Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1885-09-02
CONCEIVED PEOPLE.
Features of Classified Record OF Tea
Thousand Centenarians.

Features OF y Cf2ssfHo0 RECORD OF Ten
Thousand Centenarians.
Joseph E. Perkins, newspaper
dealer of this city, is about to publish
book entitled ''The Encyclopedias Of
Human Longevity" 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 at
tanned the age of one hundred years or
more. The only exception to this is
the case of man who died at the age
of ninety-nine years and three hundred
and sixty-four days, and whom Mr..
Perkins regards as virtually centena-
rian. The book will represent an i'm
mense amount of labor and research,
and Its author believes that it may be
relied on as accurate in every instance.
81 have" said Mr.. Perkins, in speak
ing of his book, ''more than ten thou
sand instances of people who have
lived one hundred years and more.
These names have been gathered from
every part of the globe. This country
leads in longevity and Connecticut is
at the front among the United States.
In that State | have gathered statistics
in regard to more than six thousand
persons who were more than eighty
years of age, and of this number
| twenty were beyond the century limit.
AS regards sex the majority of these
| ten thousand centenarians were women.
I account for this by the fact that they
lead less irregular lives than men. 1
have instances of fifty old maids who
come up to my century standard, and
! only twelve bachelors. AS regards oc-
| cupation / find that sailors, soldiers
and farmers are the longest lived.
Among the professions have the in
| stances of one hundred ministers who
| lived to one hundred years and more,
while | could find only thirty doctors,
| ten lawyers and ten actors who came
up to the standard. I can find no case
among my ten thousand of newspa-
per man who has lived to be one hum
| dred years old. Newspaper 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. c.,
who died at the age of one hundred
| and fifty years; Betsy Frautham, a ma
tive of Germany, who died in Tennes-
see at the age of one hundred and fifty
| four years; and Sins, slave, who died
in Virginia, one hundred and eighty
years old. have the cases of ten per-
| sons who lived in safety for one hum
| dred years and were then burned to
death. In Onondaga County have the
| sketches of fifty centenarians. Among
them is the Rev. Daniel Waldo, who
| died in 1864 at the age Of nearly one
| hundred and two years. For more
| than sixty years he was clergyman in
the Presbyterian Church, and on the
anniversary of his one hundredth birth
day he preached a sermon in the First
Presbyterian Church of Syracuse. The
| last six pensioners of the Revolutionary
| War were centenarians and / have
their photographs. Then there was
John Weeks, of New London, Conn,
| who married his tenth wife when he
was one hundred and six years of age
and she only sixteen. He died at the
| age of one hundred and fourteen. His
gray hairs had Sallen off and they, were
renewed by a dark 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 on oath before the Council of
Constance, A. D. 1414, that he was one
hundred and fifty years of age, and
| that his father. whose age at the time of
| his death was nearly two hundred,
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 a man who
died at the age of one hundred and
| twenty-one years. He had one hum
dred and forty-four children, grand
children and great-grandchildren, and
outlived them all. Then there was Mar
| garet MEDIEVAL, of Edinburgh,
who died at the age of one
| hundred and six. She mar
ried and survived thirteen husbands.
| John Rovin and his wife, of Hungary,
| lived together as man and wife for one
hundred and forty-eight years. He
was one hundred and sixty-four and
she was one hundred and seventy-two
years at the time they died, and their
| youngest son was one hundred and
sixteen years old when the parents
| died.
''Then there is the case of 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 one hundred and sixteen years
and had child born to him after he
was one hundred years old. Betz, a
Sioux squaw. who died little while
ago, lived for more than one hundred
years. She had been the wife in turn
! of an army officer, an Indian chief, q
border highwayman, and Methodist
minister. William Ward, of West
chester County, died in 1878 at the
age of one hundred and seven. He
was member of the Ward family who
were among the earliest settlers in
Westminster County, and the particu-