Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1871-07-30
lie 0Idasf Inhgbitaaf Dead.

On Saturday evening the oldest
man in the State, If not the oldest
man anywhere, died in Kansas City.
His name was Jacob Journals, but
known to everybody who knew him
at ali as "Old PenO57 Cor Pinau1 No
body knew his exact age. not even
himself, but he was known As an old
man when men now fOurseOre were
children.
He was a Canadian Freuehmau BY
birth, but for more than half a eentu-
~ was 3 hunter and trapper in the
employ Of the fur company, n Of
the French vOyageurs, as they were
! ealled-mOst OF that time with Major
Andrew Dripps, the father Of Mr..
Charles A. Dnpps. and Athef-in-aW
Of Mr.. William Mulkey, at whose
house he died, and where he has been
kindly and ahectiOnately cared for
during the last thirty years.
He vas never sick, and, only q few
minutes before he died, was walking
about the room. He said to the ami-
ly In the morning that he would
"neVer see the sun 60 down again"
and just beiUre sunset the machine
stopped, and the old man was dead.
He said he was working in the
woods on a piece Of land he had
bought for himself, lear Quebec,
when Wolfe was killed on the nights
Of Abraham. This was September ID,
1853, and, from what he told Of his
life previous to that, he must then
have been W tWenty-One years Of
age.
Thinking he might have cOnf0unded
Wolfe with Montgomery Q77jl we
questioned him very fully, bat his
recollection Of names and incidents
was too distinct to leave any doubt,
and the same account had been given
to others long before we saw him.
Another event which he remem
bered well, and which he seemed
always to look upon a a coed Joke,
was that during the occupation Of
New Orleans by General Jackson,
1SI4-lJ, he had been refused enlist
ment because he was too old" The
old man often told this with great
glee. He must then have been about
eighty years old.
Thus, taking everything into con-
~sideratiOn, and We have been careful
ever since we knew him to get all the
facts about him we cOuld-rOm Major
Dripps, the ChOuteau family, Jim
Bridger, Tim. GOodale, Bent, Jim
BeekWith, and other Old mountain
eers-pe put his age at 134 years.
He went from Canada to where
Pittsburg new is, thence down the
Ohio in keelbOats, and was in New
Orleans, it seems, in 1874.
Before this, however, he accom-
panied the expedition OF Lewis and
Clark, in their explorations of the
Missouri and the discovery Of the
Columbia river in 1904 =.
His experience during that trip,
making him a valuable man to the
Fur Company, he was afterWard en-
plOyad, as we have stated, until thirty
years ago; being then worn out and
too old for active service, he came
here to spend the evening Of his life
with the family of the man be had so
faithfully served for so many years.
The last thirty years Of his life were
passed in quiet and comfort. He pre-
terred living by himself, and always
had his own house, where he kept his
pipe and tobacco pouch, and such
things as were articles Of comfort -
him, mostly such as he had from his
residence with the Indians, not forget
ting his rosary and a few religions pic
lures which hung above his head.
He wa very neat in is person,
clothes and housekeeping, and up
TO the day of his death attended in
summer to his tobacco plants and his
eabbages. One Of his great desires
was to sec a railroad, and when the
first locomotive came screaming into
the bottom which was in full view Of
his home, he was nervous as @ child
until he visited it.
The wife of Mr.. Mulkey, who has
been his constant attendant from her
childhood, took him down one day
to the depot, where he had an OppOr-
tunity to examine it, and saw it move
away with a heavy train attached.
He expressed himself as satisfied,
said he "cOuld tell God he had ssen a
railroad" and has never since y
pressed any curiosity On the subject.
Kansas city MOI Journal.