The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1884-10-10
Human Longevity.
Letter in the Boston Advertiser.

From a Letter in the Boston Advertiser.
While fully agreeing with the gener-
al conclusion of your article on lon
gevity, viz: that there is a tendency to
exaggerate the age of old persons, n
that there are fewer centenar1ans than
most people suppose, I think you Judge
in an extreme of skepticism in making
lO5 years the outside authenticated life.
The late Sir George Cornwall Lewis
actually doubted that any man or WON.
an had ever reached 100 years. Mr..
Thorne appears at first to have conceded
with him, but the case of Lady Smith,
who reached 105, and other lndlsputa-
BILE instances, led him to advance his
figure to a half decade beyond the cen<
fury.
think there are numerous thorough
ly authenticated instances OF consider
able greater longevity. The late Will
liam Thomas, of Plymouth, recently the
oldest surviving graduate of Harvard
College, was fond of relating in his old
age how, on the LIST of January, 1900,
being then in his eleventh year, he Wis
tied with several ministers, in attend
ance at an ordination. Ebenezer Cobb,
a lifelong resident of the town, who re-
membered Peregrine Whites funeral in
1903, as we'll he might, having been
born in 1894. He survived until Sep
TENDER 1901, being LOT IL years at his
death. He was n respectable citizen OF
a town whose records were kept and
neigl,bors abundant, and there could be
no doubt as to his age. In 1878 a pau
per-a bedridden and bitterly idoitic
woman-died at the Dayton Ohio
poor-house, or infrmary as is the more
e%uphonistic western term. She had
been there forty-one years, and her age
was reported at rs when she was admit.
ted. There was no motive for decep-
ton or exaggeratlon in 1887. If no
mistake was made she was 1T at her
decease, and even if a decade be struck
off by a of caution, she must have
been 1O7.
A few years ago General H. V. Boyn-
ton furnished me, by request, q trans
cript from the Pension Bureau giving
the ages at which various revolutionary
soldiers and their widows had died.
Unfortunately it is not just now at hand,
but it recorded several deaths of persons
in their "centenarian %teens;" of one, if
| remember rightly, who had reached
l21, and of quite a number ranging
from 100 to 10 years. The pension
bureau requires clear proof of service
and OF continued life. Ii there was de-
ception in one or two of these cases
there could not be in all, and there,
could be no motive for pensioners to ex-
aggregate their age st the time of being
put on the rolls.
Mrs. Angelina Rodesta, q native OF
Italy, died in 1878, aged 100. OF her
extreme age no one who saw her could
doubt. Her eyes had that hazy, far-ofl
look characteristic of c~entenar1ans and
monogenarians. Her son, who was not
quite sure OF her exact age, sent to her
birthplace, and the Latin document,
duly a%ttested by the parish priest, de-
clared that her baptism took place on
January II, 1863. 1 saw her when she
was past 100. Her bodily strength was
sufficient to allow her to dance at the
annual balls of the Italian residents
of Cincinnati up to nearly the time Of
her death, but she was mentally quite
childish.
Master" Sullivan, the father of the
General, and the first American ances-
tor of the well-known Massachusetts
and New Hampshire families, is credit
ed with dying in l796, aged 1O5. Mrs.
Eastman, mother of Judge Joel East
man, the distinguished citizen of Coos
county, N. H., died in 1867, aged lo5
years and 6 months. As she was one
OF the little school girls who discovered
IN l16S the buried infant of their teach
er, Ruth Blay-who was hanged be-
Il Sheriff Packer would not wait
for Governor Wentworth's reprieve to
arrlve-there can be no doubt as to her
real longevity.
L might make the list considerably
longer, but must content myself with
referring to the account of Samuel
WEIGH, of Bow, N. H, recorded in the
second volume of Farmer and Moore's
Historical collections of New Hamp-
shire" Welch died April 5, 1923, and
Messrs. Farmer and Moore visited
him about a year before. He was
hen in his 115th year. If the
public records of his birthplace,
AhhSstou, ~. H., are correct, he
was born in February IS, I'LL, though
he insisted that he was born the Sep
TENDER previous, the time when his
father requested the record to be made
having been inserted as that of the
birth itself. His mind was clear when
he was seen by the two eminent ANTIGUA
ries. They conversed with him at
length. and we refer the doubling to
the details of the interview.
1t is true, as you say, that no gradu-
ate of Harvard has ever attained 1O3
years. Yale has been favored with few
er c%entenarian alumni than Harvard.
but one of these few reached 1O3. In
1857 there were living graduates of
Dartmouth, all Presbyterian and Con-
gregational ministers. Rev. John Saw
yer, of Maine, aged 102 years; Rev.
Laban Ainsworth, seventy five wears
minister to Jaffrey, N. H.-the longest
pastorate, I think, on record, and pre-
ceded by a year of "supply"-aged 100;
Rev. Ethan Osborne, of New Jersey,
9s; and Rev. zachariah Greene, Of
Hampstead, l.. l., aged 81. Before
1858 were ended all were dead, Mr..
Sawyer at 103, Mr.. Ainsworth at 100
and some months. Mr.. Osborne at 80,
and Mr.. Greene at 9S. Just now Ell
bert Porter, Dartmouth's Oldest living
graduate, bids fair to round out his CEN
fury, having passed his goth anniver.
sary last December.
~ r.