col. Joseph Snider, of Westmoreland
county, who has kindly protected him in his
age and indulgence. Last autumn he took
him to the Agricultural Fair at Pittsburg,
where he was visited by thousands. 1t is un-
der:tood that he will also bring him to the
great Fair, to be held at Powelton next week
| he VIII no doubt be entitled to the premi-
| UNI for the 60 oldest lnhabitant,' the indiyid-
ual whose power Of memory is so often in
voked.
In cases of extreme age such as this, the
| bare numerical statement of years conveys no
clear idea of what it really is. 1t is only by
comparison that we can ever approximately
gain a conception of it. The Countess Des-
mond, who hourished in the reigns of Eliza
beth and the first James, and attained the age
Of 140 years. greatly surprised the Count by
declaring, one hundred years after Bosworth
field, that Richard Third was one of the most
elegant men she had ever danced with. So
old Simon, were he only of educated intel.
lect, might create equal amazement by telling
us that he was well i'll his sthirties,'' when
Napoleon and Wellington We're born. That
he was past forty when the Declaration Of In
dependence was written that he is older than
MIR. Jefferson would be, if living although
he went to his grave aripe octogenarian TWEEN
ty- eight years ago-that he remembered well
when Philadelphia was a slave-mart and our
good old great grandsires bid Justify at street
auctions for "G@iaea Niggers," and Pennsyl-
vania farmers thought themselves poorly off
without their compliment Of blacks-that
then King Georges name was everywhere
praised, and it was treason to say aught
against his majesty
1t is by recalling these and thousand sim
liar associations, that we can in some degree
realize what it is to be hundred and twenty
years old-the age of Fautemah, the slave of
Washington Pennsylvania Inquirer.