The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1865-02-25

But our Dean Of the human species -
nearly twenty years older than Claude
Jacob, who did not comlpete his one hun-
dred and twenty first year. !.
Joseph Crele was born in Detroit, OF
French parents. The record Of his bap-
tism in the Catholic Church Of that city
shows tina. he il now $50 years Of age
He has been q resident Of Wisconsin for
about century. Whenever mention il
made Of the oldest inha bitants." there need
be no question as to the person. Joseph
Crele lie undoubtedly the man. BE was
Some years after he settled ct Prairie du
Chen. while Wisconsin was yet province
Of France. Before tho revolutionary war,
he was employed to carry lotter9 between
Prairie du Chen and Green Bay It 10
bu: few years ago that he was called -
a witness In the Circuit Court, In case In.
volving the title to certain real estate at
Prairie du Chen, to give testimony in re-
lation 70 events that transpired eighty
years before. He now resides with .
daughter, by his third wife, who is over
seventy year Of eye. e
The resident of the family il only four or
i've miles out Of Portage City. From citi.
mas is still active, il able 70 chop wood,
and to walk several miles. He speaks Eng
lish quite imperfectly, but c0nverses du.
emily in the French Language. BE goes to
elections, and like sensible old gentle
man votes the Onion ticket. Stoops .
little under the burden Of ysars, but not
more than many men Of seventy. In
person, he is rather above the medium
height, spare in fiesh, but showing evi-
den oes Of having been in his prime > man
of sinewy strength. Concerning his hab-
its, subject of much interest in cOnnec-
ton with an instance Of such ext-aordi-
nary longevity, we have been able TO learn
| mr.. 1iff1o fSvof hn il M finC0fAPlfR
smoker.
a very good deguerreotype picture OF
min, taking in 1866 may be seen at the
rooms Of the State Historical Society
Some Photographic artist would do well to
secure negative OF the coolest man in
the world before ne passes,
To that still region whittier all are bound
Three score years and ten ordinarily
constitute the full span OF q vigorous hue
r1an life. This mans existence has been
prolonged for almOst twice that period
Those who began the journey Of life with
him are dead. and their very bones are
duet. Babes that he might have handled
on his knee at IN sge when most men are
bowed with decrep.tude, have grown into
manhood, passed through the ordinary Vi
ciseitudes OF life, become gray ano feeble,
and sunk into old mems gravee, and this
man still lives. He walks about among .
generation whose grandsires were unborn
manly prime. All his contemporaries are
gone. No wonder il, ut times, az we un-
derstand is the case, . haunting sense Of
loneliness 0verComes him. Though ehas
led rude border life, and probably has
little Of sentiment in his composition, yet
in some dim way 1t least he experiences
the feeling 50 touchingly expressed by
WadsWorth, writing under the shadow of
more than seventy years, Of
Zone to whom Heaven assign that mourn.
That utmost solitude Of age to face
And with his simple and unsophisticated
conceptions respecting Deity, this feeling
of solitarinese, Of remaining thus long the
sole survivors Of that generations: Of walk
ing about in this latter half of the nine
teenth century, and in these days Of tele-
graphic dispatches and monitors, steam
presses and rebellion-he was q man Cape.
BILE Of bearing arms in the days Of Brad
docks defeat 1.-The sense, We repeat, ofthis
exceptional and anomalous lot, joined with
his crude and untutosed notions upon re.
ligious subjects, has induced in his mind
the curious fancy that perhape God has
overlooked him, that Death, who comes to
all beside, the otherwise Unsuitable, has in
his case
Forgot the use Of his inevitable hand"
and that he may be left to . perpetual and
hopeless old age, Tithonus without an
Aurora, still feeling moro and moro the in.
tolorable weight Of years, yet never to be
delivered from their weary load.-3fadison