The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1877-11-23

The following paragraph is going the
rounds of the press
AT landau, New Hampshire, is the grave
of II Mrs. Bronson, who lived in three centu-
ries. She was born in 1909 and died in 1901.
1t is said there are but three similar cases on
record"
An instance of the kind once occurred in
the case of native of this county Thomas
Harris, who was my great grandfather, died
in 1901, several years after he had attained
his one hundredth year. The proofs whereof
are as follows have now in my possession
a letter written December, 1901, by my grand
father, DR.. John Archer, (who was then in
Washington as Il member Of Congrcss,) and
addressed to my father, DIR, Robert II. Ar
cher, in which he mentions that he had Just
heard of the death of his faith r-in-law, the
aforesaid Thomas Harris, which had occurred
week or two before. The date of his birth
is proved by evidence not quite so direct-in
fact traditional. He died in the valley of the
Tuscarora. Il tributary of the Juniata river,
in Pennsylvania. Some of his children hay
ing MARI led and removed from Hartford coun.
ty to that valley, he followed them thither on
the death of his wife, and lived with them
until his death. | have often heard my
father, who, in company with one OF his
brothers, Il have forgotten which one) visited
these Tuscarora cousins, say that during that
visit he frequently met with his grandfather,
| Thomas Harris, who was in the habit OF
reading without the aid of glasses, and who
told my father that he was over one hundred
Now, as this visit was paid very soon after
my father graduated in medicine, which was
in 1906, Thomas Harris, in 1901, the date of
his death, must have been one hundred and
three or four years of age, and must have
been born as far back as 1893, perhaps year
or two earlier
Although to say that one has lived Gin
three centuries" has smack of the good old
antediuvian days, it is surely not such won.
dertul thing after all, and why there should
be "only three cases of the kind on record"
cannot divine; for man born in the last
year of a century has just as much right tc
live little over II hundred as one born in
any other year, ard if he does survive that
long he lives in three centuries, in spite Of
himself so to speak. Say that one man in
! fifty thousand lives to be over one hundred
then out of five hundred thousand men born
in the last year Of any century, ten woult
live until the first year of the third century
thereafter; in other words, they would live
sin three centuries"
Thomas Harris lived in house neal
Churchvilc. 1t stood in a field about three
hundred yards to the south OF the site O
DR.. David Haran's present residence. Il
was in ruins thirty years ago, and has entire
ly disappeared Thomas Harris's daughter
Catharine was married in 17GS to DR.. Johr
Archer, whose father Thomas Archer, livet
about mile north Of Churchville, on thu
"Medical Halp' farm, once the property .
the late Judge Archer, and now owned by
Stevenson Archer, Esq, The house was il
ruins many years ago.
From this marriage are descended all thu
Archers of Hartford county, except some o
that name who removed hither from Penn
sylvunia n few years since. Thomas Harris
married Mary Mckinney, whose remains liz
in the graveyard of the Presby Church
at Churchvillc. The gravestone still stands
over the spot. His ncighbor, Thomas Ar
cher, married Elizabeth Stevenson. Hi
grave is still TO be seen in the above men
TONED burying ground. G. w. A.