The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-12-22
She IS 1874
YEARS OF AGE
MARY MCDONALD, THE OLDEST
WOMAN IN THE WORLD.
She Lives i'm Philadelphia Still and She
Remembers the Revolutionary War
and Was .'Skeered'' at Night When
the Guns Went Off.

Philadelphia, Dec. 22.-Mary Me-
Donald, the oldest woman in the
world, has just celebrated her one
hundred and thirty-fourth, if not her
one hundred and thirty-seventh birth
day. The written records show be-
yond all question that the woman was
more than an infant at the time Of
the revolutionary war, and all of her
important statements as to historic
happenings within her personal men,
Dry have been fully verified by Daugh-
ters of the American Revolution.
Whether she is 1877 years old or only
134 is a point that hinges entirely on
her age at the time she was placed
in the family of Reese Howell near
Valley Forge. From Mr.. Howell she
learned that she was Z years old when
he got her. But other members of the
Howell family told her that she was
but years old when she was placed
with them, 131 years ago. There is alb
solutely no doubt as to the time when
she went to live at Howell's, near
Valley Forge. The date was Nov. a,
1872.
There she saw the army of Wash
ington in the trying days Of 1777 and
1878, when the revolutionary forces
We're camped near Valley Forge, the
topography of which section she
knows perfectly to-day, altho she has
not visited the scene in decades
STe recalls lSetSC w dlhCi ttllu q
dozen other early settlers in Valley
Forge. Her recollections as to Isaac
Walker are clear. Local history shows
that he was a descendant Of Lewis
Walker, who settled in the township
in 1905, and Governor Pennypacker,
in his annals of PhoeniXville,' men
tons Walker as the owner Of the
ground upon which the old black
smith shop-the original Valley Forge
was built, a fact previously stated
by Mary Mcdonald from her per-
sona1 recollections of the place and it's
surroundings. Descendants of Lewis
Walker still own the place, which has
national park.
Mary Mcdonald more than four
score years ago described how the
Walkers, Isaac, Joseph and Jacob,who
were members standing high in the
councils of the Society of Friends,
and who were much opposed to fight
ing for any cause, fed the hungry
Continentals, clothed them and de-
voted much time and money to car
ing for the sick and injured among
them.
Within a few years, Mrs. Sarah
Williams, a granddaughter Of Isaac
Walker and a Friend, was asked to
verify the statement Of Mary McDon-
aid as to Isaac Walker collecting sup
plies for the revolutionary soldiers at
Valley Forge, and as to the accuracy
of her description of the removal Of
Washington's army stores from the
camp at White Marsh to Valley
Forge. This Mrs. Walker was able
to do by family records in her pos
session, most Of them being letters
that passed between the brothers who
became separated at the time of the
war.
While Mary Mcdonald was living
with the Howells, at their place near
the King Of Prussia, which is on the
direct line from the Gulph to Valley
Forge, the army crossed from White
Marsh, at COnshohocken, then en-
camped at the Gulph, from Dec. II
to Dec. 10, 1777, before proceeding
to Valley Forge. The army and teams
would pass the King Of Prussia, where
Mary Mcdonald saw them.
Her account of the times CORE
spends with the Observation-Disclosures
stories published in current text
books. In recalling her personal i'm
pressions she says: 1.-THE guns were
always going off and skeered us at
night. This corresponds with the
fact that there was constant skirm-
fishing in the neighborhood of Phila-
delphia in the autumn and winter of
1777-7S.
THE soldiers were always going
up and down the road by our place,
all dressed up in buttons" This last
suggestion identified the Continental
uniform. '"These soldiers came around
twice a week to collect the stuff our
folks had made ready for them. All
the women round the place worked for
them and fixed up stuff for them
to eat. Them was awful days" These
statements correspond with the ira
ditions of the White Marsh valley.
Mary Mcdonald, to-day, weighs
only eighty pounds, and is so frail
that the nurses who look after her
are afraid that she will break. She
is blind and her only~joy in life is her
pipe, which she smokes necessarily.
Her birthday parties are the only
events in her life.