Delaware State journal and statesman., 1867-07-26
FOURTH OF JULY WITH A CEN.
" TENARIAN.
ny REV. WILLIAM ALVIN BARrLErr.


years old when Jefferson, as DR.. Stiles said,
poured the soul of the continent into the
monumental Act of Independence This
was his ninety-fir celebration of the day.
The crowd in the grove gave way, and cheer
succeeded cheer as the old man was led 10
the platform. Amidst all the associations of
this hour the nineteenth century pays homage
TO the eighteenth. Here is man who was
born the very year in which George Wash
ington gave his name to Martha; to whom
our Fourth of July bird is mere eaglet;
before snare.drum ever beat Yankee Doc
die; who can patronize the Federal govern
ment as its senior, and is older than the
Fourth Of July. When he was nursed in
Albany County, the Prussia of Bismarck
was under its third king, Frederic the Great;
and England was paying court to George II.
He is ten years older than Napoleon l. and
Wellington, those bloody giants, the birth
of one year, and long since passed into his
tory. He is twelve years older than Walter
Scott. Before Fulton experimental with
his steamship, or Watt and Evans with the
locomotive carriage, he was hidden by his
grandparents, who had lost son in the
French War, to escape the first call ior
revolutionary soldiers. He is older almost
than modern civilization, science, literature,
mechanics. And yet he sat there as though
his life had been one long summer-an erect
old man, with head of hair, sllyered in
front but black behind; with fine face and
brow, and nicely-cut features of the Roman
stamp and whose nose and chin are held
apart while his cheeks are fortified by three
strong teeth. Although his hearing was i'm
paired and his sight somewhat dimmed, yet
he caught the enthusiasm OF the occasion,
and fixed discriminating attention upon
reader, orator, brass band and cannon solo.
There was kind of decisive vigor in his
motions which announced that he had come
twelve miles to attend TO the earnest and
thrilling business of celebrating the birth
of the "lnfant Liberty" whose parents were
his early neighbors and whose cradle he had
rocked. Before his eyesight betrayed him,
he was wont to wake the echoes OF the early
war by discharging his old fre-lock on the
Fourth with more solemnlty than some
modern men do prayer All the intelligence
and enterprise for which the community that
centers in Rushford, Allegheny County, N.
T., is noted appeared In the perfection oil
the appointments; and the old gentleman
was enthroned as a connoisseur amongst
amateurs, seeming to say by his self possess
ed oversight, "You may have the largest
cheese-factory in America, and one of the
best managed academies; but you canno
tell me anything about Fourth of July"
What living commentary on the you'll
and progress of this nationl Those eye,
had seen Washington, those hands bore
ballot for the first and last President Who
could chronicle the services wrought for th,
human family during the lifetime of thi
MANI .-.--
In the morning had called, and fount
him sleeping as sweetly as babe, upon tn,
lounge. On being rallied, he converse(
slowly upon such topics as were suggested
He spoke with PRIDE of his service in tn
militia during the last four years OF the Rev
olutionary War; of being present whei
Butler, the Indian leader, was killed; AM
of having seen Washington. His life ap
pears chiefly remarkable for its extent II
has always filed an humble station, an,
during his whole life has been farmer
He seems to have caught the vitality OF th
soil from tilling ii. He dwelt upon th
issues of the elder day, and was Washing
ton Whig; told OF the flstie encounters be
tween Wings and Tories after the wa
ceased, and swung his arms with great en-
ergy as he described three personal dispute
he settled with Tories; and, doubtless j.
allusion to the Farewell Address, (" he sal
that Washington forbade this, and counsele
them to live in peace and harmony wit
their former enemies. HIS Fourth of Jul
couplet-which he recltes with great enthr
siasm-is,
'HurrAh for Washington, Putnam, and Lee,
| And all the brave men who fought for libartee.s
He Is chiefly physical phenomenon.
is curious TO look upon man who for on
hundred and seven years has lodged Ii
heat of fever and the chill of consumption
who has run muck between pestilence an
accident; whose digestion, and circulation
and respiration have performed their fun
tions equally well for q century; whoi
skin, and bone, and muscles, and min
wear together; . man built, like the ION
hoss shay" equally strong in every par
and who will doubtless go to pieces in Il
same wey. His hand does not trembl
and he stood, under our measure, five fe
FIVE inches and quarter. His create
weight was one hundred and sixty-i'
pounds; small, wiry, sinewy man, wi
could outliit and outwrestle all his neighbor
and was active as cat; who calls himst
"Mohawk Tntlhman and Lutheran
who 'doesn't know anything about dis ne
religion All the wrinkles of his fac
those that converge toward his eyes al
his mouth, point TO an pnmistakable smll
which has long been domesticatsd there.
The wrinkles of age are apt to set tl
dominant disposition. Cheerfnlness al
light -heartedness put the glory of the 81
ting sun In his expression. His only vi
died a few years since, aged one hundr
and five years, nine months, and nine day
They had reared ten children. A daught'
miss of sixty springs, accompanied hi
I wonder what is considered marriageal
age in his family. His life is cruel to theoris
He has lived neither according to Ben. Fran
Inns rules nor DR.. Rush principles ofheal
He has never been teetotaler; althoug
according to the old ladY-as reported by
daughter-he "never got high excepting
election days, Fourth of July, and once al