The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-05-20
IS CENTENARIAN.
Mrs. Delight Beecher Upson, 100 Years
 Old May IT,

MrS. DeN8nt BeeCner UpSOn, IUu 4earS
 Old May r.
 Mrs. Delight Beecher Upson of Bur
 lington, about three miles from Collins vile, was one hundred years old May 17, and proper notice of the event was
 taken by the people hereabouts. The
 Burlington church last Sunday appoint
 ed committee to secure presents and a
 reception was held at her house in the afternoon from two to four o'clock. It
 was all informal and big surprise to ! Mrs. Upson,
 Mrs Upson, daughter of the late MT.
 and Mrs. John Beecher, was born in
 Wolcott, this state, May +, 1901 She
 is tKe only survivor of a family of eight
 children, five boys and three girls.
 The late Henry Ward Beecher was a
 third cousin, and Mrs. Upson delights in i talking Of him. A Beecher characteriS-
 tic, Mrs. Upson at an early age mani l tested great desire to attain lln0Wl- | edge further than that afforded by the
 country schools. Books were eagerly 1 sought, with the result that she had
 achieved in her youth an education far in excess of the times. For a number of years she taught school in the vicin- ity of her native town. At the age of twenty eight years she married Mar GUS H. Upson. A year later they moved to Burlington, where Mrs. Upson has since made her home. MT. Upson died in 1864 No children were ever born to them.
 Family history shows that Mrs Upson was belle in her younger days, and hot -l,o [, cal as well as intellectual condition. She possessed an exceedingly fine set of teeth until about two years ago, when they began to drop out. She brides herself on never having had q tooth ache, decayed tooth, or eyer employ ing a dentist. She also relates of su- perstition which existed years ago and which she asserts she compiled with. It was said that if a person bit snake from head to tail he or she would al- ways have sound teeth. Consequently brother captured a snake and held 1t by head and tail while she did the rest. Her general health is excellent for a person who has reached the one hum dred years mark. Aside from deafness her faculties are only slightly impaired. w HIle lIlUSS IieSldlll llN llcI ty ytSISlit, objects about the room are plainly visi- ble. Her physical endurance is remark able. Only one day last week she walked to and from a neighbors house. distance of half mile. Her mind Is also very clear and she tells with pre- cision of many important events which happened years ago, among them sa- were ice storm which occurred in 1895, breaking down trees and doing an i'm mense amount of damage, and, as she says, much more severe than similar storm in the winter of 1898.
 When the first steamboat came into New Haven harbor, a party of which | she was a member, was made up from 1 her town, going to New Haven on horseback and >in wagons, where they l all took their first steamboat ride.
 Her family have been well represent | ed in the country's wars. A grand | father served in the Revolution, an un- [ cle and cousin in the war of 1912, and i nephews in the civil war. Her early { training in religion has never been for gotten. She has been a member of the Congregational church of Burlington ever since it's origin, and has for the , past seventy years made regular dona- tions for the support of the gospel and l it's administers.
 Her only living relatives on her side | of the family are three nepheWs, John | Beecher, a lawyer in California, Joseph | Beecher a fruit grower in New Jersey, and Dwight Beecher, a farmer in Bris- tol, and a niece, Mrs. Ellen Norton Of Wolcott. Marcus II. Upson, nephew If her husband, is a resident of this place. Two nieces from the same branch of the family are also living to- lay, Mrs. J. D. Cook of Nebraska and Mrs w. D. Chaffee of Pennsylvania. Two years ago Mrs. Upson came to this place, where for the first time in about 'orty years she saw a railroad train.