Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-01-16

Mrs. Fannie Lomax.
few persons can boast But Aunt Fam
ME Lomax of Roslyn, Va, if her own word
and the record of her birth in the family
Bible Of her old master down in Virginia,
which is given as January 16, 1901, are to
be given credence, is all of this. Today is
her birthday-the one hundred and fourth
anniversary of that day in the dawn of the
last century when she was born in little
cabin on the big plantation of William
Buckney, in 1.-The neck" on the Pappahan.
mock river.
At the home of her son, Solomon II. Lo-
max, about three minutes walk from the
Virginia end of the Aqueduct bridge, she is
receiving her many friends and relatives to-
day. Among those who called were Rev.
DR.. j. G. Butler, pastor of the Luther
Place Memorial Presbyterian Church, In
whose home Mrs. Lomax was a servant for
many years. DR.. Butler has called upon
her almost every year at this time since she
became too old to travel about the city.
Necessarily the proportion of her descend
ants who have come to congratulate her is
small on account of the distance at which
they live. Her oldest living child Mrs.
Melvna Morton, who resides in Caroline
county, Va, is eighty-four years of age,
and probably will be unable to make her
mother visit. If her first child, Hannah,
were living she would be about ninety
years old.
While Mrs. Lomax is in good health for
one of her age. or one several decades
younger than she, her memory has begun
to fail and she recalls things that happened
forty or fifty years ago only vaguely. She
usually has to refer a queStioner to her son,
who remembers the stories she herself used
to tell ten years ago better than she does.
do you remember anything about the
beginning of the civil WARP" Star report
err asked her yesterday afternoon.
She did not hear at first. and her son re-
peated the question louder.
IT remember hearin' folks talkin' about 1t,
but was too young then to notice much
more" she answered thoughtfully, making
a conscious effort to cast her recollection
back over nearly half century. Too young
to notice things at sixty! Such is the idea
Of age. Perhaps it must be that person
who has lived several years beyond the CEN
fury mark should think of sixty, merely
sixty years, as a youthful age. But 1t Is
strange. especially to those who cannot
look back even forty years and remember
anything because they have not forty years
to their credit in the record book Of life.
OF course, this old "auntie' cannot re-
member George Washington. as she was
born about a year after his death. but she
says that his memory was still green down
in old Virginny'' when she began to notice
things. She was a house servant In the
home of the wealthy Mr.. Buckney, who
owned thousands OF acres Of farm land and
many oyster and fishing shores along the
river. and, In consequence, she had advan-
tages to observe and learn that many of
her companions in slavery did not have.
She thus received something of an educa-
ton, and today delights to recall what she
was taught long. long ago.
Fond Of a Good Joke.
She is fond of good joke like all of her
race, and yesterday when her son repeated
in her hearing the story she used to tell
him of how she took ride on the first rail-
road train in Virginia she laughed heartily
and her eyes twinkled with merriment The
conductor of the train on this first trip IN
vited her. together with large number of
other colored folks from the plantation of
Mr.. Buckney, to take ride, saying that he
would let them OF after a few minutes
run. Having got them all on board. how
ever, the jocular conductor ran away some
twenty miles. then stopped the train in the
open country. and said he was not coming
back that way for a long time. and 40 his
passengers would have to get off and walk
back "'-A
And mother and the rest did walk bach
too. said Solomon Lomax in conclusion.
1t seems that such a thing as this was
quite common in those days. Trainmen
used TO delight in coaxing colonies of slaves
miles away from home and unceremonious
iy dropping them overheard. Chagrin was
the first feeling of those SO duped but
usually, according to Mrs. Lomax, they re-
u.
Characteristic easygoing way of looking at
things.
Aunt Fannie lived on the plantation of
her master until the civil war was nearly
over. She helped in hiding things about the
house and outbuildings in an effort to keep
them away from any Union soldier that
might come along. After the war she was
brought to this city along with several
thousand other slaves who were given
quarters on Mason's. now Analostan,
Island, in the Potomac. Here she stayed
for about six months, at the end of which
time she succeeded in getting a place to
work with the family of Rev. DR., Taylor.
pastor of the West Street Presbyterian
Church. After remaining there for num-
Der of years she left to become the servant
of Rev. DIR. Butler, for whom She woriad
from about 1865 to 1872. or until she became
too old to keep up her workWith the ueces-
sary energy. Since that time her son. who
also worked for DIR. Butler has supported
her. The son Is now employed in the War
Department.
Ardent Church Member.
She has been an ardent member of the
Colored Baptist Church practically all her
life, and was one of the founders Of the
First Baptist Church of Georgetown She
attributes her extreme age to her virtue,
saying that "the good Lord" has thus
blessed her as a reward for life well
lived. She boasts of having merited her old
mother's displeasure but once In her life
and that was when. as a little girl, she took
out her spite by beating number OF chick
ems In the cabin because she was not al
lowed to 60 out and play with the other
slave girls on the plantation one day.
She claims to remember the days when
snow fell 50 heavily In Virginia that man
his waist. and 1t was necessary to 80 out
on thu tarm and dig the piRD and sheep out