Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-04-03
"A MOUNTAIN PINK."

"a NO" Jersey Ncgrcss Who Is Said Ia he
116 Years Old.
Inc Oldest person perhaps now live
ing IN the United States is Sylvia Du-
ooice' . negress and a former slave,
VINO in August last celebrated
her 11eth birthday, and who
lives in destitution on the bleak sn,n.
mt OF the sourland Mountain. in Hun
a County. New Jersey. In a lit
tie frame cabin, with one hardl;,
large enough for the swinging of a cat,
and which is hidden amid the sturted
underbrush and huge powders chat
lend a rugged and barren picturesque
ness to the lone spot. this famous
"mountain pink" draes out her bur
densome life, attended by her "baby,"
as she calls her youngest daughter.
Elizabeth Alexander, Who is herself
seventy years of age.
When a Record reporter, after a
wearisome climb of miles, reached the
cabin the other day he found the ven
cradle human relic stirring up wash
clothes that were in a boiler on the
stove, while the ''baby," lusty and
stout-limbed, was cbopping wood.
swinging her axe with the skill
and strength of an Amazon. For
half a century old Sylvia has lived
upon the identical spot upon which her
cabin now stands. The structure in
which all these years were passed
had begun to tumble in sheer decay
about her, for it was a bold target for
the fierce winds that sweep with hurri-
cane-like fury over the top of the old
gray mountain. 1t at last became not
even tit shelter for a beast. Her con-
dition excited the commiseration of
Rev. Mr.. Ferris, a mountain mission
airy, who succeeded in interesting. the
ladies of the Presbyterian Church at
bennington, ten miles away, in her be-
half. They raised the money for the
building of a new cabin, and into this
she has just moved. The structure is
not lathed or plastered, and there is
no carpet on the floor. The old lady
sleeps on a cot, while her daughter re-
poses on a old straw mattress in the
loft, which is without q window, and is
reached by the aid of a primitive lad
der. There is not a single article of
comfort about the place, and hardly
the necessaries of life. But the new
house is a palace in comparison with
the old one.
The c%entenariap is remarkably pre-
served for so great an ags. She says
she a hear ''puxt5 good" Her eye
sight is excefleni and she never wore
''spem" She a boast of the possess
sion of one sound tooth, and says that
since she was thirty years old she has
drawn crumbs Of comfort" from a
clay tobacco pipe. 81 think as much
of dat old clay pipe as 1 do of my dar-
ter ove'' yander," she remarked. The
old lady is d~ensely ignorant, never even
having been taught to read or write,
and this, combined with her clouded
memory, prevented her telling much
about herself. But the daughter SAYS
that her age is fully attested by an en-
try of her birth in the family Bible of
Major Baird, to whom her father, a
slave, belonged. She was born nearRock
Mills. at the edge of the Somerset
Mountain, in Somerset County, N. j.
When a girl she was sold or given to a
man namedD uboice, who lived at Great
Bend, on the north branch of the Sus-
quehanna River, in Pennsylvania. She
says she operated a ferry for her mas
ter, and took his name. When she
reached her eighteenth year and was
her w master Duboice furnished her
with a paper setting forth that she was
a free woman. Armed with this she
returned to Jersey, which was at that
time a slave State.
Her father served as a tifer in the
Continental army, in the command of
Major Baird. his master. He partici-
pated in a number of battles. She has
no memory for events, and gets the
Revolution sadly mixed with the War
of 1912. She is the mother of three
children, the eldest, Judith Roberts.
whose age is eighty-three years, living
at Princeton, N. j. She can not recall
the ages OF her father and motherwhen
they died, but says her son-in-law,
Francis Crazer, died in PHILADELPHIA
during the Centennial at the age of one
hundred and four years. Old Sylvia is
as ''pert as q cricket can walk about
unaided, and is but little stopped from
age. Two years ago she made a jour-
ney to Lambertville, and later to New
Egypt. Mrs. Alexander told the re-
porter hat she had to take as tender
care of her mother as though she were
a baby. The doctor will not permit her
to take medicine, but prescribes nour-
ishing food. These old women subsist
wholly upon charity. The daughter
regretted that, owing to the care re-
quired by the mother, she is unable to
go out to work for their support. and
the consequence is that they are in
great destltution. -PhilodelphiG Record.