Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1885-10-03
L0kG.LlvED PEOPLE.
Features OF a Classified Record Of
Ten thousand Cenfenarians.

newsdealer of this city. is about 70
publish book entitled The Encyclo-
pedia of Human Longevity, which IS
the result of thirty eiget years of inves
igation On his part. The book will con-
tain an authentic record of large num-
Der OF people, men and women, who
haye attained 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-ni years and three hun
dred and sixty four days, and whom Mr..
Perkins regards as virtually a 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
II have" said Mr.. Perkins, in speak
ing of his book, more than 10, 600 in
! stances 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 lon
4 .
among the United States In that State
] have gathered statistics in regard to
more than 5000 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 20, 900 centenarians were women
account for this by the fact that they
lead less irregular lives than men.
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 instances of
100 ministers who lived to one hundred
years and more, while | could find only
thirty DOCTORS ten lawyers and ten actors
whe came.up to the standard | can
find no case among my 10, 900 Of news
paper man who has lived to be one hun
dred years old. Newspaper men do 50
much brain work that they die young"
Coming to special instances, Mr. Per
kins added: Among the oldest people
in the United States were>AFlora Thomp-
= negress of Nashua, =. c., who
ssslc~S OF the age of $50 years; Betsy Fraut
n native of Germany, who died in
e5see at the age of ia years; and
! slave. who died in Virginia, $50
= $ old. | have the cases of ten per
Z who lived in safety for 100 years and
i ~ men burned to death. In Onondaga
s7I J have the sketches of fifty
! snarians. Among them is the Rev.
.-xanel Waldo, who died in 1864 at the
ii A5f nearly 102 years For more than
p years he was a clergyman in the
syterian church, and on the ami
8 try Of his Tooth birthday he preached
= Wnon in the First Presbyterian church
81 racuse, The last SIX pensioners Of
= 1l*ievolutionary war were centenarians
] LII have their photographs Then
Is was John Weeks, of New London,
TIn,, who married his tenth wife when
nc was 1916 years Of age and she only six
teen. He died at the age Of ia. His
gray hairs had fallen off and they were
renewed by dark growth of hair
Several new teeth had also made their
appearance, and few hours before hi,
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 oddi-
ties to be found in nv book will be the
photograph Of q man who died al the
age of one hundred and twenty one
years. He had IA children, grandchil-
oiren, and great grandchildren. and out
lived them all Then there was Margaret
McDowal, Of Edinburgh, who died a.
the age Of one hundred and six She
married and survived thirteen husbands.
John Rovin and his wife, Of Hungary.
lived together as man and wife5for 14e
years. He was one hundred and sixty
four and she one hundred and seventy
two years at the tine 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 ard had 10 chi
d-en. This case i offset by that .:
another cen:enar,an who had forty nlne
children John Riva. al exchange bro
ker Of Italy, lived 10 the age Of one han
drei and sixteen yeas ami nad q
child born TO him after h ~a=
one hundred years old Bet 3 >io.x
squav. who died little while ago lived