, 1885-08-04
L~0NG-LIVED PEOPLE.
A CLASSIFIED RECORD OF TEN
THOUSAND cENTENARlANs.
The nc-"it of thirty eight Years of Pa.
tisnt investiEation-LonEevity and
oceupatiou-A Number of spe-
ciaI InstAnces-Queer Cases.

~ otth " VI tnh CITY IL ABOUT 10
publish a book entitled -The ncyclope.
dia of Human / ongevity, -" which Is the
result of thirty eight years Of investiga
ton on his part The book will contain
an authentic record Of a large humber Of
people. men aud women. who have at.
tanned the age Of 100 ears or more The
only exception to his Is the cuse of a man
who died at the age Of 30 years and 3II
days. and whom the author regards "a
virtually n centenarian. The book Wi
represent an immense amoun Of labor
and research. and its author believes thai
1t may To relied on us accurate In every
Instance
Il have, g said the author. speaking of
his books. more than 10. 900 instances OF
people who have lived 100 years and
more. These names have been gathered
from every part Of the globe This coun
try leads ip longevity, and Connecticut is
at the front among the Iniied States. In
that slate | have gathered statistics In
regard TO more than 5000 people who
were more than 20 years Of age. and OF
this number twenty were beyond the cen
tury limit, As regards sex. the majority
OF these 10, 900 centenarians were women.
| account for this by the fact that they
lead less irregular lives than men. / have
instances Of nifty old ma DIS who come up to
my century standard. and only twelve
bachelors As regards occupation, | find
that sailors, soldiers. and farmers are tho
longest lived. Among the professions /
have the instances Of 100 ministers who
lived 10 10 years and more, while |
could find only thirty doctors, ten law
ycrs and ten actors who came up TO the
standard | can find no case among my
O,OU0 o Il newspaper man who has lived
to lie 90 years d. Newspaper men do
so much lrain work that they die young "
Coming TO special instances. Among
the Oldest people in the tnited tates
were lora Thorn on. II negress Of
Nashua, y. C., who ed at lineage of 100
years, Betsy fTautht n native of Ger
many. who died in snnossee at the age
OF Id years, and sims. Il slave who died
In \ irginia. 100 years old. / have the
caseH of ten persons who lived in safety
for 100 years md were then burned to
death. In Cnondaga county i have the
sketches of nifty centenarians. Among
them is lev. Daniel Waldo. who died Ia
1861 at the age Of nearly l02 years. For
more than sixty years he was a clergy.
man in the resbyteriau church, and on
the anniversary OF his 10Oth birthday he
preached a sermon in the ! irst Presbv-
terrain church OF Syrncuse. The last six
pensioners of the rev utionary war were
-centennrians. ard | AVE their photo
graphs. Then there was John Weeks. of
New London. tonn., who married his
tenth wife when be was 10j years Of age.
and she only l6 lie died at the age OF
IL. His gray hairs had fallen OF and
they were renewed by Il dark growth OF
hair. Several new teeth had also made
their appearance, and n few hours before
his death he ate three ounds of pork, two
or three pounds Of bread. and drank u
pint Of wine.
Nicholas Schathcowski of Posen. was
another old fellow. He deposed on oath
before the council Of Constance. A. ID.
l4l4, that he was 100 years of age. and
that hisfaiher. whose age at the time OF
his death was nearly 200. could remember
the death Of the hrst k NC of Poland. A.
d. 1913. Among the oddities to be found
in my book will be the photograph of a
man who died at the nge of years.
He had ia child en-. grandchildren
aud great-grandchiluren and outliyed
them all. Then there was Margaret Me
Dowal, of Edinburgh. who died ut the age
of TO-. She married and survived thirteen
husbands Ohm kovin and his wife. of
Hungary, lived together as man and wife
for las years. lie was 1874 and she 1i2
at the time they died, and their youngest
son was llB years old when his parents
died.
There is the case OF a man who mag
ried sixteen times and had no children.
This case is offset by that of another cen.
tenarian who had forty-nine children.
John I,iva, an exchange broker, of Italy,
lived to the age of l16 years. and had a
child born to him after he was 100 years
old. Betz, Il Sioux squaw. who died a
little while ago, lived for more than 100
years She had been the wife in turn of
an army o Lcer. an Indian chief. a border
cavalr, man and n Methodist minister.
William Ward. Of Westchester county.
died in l77s at the age of TO-. He was a
member OF the Ward family who were
among the earliest sett ers in Westchester
county. and the particulars of his life
and death were given in the New York
papers Of the time,
Another queer incident Is that of a
centenarian who was married four times
and had a daughter by each wife. These
daughters married, ard each Of them had
fourteen children. Then there was q
man who went over the century line and
had twenty-five children. His first was
a boy. and girls aud boys came after that
in regular rotation There was a person
known rs Elizabeth Page. who lived in
London and died at the age of los years
After death, 1t was discovered that the
supposed woman was n man