The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-03-21
HE IS 100 YEARS OLD.
ne May He $50. but He Docs Not Remembe
Exnctly-His Wandering Life.

nc May He $50. but He Docs Not Remember
Exnctly-His Wandering Life.
EUREKA. CAL. March IA man on his death
bed in q ranch house not far from this city 10
probably the oldest person In tho United States.
He is so old that he has lost accurate count of
the years he has put behind him. but they are
not fewer than 100, and may be 100. He Is John
Bradbury. n native of Buckinghamshire, Eng
land. He lives with the family of Charles Nell
son, who owns q ranch about twenty miles from
Eureka.
He Is an old man who was a baby when tho
world rang with tho news that Napoleon had
been sent to st. Helena, but John Bradbury was
middle-aged then. He was married and had
grown children. He was still In England, and no
remembers well the rejoicing over the final dis
appearance of tho French conqueror. Not long
afterward he suffered reverses in his English
home-deaths in his family and losses in his
business-and. accompanied by two brothers,
he came to this country and settled
in New York. He does not remember
how long he lived there, but from
his account OF affairs It must have been
about ten years. Then tho desire to wander
seized him. and he drifted about from ono city to
another, visiting all parts of the United States.
Sometimes he passed five or six years In q place,
and sometimes he would return again and again.
after years of absence. to the same city. His
recolIections of this period of wander
ing, which seems to have been as
long as an ordinary lifetime, are much
impaired. but 1t is possible, by piecing to-
gether fragments OF his conversation, to get an
idea of It's extent and duration. 1t must have
lasted fifty years. and during all that time,
wherever there was any keen excitement and
wherever men gathered from afar. there went
John Bradbury. and there he stayed as long az
things interested him. -, -.
da nraa driffeG zane mbo 1G GSs's stnts from in nn one ea cam so TO
another. went back to various parts of the East.
and returned to the Pacific Coast, two or three
had had so many birthdays that they no longer
t nhssre''HHt He has BEEN in this county SHaSo most OF the
About ten years ago, tho desire to sec his
went back to, find them or their descendants.
although the old man searched diligently, he
could find no trace OF them or their families;
resigned rafa ed himself i1Me tod to dying ii WITHOUT kS SSViea eH Of
the family Of Mr.. Nelson. Before this last illness
who are fifty years his junior. He must have
had a frame OF unusual strength and a constitu.
to have taken the least thought for his physical
welfare, and 10 have, gone through all manner
OF hardships during his wandering life..
He has always taken his pipe and his grog
with regularity. Ho has a most cheerful and
joyial disposition and is still a stranger to most
OF the creeping whims and brooding fancies of
old age. In most things his mind Is fairly clear
and his memory is better than one would expect
to find IL In a man who is 30 far past the century
mark. The things he has forgotten seem rather
10 have slipped from his memory because he did
not care to Keep them there than by reason of
years no does not want TO die. Although no
knows that he is probably on his doath;bed he is
trying as hard to, yanquish death and snatch q
few more years OF life as II he were u hundred
y0arB Younger.