The Detroit times., 1910-06-03
80 YEARS MARRIED,
IS THIS COUPLES
STRIKING STORY
A little Talk With the 110-Year- Old
Husband Whose Love Story Began
Nearly Century Ago and Is
Still Unfinished.
he and His Wife Are Living With
Relative $50 Miles West
~, Of Denver.
~ HARRY q. FARMER.

FLORENCE. Col, June 3.-Married
80 years, Ninety years OF love and
marital bliss OF happiness and enjoy
Inent, touched here and there with
few dark clouds OF sorrow and grleI,
Is the record Of Francisco Espor and
his wife.
They look upon that 70-year-married-
couple as mere youngsters, just out
OF their honeymoon voyage. etac
At the home Of q granddaughter,
Mrs. Julia Montoya, No. 725 Petro-
leum-ave., Florence. the aged couple
have lived many years. There, as
talked with them, drifted back years
and years, to the time when this great
republic was an infant in the family or
nations, when the boundless west
knew only the Indians, the beasts that
prowled through the underbrush, and
the birds that clouded the skies.
The granddaughter supplied many
OF the facts Of this record career OF
welded life. While the aged husband
was specially strong on things that
Happened long years before the most
OF us were born, his memory could
rot touch events that occurred more
recently. Ii was here that he relied
upon his granddaughter's memory.
Yes" the 90-yeara-husband cente-
marian said, Il guess I'm getting Old,
too old | tell my grandchildren, and
ii didn't have Rafael" with an af-
fectionate glance at his wife, here
with me, should be entirely lost in
the world as il Is today.
Il was born in 1900; you see that
makes me 10 years old. and Rafael,
there, is three years younger than /
am. No. | don't remember the name
of the town where was born, it YVES
somewhere In what is now New Mex
leo; II has long been deserted and its
name forgotten. | think | am the
only person alive who lived in it. Yes,
we thought II was something of a
city In those days, but it's gone now,
like all the old friends OF those days,
except Rafael"
In those days Espor was a Spanish
citizen: later when the territory was
annexed to Mexico his political status
was changed When the northern
Mexican states were conquered and
annexed to the United States, Espor
became a citizen of this country.
He remembers well the descent
schooners that crossed the continent
fornia. A cloud of sorrowful remem
trance passed over his wrinkled face
as he told me of the times when in
the sandy wastes of the great Ameri-
can desert he stumbled over the half
devoured bodies OF men and horses,
the victims OF treacherous Indians.
He doesn't like to talk to strangers
now, for as he said, MY people are
all gone: the things that interest you
young folks are so entirely different
from the things We enjoyed In the
days Of the early part OF the last cen-
tuly, that ! can't get used to liking
them"
The old man is OF French descent.
though born in this country; his wife
was born near Taos, NJ NJ. They
have only one child, boy" of
eighty five. There were 10 children.
but old age has claimed them all ex.
cepting this one. There are, however,
80 grandchildren, 60 great-grandchil.
dren. and two great-great-grandchil.
dren
I had to cut the interview short,
for as the clock struck 4, the old man.
glanclng over TO his aged better
half" said, IT'S 4 now, Rafael, we
must go TO bed at 4. Four o'clock
has been our bedtime for years.
"oh, yes, I'll let you see our pic
lures" in answer to my plea for
photographs of himself and his wifn,
"but would rather II you didn't pub
lish them in the paper"
1t was only when | assured him
that thousands of people would like
to see the pictures OF the oldest mar.
rled codple in the country that he
reluctantly gave his consent to my
taking the photograph with me.
II hope when you print all this
about us, we will not have lots OF
strangers coming around, for we want
70 be alone, don't we, Rafael?" and