The Washington times., 1902-07-04

he. is hale and hearty. She is wrinkled,
and stoops with the age of full CEN
tury and quarter, but she possesses al,
her faculties. although thirteen years
ago she lost both sight and hearing. She
has regained them now. When she was
well past the hundred-yea mark-H1en
she was. in fact. liz years old-she ap-
parertly discovered the fountain OF
youth Her hair, which had for years
been snowy white, then turned Jet black
again. and it is now the. color of q
ravens wing. Thirteen years ago she
was totally blind from old age. 1t was
not strange. for she had then lived
forty three years beyond the three score
and ten allotted to mankind. Now she
has lived no less than llfty-fve years
beyond the appointed time" yet her
eyesight has been restored. The CEN
tenarian does not even wear glasses.
81 scorn spectacles." she declares.
Second Sight and Hearing.
Many years ago she lost her teeth,
Neither was that calamity strange, for
she had used then. on the coarse fare
of her station In life for twice the
number of years of the average life.
She works hard, albeit she is one of
and has well earned long rest She
washes. scws, and cooks sor numer-
Gus progeny.
In her family are representatives of
five generations-a daughter. grand
daughter, two great-grand- daughters.
and great-great-gr grandson. a tiny
younGster. She has been a resident of
Washington since the civil war
On July 4. 1777, the first anniversary
of American independence, the venera-
BILE old woman was born. slave child,
in a shanty on the Tolbert plantation
Her first master was George Tolbert
This was In the eighteenth century
One full century has passed since then
and she has lived to see the dawn of
a third one.
Her first 'marster" had a beautiful
Charles Carter. a prominent Democrat
OF the old school, She was among the
wedding presents given by the brides
father, and so passed into the posses
sion of the Carriers. The site CT the
old Carter home is now known as
Goodwood. Bernard Carter. her last
master an old and well-known Bal
timorc lawyer. was born when-she was
a grown woman.
The Civil War.
'If 1t hadn't been for the war"-she
calls it Mr.. Lircoln's war-"I would
have belonged to the Bowies," she said.
Before this. while matured woman.
she witnessed personally many of the
stirring incidents of the war of 1912, for
Maryland was the battle ground of many
of the land operations.
81 remember when the British burned
Washington" said the bright-eyed old
woman. talking almost with the energy
of youth. 1T made lots of talk on our
place. How old was l then? | was
wurth nigh on to a thousand dollars
then-I must have been about thirty.
Lots of the quality of Washington used
TO visit my master. President Madison
used to come to see us. There were
great times then, and | was mighty
happy
One hundred and twenty-five years
though she is, Mrs Davis has been mar
ried but once Her husband and two
sens ran away during the war
Il will never see them again." she
means, rocking backward and forward
in her chair. Two. other sons were
sold from her arms into the rice plan
tations of Louisiana. and neither did
they return. Her youngest brother died
in Washington some years ago. He was
eighty years old. She raised him. and
was a full-grown woman when he was
born.
The old woman has nine grandchil-
dren living, and eight dead. She has
had twenty-seven great grandchildren.
and one great great grandchild. She
has lived long enough to survive almost
all of her descendants.