Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1884-10-03
PEOPLE WHO LIVE LONG.
FACTS OF INTEREST ABOUT HUMA1T
LONGEVITY.
Some Instances OF Persons who Have
Lived TO an Extreme Old Age
Soldier Centenntians.

talnS some interesting information ABOUT
persons who have lived much longer than
the biblical allotment of seventy years.
Says the writer:
While fully agreeing with the general
conclusion of your article on longevity,
viz, that there is tendency to exagger-
ate the age of old persons, and that there
are fewer centenarians than most people
suppose. think you judge in an extreme
of skepticism in making 105 years the
outside authenticated limit. The late
Sir George Cornewall Lewis actually
doubted that any man or woman had
ever reached 100 years. Mr.. Thorne APP
pears at first to have coincided with him,
but the case of Lady Smith, who reached
105, and other indisputabe instances, led
him to advance his figure to half de-
cade beyond the century.
think there are numerous thoroughly
authenticated instances Of considerably
greater longevity. The late William
Thomas, of Plymouth, recently the oldest
surviving graduate of Harvard college,
was fond of relating in his old age how
on the 1st of January. 1900, being then
in his eleventh year, he visited with
several ministers, in attendance at an
4, ordination, Ebenezer Cobb, lifelong
resident of the town, who remembered
Peregrine Whites funeral in 1903, as
we'll as he might, having been born in
1894 He survived until September,
1901, being 1074 years at his death. He
was respectable citizen of 3 town
whose records were kept and neighbors
abundant, and there could be no doubt
as to his age In 1878 pauper-a bed
ridden and bitterly idiotic woman-died
in the Dayton (O.) poorhouse, mfr
mary, as is the more euphonistic or West
ern term. She had been there forty-one
years, and her age was reported at seven
ty-six when she was admitted. There
was no motive for deception or exagge.
ration in 1887. If no mistake was made
she was III at her decease, and even ifa
decade be struck of by way of caution,
she must have been 107.
A few years ago General H. V. Boyn-
ton furnished me, by request, trans
cript from the pension bureau giving the
ages at which various revolutionary sol
diers and their widows had died. I'm
fortunately it is not just now at hand
but it recorded several deaths of persons
in their centenarian teens" of one. i
l remember rightly, who had reached
121, and of quite a number ranging from
100 to 10 years. The pension burear
requires clear proof of service and o
continued life. If there was deception
in one or two of these cases there coult
not be in all, and there could be no mo
tive for pensioners to exaggerate thei
age at the time of being put on the rolls
Mrs. Angelina Podesta, native o
Italy, died in 1878, aged 100. Of he
extreme age no one who saw her coulC
doubt. Her eyes had that hazy, far of
look characteristic of centenarians an(
monogenarians. Her son, who was no
quite sure of her exact age, sent to he
birthplace, and the Latin document
duly attested by the parish priest
declared that her baptism tool
place on January ~, 1869. saw he
when she was past 100. Her bodil
strength was sufficient to allow her t
dance at the annual balls of the Italial
residents of Cincinnati up to nearly tn
time of her DEATH but she was mental
quite childish.
"Master" Sullivan, the father of ti
general and the first American ancesto
of the well-known Massachusetts ant
New Hampshire families, is credited wit
dying in 1896, aged 105. Mrs. East
man, mother of Judge Joel Eastman, tn
distinguished citizen of Coos County
N H., died in 1867, aged 105 years AM
six months. AS she was one of the littl
school girls who discovered in 1868 tn
buried infant of the teacher, Ruth Bla
who was hanged because Sheri1
Packer would not wait for Governo
Wentworth's reprieve to arrive-ther
can be no doubt asto her real longevity
| might make the list considerabl
longer, but must content myself with re
ferring to the account of Samuel Welch
of Bow, N. H., recorded in the secon
volume of Farmer and Moore's Histori
cal Collection of New Hampshire. Welc
died April 5, 1923, and Messrs. Farme
and Moore visited him about year be
fore. He was then in his 112th yeal
If the public records of his birthplace
Kingston, N. H., are correct, he wa
born February 13, I'LL, though he il
sisted that he was born the Septembo
previous, the time when his father II
auested the record to be made havin
been inserted as that of the birth itsel
| His mind was clear when he was seen b
the two eminent antiquaries. They cor
versed with him at length and we refC
the doubling to the detail of the intel
view.
1t is true, as you say, that no gradu
ate of Harvard has ever attained 10
years. Yale has been favored with fewc
+ centenarian alumni than Harvard, br
one of these few reached 103. lu 1S5
there were living graduates of Dar
mouth, all Presbyterian and Congreg'
, tional ministers, Rev. John Sawyer, {
Maine, aged 102 years; Rev. Laba
Ainsworth, seventy five years minister {
Jaffrey, N. H.-the longest pastoratc,
a think, on record and preceded by yci
. of "supply aged 100; Rev. Etha
=, Osborne, of New Jersey, ninety -eigh
and Rev. Zachariah Greene, of HemI
stead, L. l., aged ninety-seven. Befol
1853 had ended all were dead, Mr. Saw
yer at 103, Mr.. Ainsworth at 100 an
: some months, Mr.. Osborne at NINETY
a nine and Mr.. Greene at ninety-eigh
, Just now Elbert Porter, Dartmouth
, oldest living graduate, bids fair to roun
: out his century, having passed his ninet.
y ninth anniversary last December.