Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-01-08

Born Nine Months Before the First
PRINTED, James D. Cameron of
: This City, Now Nearly 1o1 Years
of Age, has Lived to See centen.
NAL Edition of That Paper Printed
to Commemorate Its tooth Birth.
day. And in that Century of
Time, Changes Have Taken Place
Under the Eyes Of Mr.. Cameron
That are Almost Beyond Belief.
He was born April s. 1924, the
son of poor parents in Fredericton,
n. B., and was one of a family OF
16 children, all boys but one. The
conditions under which he grew up
are APPLY illustrated by his tale of
the manner in which the boys of his
family split wood in the winter.
Having neither shoes or stockings
they would secure some large chips
which after being warmed beside
the fire were placed by the wood pile
by one of the boys for the others to
stand upon them as they chopped
the wood.
Marvellous Inventions During His
What hardships such a way of
living would be considered today.
Inventions Of engines and machines
which have become necessities to-
day ave changed all of This. The
necessities of today would have been
unbelievable luXuries in those days.
Since Mr.. Cameron was born, trans
portation has progressed from the
old stage coach to fast trains, and
airplanes capable of travelling well
over 200 miles an hour, farther in
one hour than a stage coach could
travel in the entire "a hours.
Communication has changed from
the messenger on horse back to the
telegraph, telephone and radio by
which a message may be flashed
around the earth in a fraction of a
second. From the old hand loom
and spinning wheel the manufacture
of cloth has developed until today
huge mills capable of turning out
enough cloth for thousands of
families instead of only one, are
common sights. And in place Of the
this cloth was made into garments,
sewing machines run by electricity
are in every day use in the homes
Of this country.
Without electric lights the nation
sun goes down. In those early times
candles were used to light the
houses. Automobiles.-g fl d
stage coaches running without
horses,-something beyond the wild
est imaginings of any one of that
age, are now owned by the common
people. The list of inventions that
have taken place in the past century
is far too large to be chronicled
here.
All OF these and many more have
developed from the first rough
model made by some gifted man who
was thought by his neighbors to be a
little Cracked until they have be-
come things to be taken for granted,
and only to be noticed when for
some reason they fail to function as
they should. And all have thus de-
veloped in the life of this aged and
respected resident of Augusta.
His Life One Of Rugged Toll
Mr.. Cameron has been employed
for the greater part of his life with
work Of the hardest sort. He was
for forty years a woods foreman for
F. Shaw and Brothers, working on
their bark peeling operations in the
woods of this state. In 1911, then
at the age OF 81 years, MI. cameron
heard the call of the west, which
has been needed by SO many Of the
younger generation. and himself
went west where he was employed
at Rill Lake. Wisconsin and at
Flagstaff, Arizona for the Shaw
Company. After working about six
years in those two places, Mr..
Cameron went to Maytown, WASH
ington, where he accepted a position
as Waterman with the Service Mill.
This Service mill is what Mr..
Cameron describes as small one.
The capacity of the mill was about
$4,000 feet a day and as night
Waterman he was obliged to clean
up the entire mill each night. The
work was hard and this coupled
with the night work lowered his
vitality to a marked degree so that
he finally left the mill and came to
this city about four years ago. He
has since made his home here with
his son. v. E. Cameron, who con-
ducts a grocery store on Gage
street.
An Able Bodied Man at 100
About year and half ago Mr..
Cameron suffered a slight shock
Which he believes to have been
caused by the hard work which he