The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1876-11-08
A Relic Of a Past Acc.
Frem tie Memphis Avalanche.
Thnrn 1in1 ~n~- D...

"A hcAC VI fdSC Age.
From tie Memphis Avalanche.
There died near Rossville, Tenn. a.
few days ago, a venerable and remark.
able old negro-perhaps one of the old.
est in the land; man who had seen
generation after generation come m
on the stage of life, act it's part and
pass off into oblivion. He has seen his
friends born, ripened into manhood,
and gone in old age to the grave. Chill
dren OF three generations have chs
tered around his knees and heard his
recital of the legends OF past cen.
fury, and have, one after the other.
been laid to rest in a grave over which
his tears have fallen. Yet. like the
:Wanderlng Jew OF Sues great fc-
.tlon, ne has been forced to s'go on
until the Creator that gave him life
should see tit to take back the gift.
.'Uncle jake Pulliam claimed to be
1856 years old, and was probably. iude-
ing from his age at the time various
scenes were enacted, not less than 125
years old.
uncle Jake s earliest memories take
MIN back to confused mingling of a
savage croWd-a sea yoyoge, and the
crowding Of new sensations of
strange people and Il strange land.
FROM all OF which Uncle Jake thought
that he was brought to this country
when he was about ten years old. He
| never knew mother or a father. His
! 1lrsC nome was among the rice fields of
the Carollnas, where he was for sever
al years (he don't know how MANY
employed round de house, When
ABOUT seventeen years old ne was sold
to the Du Point family. of Huguenot
extraction, and was the body servant
| OF the ''young mass'r.' Henry Du
Point.
When the Revolution began, iii l7775,
MS young master enlisted as an ensign
under Moultrie in the continental army
and be accompanied him. The old
man says he was then sizes about grona
and didn't hab no har on my chin.''
tie remembers clearly his first engage
ment with the red coats it was when
Col: Moultrie sent his young master
with their captain, Marion, to take
Fort johnson. When the fort was
taken, he himself rammed the ball in
one of the old cannon that were turned
against the British feet. Uncle Jake
tells some marvellous tales of his own
personal daring upon that and similar
OCCASIONS. One ludicrous incident of
how ''de sojers laffed'' when a ball
striking the sand bags of the fort he
was covered up to the chin and Law
yelling for help, thinking the rest Of
his anatomy had been carried off by
the shot.
When he was, he says, about sixty
years old, he went down the river to
Savannah, t'pulling de six ode bote''
used on such occasions. There every
body was on the streets cheering and
yelling as an old man richly dressed
drove by slowly in carriage bowling
70 the crowd. From the date all this
must have been when Lafayette made
his tour of triumph through the land
in 1926. Besides, Uncle Jake said he
was "a Frencher,' though he s:disre-
membered' the name.
Up to the last his faculties were
wonderfully clear. Last year he even
made a small crop of corn and cotton.
On Thursday this man, who meas
ured his life by decades, not by years,
ended his long and eventful career.
Death, so long in coming, finally
touched his old limbs and it's icy hand
crept to his heart-strings and cut the
thread of life asunder. Old Jake, who
so long has listened to the ''angel
voices calling" answering back :'I'm
coming has at length been gathered
to his loved ones to reap the reward Of
life of usefulness. Requiescat in
pace.