The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-08-19
OLDEST WOMAN IN
N. Y. Is SPRY AT 115
State Census Shows That Mrs.
Susan ellis Of Brooklyn
Holds Record.
A SLAVE FOR SO YEARS

on the top floor Of an old brick build
ing at Fulton street and Classon avenue,
Brooklyn, sat the oldest living person In
New York State yesterday. contentedly
munching bread and stewed pears at the
q OF us. She is Mrs. Susan Gillis,
before the Emancipation Proclamation.
That is. Mrs. Gillis's great-grandchildren
say they know she is lis years old. al
though she may be "a few years older
Her daughter. Mrs. Julia Thomas, who
is now 81, and was also a slave with her
mother. was in the same room, peeling
potatoes and regarding the inquisitive
reporter with a none too favor,b Bile eye.
II was plain that she did not fancy this
sudden leap into publicity. But Mrs.
ellis. whose conversation is limited be-
cause Of her age, CAV a throaty little
chuckle at the fourth n to-day" and
kept or eating her pears.
The long lived family came into no.
tice through the recent census, for yes
terday the State Census Bureau at AL
bany sent out a special story about
them. The bald statement that Mrs
Gillis was lis. mo occupation" was not
a hitting description Of the picturesque
old woman who was getting old during
the Petersburg campaign Of the civil
war. who tended the wounded there and
whose daughter shook hands with
Lincoln.
Her once strong frame is bowed TO a
tiny huddled shape, clad in a neat
Bingham dress with a bandanna cover
ing her head. Her face IL lined with lit
tie wrinkles, as IL all the years she has
seen had written their heavy history
there but her eyes are bright n she
threads "A needle with a hand that
shakes but little.
she is very religious explains her
great-granddauGhter, but one might
imagine that IL Mrs. Gillis could ind
words to shape her thoughts she would
say that living nearly 10 the age of the
republic is not exactly a blessing, Her
principal expression yesterday was:
Take me. good Lord take me :"
Her memory OF things doesn't amount
10 much, and for years n has sat ~
her little corner taking cat maps and
waiting for the Lord to take her.
The reason her descendants are not
sure OF her age is that u family Bible
which contained the records was burned
when the home Of her master, col. Pc
tersoL. was burned during the war. She
was born on his plantation AZ Spring
Garden. about seven miles from Peters
burg, and from the time she mas a little
girl until she was set free she worked
abou, the house, caring for the childien
waiting on table, milking the cows
and feeding the chickens. Her husband
was also a slave, hut he paid $50 a year
10 be allowed TO york FOR himself. lie
was "a fisherman and was quite pros
porous,
Mrs. Thomas recalled yesterday thar
the first shot uf the war In her neigh.
horhood landed OF the big house lawn
and dug a big hole. Ky hat time all
the women folk and slaves had been
sent to Petersburg, Mrs, Thomas among
them, and there she worked, caring for
the wounded until the war ended, When
President Lincoln came to the city, Mrs.
Thomas said. she shook hands with him
every morning for a week.
There are others over the century
mark In New York State and they are
all women, Mrs. Nancy Sweet OF Os-
wego. l0e. and Miss Marie Hare OF
J~ohnstown, iol.