The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1907-08-22
OLDEST WOMAN
OF NORTHWEST
SNOHOMlSH INDIAN WHO WAS
BELIEVED TO BE 125 YEARS
OLD PASSES AWAY.

TACOMA, Aug. 22.-Mrs. Julienne
Custolock, supposed to be the oldest
Indian in the northwest and without
doubt the oldest human being in the
state of Washington, died Thursday at
the home of her daughter, Mrs. George
Hughes, near Sylvan on Fox Island.
The exact age of Mrs. GustOlock, whose
Indian name is not known here. was
not known but the Indians of the Sno
homish tribe, to which she belonged,
selves, claim she was woman well adj
vanced in years when they were chill
dren. Mr.. Range, rancher living adj
joining the Hughes place of Fox Island
who has taken a great interest in the
age of Mrs. Gustolock and has made
investigations, has arrived at the con-
clusion that she is not less than 120
years of age, and she may be, he thinks
125.
Remembered First White Men.
The memory of the woman, which
was very vivid and clear up to a few
weeks ago, would indicate great an
tiquity. She remembered when the
northwest was an unbroken wilderness,
and also when the first white men put
in an appearance She remembered
clearly when the first big fire canoe
plowed up the waters of the Puget
sound and also when the first sawmill
;rI,t no
coming of the Hudson Bay people was
also well remembered, as we'll as the
first white people that drove wagons
across the Rockies and Cascades to the
northwest At the time the most of
these events took place she was wo-
man well advanced in life.
Going back beyond these matters of
common history she remembered many
Indian wars and the internecine strife
that shook tribal relations in the sound
region. She could also recount sew
eral of the battles growing out of the
age-long feuds between the Yakimas
and Klickitats and the Siwash Indians
of the sound region. The Indian wars
in which the red men made their last
concerted attempt fifty years ago to
destroy the whites of the Puget sound
region she remembered as though it's
incidents of war and hazard took place
but yesterday.
She Lived to Be a Mummy.
The woman's appearance showed an
extraordinary weight of years. She was
bent almost double and her features
and skin had the parchment look of
tanned leather. Her face was one
mass of wrinkles and the passing of
time seemed to have wasted her body
to skin and bone. Ernest Hall, of Hos
kas undertaking establishment of this
city, who went out to Fox Island to
care for the corpse, says that great age
seems to have almost taken away the
physical characteristics linking her
with humanity. her body being dwarfed
and doubled and her features furrowed
and contOrted indescribably.
The Indian name OF Mrs. Gustolock
is not known, nor is the place of her
BIRTH Her husband died eight or ten
years ago, he being almost as old as
she was.
Never Sick to Her Dying Day.
Mrs. Bustolock, so her daughter and
those who knew her say, had the I'M
usual experience of living nearly a CEN
fury and quarter without taking a
dose of medicine, or even being sick.
1t was a matter of pride with her that
she was never sick in her life, even
with an infectious disease. She was
temperate in her habits and like the
Puget Sound Indians generally, lived
almost entirely in the open air, and ex-
posed to the hardships of the elements.
The first she ever felt the pain of sick
ness was two months ago when her
coming dissolution was presaged. She
complained some but was able to get
about and kept her feet to the day of
her death. Sunday morning she was
sitting in a chair in front of the door
way of her daughter when death came.
Without a word she sank life being
extinct when her daughter reached her
side