Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-07-23
LONG LIVED PEOPLE.
Features of a Classified Record of Ten
thousand Centenarfans,

pendent to The New York Tribune,
Is about to publish book entitled
1.-The Encyclopedias of Human Longs-
witty" which is the result of thirty
eight years of investigation On his
part. The book will contain an
authentic record of large number of
people, men and women, who have
attained the age of 100 years or more.
The only exception to this is the case
of man who died at the age of 80
years and 1874 days, and whom Mr..
Perkins regards as virtually cente~
marian. The book will represent an
immense amount of labor anu re
search, and its author believes that it
may be relied on as accurate in
every instance.
81 bave," said Mr. Perkins, speak.
ing of his book, ''more than 10, 900 in
stances of people who have lived 100
years and more. These names have
been gathered from every part of the
globe. This country leads in lon
gevity, and Connecticut is at the
front among the United States. In that
state | have gathered statistics in re-
gard to more than 5000 persons who
were more than so years of age, and
of this number 90 were beyond the
century limit. AS regards sex the
maj ority of these 10000 centenarians
were women. I account for this by
the fact that they lead less irregular
| lives than men. / have instances of
SO old maids who come up to my Gems
fury standard, and only IL bachelors.
AS regards occupation [ find that sail
ors, soldiers, and farmers are the
longest lived. Among the professions
| have instances of 100 ministers who
liven to 100 years and more, while ]
could find only 80 doctors, 10 lawyers
and 10 actors WHO came up to the
standard. [ can find no case among
my 10, 600 of the newspaper man who
has lived to be 100 years old. News
paper men do SO much brain work
that they die young"
Coming to special instances, Mr..
Perkins added: among the oldest
people In the United States were Flora
Thompson, negress of Nashua, n.
O., who died at the age of $50 years;
Betey Frautham, a native of Germany,
who died in Tennessee at the age of
154 years. and Sins, slave, who died
in Virginia, $50 years old. I have the
cases Of ten persons who lived in safe
ty for one hundred years and were
then burned to death. In Onondaga
county / have the sketches of fifty
centenarians, Among them is Rev.
Daniel Waldo, who died in 1864 at
the age Of nearly 102 years. For more
than sixty years he was a clergyman
IN the Presbyterian church, and on
the anniversary of his Tooth birthday
he preached sermon in the First
Presbyterian church of Syracuse. The
last six pensioners of the revolution
airy war were centenarians, and have
their photographs. Then there was
John Weeks, of New London, Conn,
who married his tenth wife when he
was 1C6 years Of age and she only 16.
He died at the age of la. His gray
hairs had fallen off and they were
renewed by new growth of hair.
Several new teeth had also made
their appearance, and few hours
before his death he ate three pounds of
pork, two Or three pounds of bread,
and drank a pint of wine. Nicholas
Schathcowski, of Posen, was another
old fellow. He deposed an oath be-
fore the council of Constance, A. D.
1414, that he was $50 years Of age,
and that his father, whose age at the
time of his death was nearly 200,
could remember the death of the first
king of POLAND, A. D. 1925. Among
the oddities to be found in my book
will be the photograph of man who
died a. the age of 121 years. He had
IA children, grandchildren and great
grandchildren, and outlived them all.
Then there was Margaret McDowal,
of Edinburgh, who died at the age
of 106. She married and survived Is
husbands. John Rovin and his wife,
of Hungary, lived together as man
and wife for 148 years. He was 164
and she 172 at the time they died, and
their youngest son was 116 years old
when his parents died.
There is the case Of a man who
married sixteen times and had no
children. This case is Offset by that
of another centenarian who had forty |
nine children. John Riva, an ex-
change broker Of Italy, lived to the
age of 116 years, and had a child born |
to him after he was 100 years old. |
BetG, Sioux squaw, who died little |
while ago. lived for more than 100
years. She had been the wife in turn
of an army officer, an Indian chief, a
border cavalryman. and Methodist
minister. William Ward. Of West
chester county, died in 1778 at the age
of 10Y. He was member Of the
Ward family, who were among the
earliest settlers in Westchester county, |
and the particulars of his life and |
death were given in the New York
papers of the time. His brother
John was magistrate, and at
tended court in White Plains |
as late as 1773. William Ward, a |
member Of this family, carried on
business as banker IA 1883 at No. So |
Broadway, New York. Another
queer incident is that of a centenarian !
who was married four times and had |
a daughter by each wife These
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