The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1890-11-27
ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE.
That 10 the Age Of a wide-Awako
New York Woman.
The World Has Changed in Her Time.
Great Progress Made by the Nations
OF the Earth Since Mrs. stiiwagon
Learned to Bake Bread.

Great Progress Made by the Nations
OF the Earth Since Mrs. stiIiwagon
Learned to Bake Bread.
There lives to-day on Long Island a
woman who was born during the reign
Of Frederick the Great. She is in fairly
good health, too, says the New York
Tribune, and is in possession of all her
faculties. The mere statement that she
is more than los years old conveys only
dim impression of her great age, but,
when 1t is remembered that Louis
XVI. was guillotined while she was
going to school, 1t seems astounding
that she should be walking and talking
and eating and enjoying life yet in the
little town Of Flushing.
Her name Is Mrs. David Stillwagon.
She was born on September 1s, 17s5, on
farm at Tarrytown, N. Y, and her ia
theirs name was Abram Van Wart. She
married in the present century, but her
husband died more than two genera
tions ago. Mrs. Stillwagon learned to
bake bread early In her career, and con-
tinued to do so, together with perform
ing many of her other household duties,
up to short time ago. While she has
been baking bread twenty Presidents
Of the United States, five Popes of
Rome, six Sultans of Turkey; two EN-.
perors, three Kings and two republics
of France; six rulers of Prussia and six
Cars of Russia have been making his
tory, have played their parts and made
their exits.
She had grown up to be young wom-
an before Ireland was united with Great
Britain. The Reign Of Terror, Napo-
Icons advent, his wonderful campaigns,
his overthrow, his banishment, his me-
teoric temperance, his second banish-
ment and his death were all topics of
daily news with her once, though almost
ancient history now. She was getting
her wedding trousseau ready when word
came Of the death Of Nelson at the IA
nous battle Of Trafalgar. "The Young
Pretender" had not drunk himself to
death before she could lisp: "Touch
not, taste not, handle not" at her moth
er's knee.
She was middle-aged woman when
Byron died at Missolonghi, and there
was yet no independent Greece. She
was nearly three-score when Italy
achieved liberty. In her time the popu-
lation of these United States has grown
from less than three to more than sixty
millions. No doubt hundreds of mill
ions of people have been born, lived
their lives and died since she first saw
the light, for the population Of the
whole world has been thrice renewed in
her time.
The world in which her young ideas
were trained was widely different from
ours. Kings felt their crowns very firm
ly placed on their heads then. De-
mocracy was generally regarded with
adherence. Working men scarcely
dared to dream of combining for their
own protection against capital. Fast
coaches even had not been established
when she was born. She had lived al.
most half century before the first
steam railroad in the world for passen.
gers was opened, and was an old woman
before telegraphy came into practical use.
Geology was an embryo science in her
infancy. So was meteorology. The first
daguerreotype, the beginning Of pho
Biography, was taken when she was fifty
four She was seventy-four when the
Darwinian theory was broached. Rifled
ordnance had not been heard of in the
wars that were fought when she was
young, and the earliest ironclad was
then half century in the future. She
clapped her little hands on the day that
George Washington was made first Pres
ident, though she did not know why
they told her to. 1t only lacks nine
years Of century since Washington
died, and Mrs. Stillwagon was big
school girl then. Presidents Van Buren,,
jackson, Monroe and Jefferson, Fox,
Burke, Sheridan, Southey, Coleridge,
Keats, Scott, Lamb-she might have
seen and conversed with them all II she
had not stayed so quietly at home.
What q length Of days! What stores
of experience she must have! For she
is an intelligent woman and has always
kept herself informed on matters of i'm.
portance. What memories Of long, long
ego she must be able to recall! and
though there is nothing melancholy or
lachrymose about Mrs. Stillwagon, and
while she enjoys the society of her rels-
tives who surround her, still favorite
verse with her is:
"And the mossy marbles rest
On the lips that ho has pressed
In their bloom;
And the names he loved to hear
Have been carved for many Q year
On tho tomb"
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