Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1908-07-23
MONSTER BOYS LIVE
IN The GIANT STATE
Texas Has Two Youngsters
Who Are Prodigies-
Weight $50 Pounds.

Houston, Tex.-Two of the most re-
markable boys in the world live on Il
farm near Lannius, Tex They are sons
of MIR. and Mrs. John H Ashcroft. The
combined age of the two boys is 1879
years and their combined weight $50
pounds.
The oldest boy is named William
Dewey Ashcroft. He is 9la years old
and weights 255 pounds. He is still
taking on flesh at the rate of about 20
pounds each year. AT his present rate
of growth he will be giant in height
completed his growth. He is now five
feet two inches tall His waist measure
Is SO inches. His body is we'll proper
toned and he moves around without
any noticeable Inconvenience.
II his growth continues during the
next II years at the rate it has since
birth he will weight in the neighbor
hood OF 600 pounds by the time he
reaches the age of an ordinary, full
grown man. His health is good and 1t
is claimed by physicians who have ex-
amined him that his chances for con-
tinued growth and development are as
good as those of an ordinary boy.
When this boy was born. in 1898, he
weighed 914 pounds. He took to grow
Ing right from the start, and when he
,, was only one year old he weighed so
pounds. He was as large as an ordin-
airy size man when only five years old.
his weight at that time being 1877
pounds. He gained Ga pounds during
the next two years, his weight being
20l pounds on the day he was seven
years old.
The wonderful boy has had many of
the MS that usually fall to the lot of
children and grown people, but he kept
growing all the time. When he was
only months old he had an abscess
in the throat. He suffered severe
attack of pneumonia when only .
years old. He pulled through that
sickness and quickly regained the
flesh that he had lost and had taken
ON lot more by the time he was at
tackled with whooping cough, when ~.
years old
Always Recovered Quickly.
He did not have another spell of
sickness until he was years old,
when he was attacked with diphtheria.
He recovered from that illness and
still continued to get better and big
ger until he was years old, when ty-
phoid fever laid hold on him and kept
him confined to his bed for y few
weeks. He got over that sickness and
been sick since then, and his daily
gain In weight continues without in
terruption.
The younger of the two brothers is
named Ernest 4. Ashcroft He is also
physical phenomenon. He was born
December A. 1903. and weighed ten.
pounds at his BIRTH He weighed 40
pounds when | year old, and by the
time he was his weight had increased
to as pounds. He weighed 1O5 pounds
when years old. He Is three feet
seven inches tall. His waist measure
Is 30 inches. This younger boy has had
no serious spell of illness, and is the
picture of health.
The most remarkable thing about the
phenomenal sizes of these two BOYS is.
that their parents are of ordinary size
Their father is about six feet tall and
weighs 16S pounds. and their mother
is fi'se feet ten inches tall and weighs
$50 pounds
Mr.. and Mrs. Ashcroft have five
other children. all girls. and none of
them shows any signs of unusual
physical growth or development. ON
the contrary the girls are delicate and
unusually light of weight for their
ages. Mr. Ashcroft says his greatest
ambition 10 to aiun hio rane..a h..al.
ing sons a good education.