The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1884-10-04
HUMAN LONGEVITY.
Some Northumberland Gases of Re-
markedly Long Life.

HUMAN LONGEVITY.
Some Northumberland Gases of Re.
markedly Long Life.
Cor. Boston Advertiser.
While fully agreeing with the gen.
eral conclusions of your article on lon
gevity-viz: that there is tendency to
exagerate the age of old persons, and
that there are fewer centenarians than
most people suppose think you in
dulge in an extreme of scepticism in
making 105 years the outside anthem
ticated limit. The late Sir George
Cornwall Lewis actually doubted that
any man or woman had ever reached
100 years. Mr.. Thorne appears at first
to have conceded with him, but the
case of Lady Smith, who reached 104,
and other indisputable instances, led
him to advance his figure to half a de-
cade beyond the century.
1 think there are numerous thorough
ly authenticated instances of considers
bly, greater longevity. The late Mr..
William Thomas, of Plymouth, recently
the oldest surviving graduate of Harry
ard college, was fond of relating in his
old age how on the first of January,
1880, being then in his eleventh year,
he visited with several ministers, at
tendants at an ordination, Ebenezer
Cobb, lifelong resident of the town,
who remembered Peregrine Whites
funeral in 1903, as well he might, hav-
ing been born in 1894, being 107 years
and six months at his death. He was a
respectable citizen of a town whose
records were kept and neighbors abund-
ant, and thsre could be no doubt as to
his age. In 1878 pauper, bedridden
and bitterly idiotic woman, died in the
Dayton, o., poor house, or infrmary,
as is the more euphenistic western
term. She had been there forty-one
years, and her age was reported at 76
when she was admitted. There was no
motive for deception or exaggeration in
1887. If no mistake was made she was
III at her decease, and even if decade
be struck off by way of caution, she
must have been 10Y.
A few years ago General H. V. Boyn-
ton furnished me, by request, a tran
script from the pension bureau giving
the ages at which various revolutionary
oOlQlClS duO buOll WlQOWo AIe 0iOos
Unfortunately it is not just now at
hand, but it recorded the death OF sew
eral persons in their ''centennarian
teens;" of one, if 1 remember rightly,
who had reached 121, and of quite a
number ranging from 100 to no years.
The pension bureau requires clear proof
of service and of continued life. If
there was deception in one or two of
these cases there could not be in all,
and there could be no motive for pen
sioners to exaggerate their age at the
time of being put on the rolls.
Mrs. Angelina Podesta, native of
Italy, died in 1878, aged 109. OF her
extreme age no one who saw her could
doubt. Her eyes had that hazy, far-off
look characteristic of centennarians and
nonagenarians. Her son, who was not
sure of her exact age, sent to her birth
place, and the Latin document, duly at
tested by the parish priest, declared
that the baptism took place January
18th, 1863. 1 saw her when she passed
100. Her bodily strength was sufficient
to allow her TO dance at the annual
balls of the Italian residents of Cincin-
natl up to nearly the time of her death,
but she was mentally quite childish.
ssMaster" Sullivan, the father of the
general, the first American ancestor of
the well-known Massachusetts and New
Hampshire families, is credited with
dying in 1876, aged 105. Mrs. Eastman,
mother of Judge Joel Eastman, the dis
citizen of Coos county, N.
H., died in 1867, aged 105 years and 6
AS she was one of the little
who discovered in 1868 the
buried infant of their teacher-Ruth
was hanged because Sheriff
Packer would not wait for Governor
Wentworth's reprieve to arrIve-there
can be no doubt as to her real longev-
ity.
might make the list considerably
longer, but must content myself with
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. WEIGH died April 5, 1928, and |
Messrs. Farmer and Moore visited him |
about year before. He was then in
his 10TH year. If the public records |
Of his birthplace, Kingston, N. H., are
correct, he was born February IS, I'LL,
though he insisted that he was born the |
previous, the time when his
'ather requested the record to be made |
having been inserted Us that of the |
birth itself. His mind was clear when |
ne was seen by the two eminent an
,iquaries. They converted with him at |
ength, and we refer the doubling to
he details of the interview.
1t is true, as you say, that no gradu-
tie OF Harvard has ever attained 103 |
FEARS Yale has been favored with |