Little Falls transcript., 1886-10-08
J JosEPH cREl-E.

IS Marvel sOf Long yity.
35s's s1t thing more than q hundred
'aid sixty years since q rerllarkable
s1aan was born here. II is only a little
-ssnore than twenty years since he died. !.
%Joseph Crele was, perhaps, the marvel
tsof longevity Of this century. Heswas.
I born of French parents in the t1'%ns iil-@*
'stimate frontier post Of Detroit in l725.
His early years were spent here, and
perhaps twas the salubriots air he
ybreathed that did something: prepare
his constitution for withstanding twice,
three score years and ten Of the wear
land tear OF this busy life. When he
had grown a young man he. went out
in the world and visited the principal
hamlets Of the French possessions in
America. When the English and Co
lonial army under the nl-starred Brad
dock poured erathe Alleghenies 70
take Fort Du QuesRe, Crele was u
French soldier and lent hand to the
defamation ef Braddock's $ army. Crele
was then older than the young Wash
ingtOn, butshe lived to see him Presi
dent and filling a large space i'll the
*sistory of the world, at time, too,
when even Frederick the Great aad the
famous soldiers of the French reyolu-
ton were On the field OF action. He
,mourned to hear that the great Wash
ington had turned to clay, and sixty
years and six more wept with genera
lions century and half younger over
the assassination of Lincoln. One Of
the victors Of Fort Du Quusne, he lived
ito see Canada and the Northwest lost
to the banner OF the feur de lis. He
lived On to see the birth, the growth
and the triumph of the American Re-
public, Of which he was a good citizen
for ninety years. He was almost sixty
years old when the revolution closed.
and yet he outlived every man who
served in that struggle for liberty
}. Joseph Crele was married in New Or
leans in 1855, and he was quite active
when General Jackson thrashed Pack
enham in 1914, and still living when
Farragut and Sutler captured that me-
.tropolis of the Southern Contederacy
in 1862. ~
About 1850 Crele settled at the trad
ing post of Prairie du CHEN, Wis, and
he lived near there for more than one
hundred years. His first employment
there, while the country was still in
the French possession, was as 3 letter
carrier between Prairie du Chen and
Green Bay. But getting along in years
he afterward settled down on a Farm.
He lived many of his later years with
his only surviving daughter, He was
sixty-nine years old when she was born,
and she lived TO agood round age, but
her old father survived her.
Notwithstanding his vast ago the old
n,an continued hale and hearty, with
health such as would content men OF
half his years. He frequently walked
long distances. and was in the habit OF
daily chopping wood for family use
1T is recited that he was melancholy ir
his last gears, and said that death hae
forgotten him. a He was very Religious
through his life. and would nearly
always add to this sad conclusion The
bright words: ''But God has not! y
He died January e., 1866, at the houst
of his granddaughter, Mrs. Brisbois
at Caledonia, Wis, aged one hundred
and forty-one years, and recognized a!
the veritable ''oldest man in the New
World" "
Many other cases of remarkable lon
'gevity have been claimed during othi
century, but thoy usually lacked proof
This old man. however, authenticated
his age by the record of his birth il
the old French Catholic Church herc
He also demonstrated 1t very strikingl]
In law case in which he was callet
as a. witness some years before hi
death. The case involved the title t<
land at Prairie du CHEN, and he testi
fled to transactions OF eighty and nine
ny years previous.
This native f Detroit was not as Ole
AS tho celebrated Thomas parr, ''th'
-olde, olde, very o1de man. OF Shrop
shire, England, born 1888, died 1885
but helived a much more exciting life
Parr merely existed through all his ON
hundred and titty-two years monot
"onous life in q asleepy English hamlet
and Ire died when he was shown Lon
don. Crele was twenty years older a
his death than the noted Jean Gland
Jacob, member OF the French Assem-
bly,, who was called by the French wit
sof his time the ''dean Of the huma,
species -0-Detsoat Free Press.