The weekly Anglo-African., 1860-01-21
From the Alton Courier, Jan T.
GRANNY BUCK.
NOTES OF THE LIFE OF WOMAN WHO DIED At
THE AGE OF 1875 YEARS.
Troy, Jan. IL, Il

On the 18th of last month there died,
within short distance of this city, a negro
woman-probably the Oldest person in the
State, and perhaps in the country Her
real name was Clara Wilson, but she has
always been known here as Granny Will
son or Granny Buck. Her exact age is
not known, but it could not have been
much less than 1875 years, and we incline
to the opinion, founded upon all the infor-
nation that can be obtained, that it was
between l24 and 1875. In person she was
tall and muscular, quite as stoutly built as
most men, of unusually strong and vigor-
Gus mind, with great stock of practical
common sense, and an undercurrent of
quaint poetical feeling She retained nea
ly full possession of all her faculties up to
within four or five years.
Lately her memory was somewhat de-
fective, particularly in reference to matters
of recent occurrence; still, however, giving
her command of most facts of twenty to
seventy years ago She came to this
neighborhood in 1910 or 41-then over
100 years old-and from the first, until
three or four years ago, has had her little
garden, which she kept in as good con-
dition as most people could at ~ years of
age. She has long used a staff in walking;
yet to the last, when standing, was very
little bent, and of somewhat commanding
appearance. She was born and raised in
South Carolina, and her earliest recollec-
tions were of Charleston, in that State,
which she remembers as smart village,
instead of the great city it now IS. She
grew up On the plantation, not in the house,
field work being her task SO long as she
was a slave.
We have but fragments of her long life,
leaving many gap which cannot be fill
ed. An old historian says that in 1871,
few years anterior to her birth, Charleston
was place of about 700 houses. 1t was
chartered as city in 1888. Granny Will
SON related that short time after she be-
came the mother of her fourth child, the
town was attacked by party of French
and Indians, and that quite number of
the inhabitants were killed or wounded,
and number of houses burned. During
the progress Of the conflict her master was
SuOL duu ulcu III utI dliuo' 0AC1 "AeA "sAA-
ers, fell into the hands of the attacking
party. The date of this foray cannot be
definitely fixed. We have not been able
to find mention of it in any history at our
command; but the best information at hand
induces us to place it between the years
1856 and 1859. How long she was retain
ed by her captors, whether for years, or
only for months, cannot be learned. Ger
tain it is that she again lived i'll or near
Charleston, for number of years, doing
regular service as common field hand.
She was, during her life, the mother of
twelve or thirteen children-by two hus-
bands. All were born during her planta-
ton life in Carolina; and nothing is known
of any of them except the youngest, Buck,
who now lives near here, and is known as
Uncle Buck. The story of his life is indis-
solubly connected with that of his mother.
he is generally acknowledged to be about
80 years of age, but was designated as
The Boy" by her till the day OF her
death. When he was mere lad, perhaps
six or eight years of age, the then owner
of his mother and himself, with his family,