The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-04-01
OLD AGE.
Hale and Hearty at
SO Years.
INTERESTING LIFE.
Miss 0rphana Brainerd Saw
Lafayette in 1924.

Miss Orphana Brainerd celebrated
the 96tl anniversary of her birth yes
terday at the home of her niece, Mrs
W. B. Chamberlain. 10 Elm street. The
aged lady spent the day quietly and
there was but little out of the ordinary
routine of her daily life to remind her
that she was nearing the century mark,
many years beyond the allotment usu-
ally prescribed to this bit of clay of
ours. Miss Brainerd, however, was the
guest, together with her niece, of DR..
and Mrs. Allen, who dwell just across
the street from her home. This was
the first time during the winter that
the old lady had ventured out, but a
taste of the pure ozone had no suscep-
tible i'll effects.
Miss Brainerd is remarkably we'll
preserved woman, and her appearance
and activity would not indicate her
great age. She walks up and down
stairs several times a day, and thinks
no more of it than does women so
years younger. Miss Brainerd reads
The Spy daily, and keeps in touch with
the times and news of the world. Her
memory is failing somewhat, and after
10> days her mind fails to recall any
thing she has read. But the charm
of the old ladY's personality lies in the
past Many incidents of her girlhood
and young Womanhood are retained,
and it is a delight to hear her tell them.
Mrs. Chamberlain has been reading to
her Mrs. Earle's "Old Colonial Days,
and the many things described in the
book such as the making of fax; Miss
Brainerd says are accurate, and she
adds some new thought or suggestion
of her own.
But Miss Brainerd is not Masea
chusetts woman, although she has
spent the winters Of the past rs years
In this city Every spring In May or
the first of June she goes with Mrs.
Chamberlain to her native place in
East Randolph, VT, where she spends
the summer in the old-fashioned home
of her father, where she was born in
the opening years of this century. The
ancestral home is over 100 years old,
and has never received a coat Of paint.
The storms of a century have left their
mark, and the old structure is fast d.
csytng. A grove of maple trees planted
in 1892 surround the house.
Here the old lady spends the sum-
mer months in q quiet retreat where
all the associations of a long life are
ceptered. Until little over a year ago
Miss Brainerd had her sister with her,
who also had never married. She died
at the advanced age of SO years, which
shows the great longevity of the fam
lily.
Randolph is a historic town, and was
among the first settled in eastern Yer
mont. Her fathers brother was che
first settled pastor of the Congrega-
tional Church of that place. 1t has
been 70 years since Miss Brainerd
united by confession of her faith with
this church, and even at this day she
remembers the minister who baptized
her and ting assisting clergymen. Some
years ago the old church was being re
paired and the local historian of Ran
dolph wanted to know something con-
corning the interior and the people who
attended especially in Miss Brainerd 3
earlier days. Miss Bfainerd traced q
rough plan of the edifice, and what was
the more remarkable thing, she indi-
Gated by pews the names of the par
ishloners who had seats there half a
century ego.
Miss Brainerd remembers very well
the triumphant tour OF Lafayette
through this country in 1S24-25 and of
his passing through Randolph Center
on his way over the old stage road to
Montpelier. The late Senator Justin S.
Morrill, of Vermont was a cousin and
oftenttmes stopped at her fathers home
on his way from Stafford, his home, to
Montpelier. This was before the Central
Vermont railroad was put through in
tS47 and the shortest road to the capitaI
was through the eastern part Of the
town Of Randolph.
In her 96th year Miss Brainerd plans
to return to her Vermont home and il
nothing interveneE, three months from
now will find her there.