The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1921-01-27
100 YEARS OF AGE.
In Spite of Advanced Years She Walks
Without Assistance of Any Kind.

In Spite of Advanced Years She Walks
Without Assistance of Any Kind.
Union, Jan. 22.-Mrs. Susan Kirby
celebrated her 109th birthday ami
versary Thursday, January 20, when
she was the honored guest at quite an
elaborate dinner party given in the
western part of this city.
Mrs. Kirby, in spite of her very ad-
vanced age, is both mentally and ply
sically exceptionally alert, and thor
oughly enjoyed the party given in her
honor, which was attended by thirty
or more relatives and friends, while
there were numerous callers during
the day, who came to express their
best wishes that she would have still
many more happy birthdays.
Mrs. Kirby during her long life has
seen marvellous changes in the devel-
opment of this section of the south,
for in her childhood days she rode in
a wagon drawn by oxen, and in the
course of conversation with a repre-
sentative of this paper who called to
express birthday greetings she told
of how on one occasion when she was
a little girl she, with two of her little
sisters, ACCOMPANIED a relative in an
ox-drawn wagon, and when crossing
Green river, in North Carolina, the
fiat boat overturned and the wagon
and contents, including the cherished
family Bible, with all the family rec
ords in it, were lost in the river.
Mrs. Kirby has lived through and
remembers many wars in which the
United States engaged, among them
being the Indian war, when she was a
young girl; the Mexican war of 1S46,
the War Between the States in 1861,
IS. the Spanish-American war of 1898
and the world war, which ended in
1918. While she lived during the war
of 1912 between the United States
and Great Britain, she was an infant
then, and, of course, does not recall
it, except what she heard her people
talk about.
Mrs. Kirby was born in Ruther-
fordton, N. c., on January 20, 1912,
and was a daughter of William and
Mary Constance. In the early sos she
was united in marriage to ]. NJ. Kir-
by, who was born and raised in Spar
tanburg count. the nuptial vows be-
ing taken before Justice of the Peace
Cephas Tolleson, and OF this union
eleven children were born, five of
whom are still living, these being T..
G.. Kirby, Glendale; NJ. G.. Kirby,
Beaumont Mills, Spartanburg; ]. NJ.
Kirby, Union Mills, Union; Mrs. Sallie
McAbee, Converse, and w. H. Kirby,
Union Mills, Union. She has had
twenty-one grandchildren and sixteen
great-grandchildren Her husband who
served in the Confederate army, died
in 1887.
For ninety-five years Mrs. Kirby has
been a loyal member of the Methodist
church and is of a deeply religious
nature, she having told the neWspa-
per man when he visited her that it
was a great desire of her life that all
her 'folks'' and friends should so live
that after they died there would be
IAN unbroken circle in Heaven" The
last public service Mrs. Kirby has
beer able to attend was on Mothers
Day last year, when she was an hon
ored guest at the special service at
Green Street Methodist church, Of
which the Rev. J. B. Chick is pastor,
he in turn being one of the honored
guests at the dinner party given in
celebration of Mrs. Kirby's 1O9th
birthday
Mrs. Kirby is woman of medium
build and, though so advanced IN
years, walks about unassisted with
remarkably steady step. Her mind
is very clear and she talks interesting
ly of many things that have occurred
during her long life, and up to two
years ago, when she had influenza,
her eyesight was wonderfully good.
Mrs. Kirby seems quite we'll and
hopes to enjoy still many more years
with her family on earth.