Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-09-23
HALE AND HEARTY
| ON 1O2D BIRTHDAY
Michigan Grange Leader
Drives Car and Keeps
Up in SPIRITS.
special Dispatch to The star.

/ HOIIldo 0OEQOuy WAAOy hCCi UiiO hlCtt
in all his faculties and still busy at
useful work, will be 102 years old today
He will celebrate by being guest OF
honor at a joint gathering at Howard
City, Mich, of Greenwood Grange, No
l,217, of which he was master % years
and Pomona Grange, of which he
also IS member.
Thomas Gordon is the oldest person
In Michigan carrying a drivers license
s.nd probably the oldest in the world
He handles a car capably. In four
generations of his family only one
death has occurred under the age OF
lol that was not precipitated by acct
dent, and that persons age was SO.
Likes to Hunt Rabbits.
Last Winter Mr.. Gordon tramped the
woods in the vicinity of his old home
near Howard City for two days and
brought home a dozen rabbits.
He swims, COLTS, fishes and has taken
q number of air trips. His weight has
varied but little since he attained adult
hood-about $50 when working on the
farm or In the woods and 155 now.
His height is feet, 10 inches. He has
snow white hair and nilstache and
beard of silken fineness. His health is
excellent and he does much work about
the house. The weekly wash is one of
his delights, and he is an accomplished
chef home cooking, to his notion, being
a small chore compared to preparing
meals for 100 hungry men in q lumber
camp
He is born tinkerer. If something
In the house must be repaired and he
has no tools he makes them.
He walks across the city to visit
friends and relatives and often stays
rNvHt{ frInf 1akn " aaTs
years his hours in bed were from 9 to
5, but now he arises at regardless Of
the retiring hour.
Worked All His Life.
Thomas Gordon always has worked.
He was harvesting crop of rye on his
land seven miles northwest of Howard
City when committee carried him OF
1 TO town on September %, 1929. to cele-
brate his completion of a century. Fred
Green, then Governor, had come to do
him honor apd there was great out
| pouring of Eeople. He took ride in
the airplane carnival which featured
the event.
The Winter after IT, Howard City
celebration, Mr.. Gordon and his
daughter, Alice Gordon Brayman,
moved to Grand Rapids. their farm
home having been destroyed by fire a
4
pairing the story Of her fathers life.
In the Fall Of 1852 he cast his FIRST
presidential vote for Franklin Pierce
4 and has voted at every presidential
/ election since excepting at the time OF
| Abraham Lincoln's second election in
+. 1864, when he was on the ocean.
Practically all Of Tom Gordon's life
has been passed in the woods or on
/ farm or ocean. Almost total abb
stainer from liquor he enjoys pipe
or cigar and has smoked an occasional
cigarette.
Here is what he told the Johns Hop
| kins Institute for Biological Research,
which asked him to what he attributed
/ his long life.
Moderation in all things-eating,
| drinking, working, meeting the problems
4 of life honestly; giving the human or
| ganism a chance, and above all things
never nursing i'll health, fear, sorrow or
other depressing care"
Lives Through Six Panics.
Tom Gordon has lived through six
panics without losing faith in his
! country'S future. "One thing Is certain, !"
| he says business depreSSions in the
| United States always are succeeded by
greater prosperity and a higher stand
| ard of living than ever before. Panics
run tueiT Tragic CUuFSC anu aAc 4OA-
| gotten in the healthful reactions that
/, follow. I lived through the days when
! bankers made their own wild cat
money and when I had to carry a
| money detective in my pocket.
II went through the regimes Of shin
plasters, greenbacks, resumption of
specie payment, changes In the money
standard, the crime of 10 and SO on
to the present depression. which Is
| not anywhere near as terrible as was
| the great panic of the los. Also the
| to 1895 appeared to me more serious
than the ones through which we have
| just been passing.
IF some of the dissatisfied men and
\ women of today could be set back to
days / remember they could come back
to 1881 rejoicing at their present
Isblessings."
Asked regarding changes in personal
conduct since he was youth, Mr..
Gordon said:
FavOrs Modern Styles.
II guess nature hasn't changed much
| during these last 100 years. Perhaps
| the chief difference lies in the fact
that people now are more open, frank
and truthful about what they do. I
think women and girls now dress better
4 anu 1OOk I1OIE Inc IluIIldn DCAABo bLidu
when they wore wide skirts which
swept the ground, bustles, hoops or
crinoline, leg-o'-mutton sleeves and
dog collars.
And men are not trading wives
| openly without aid Of courts. as they
| once did in Western Michigan. Speak
/ ing Of wife trading, can cite instances
| which occurred at Croton, Merely and
Howard City before and after the Civil
War. which everybody knew about and
| which excited little comment!
/ I'm one of the Croton cases well
| known farmer. lumberman and poll
tician traded his wife for the wife of
i prominent farmer and gave heller
| to boot. Two lumbermen made an ex-
change and one threw in four sheep.
Although I feel there is much to
criticize in the conduct OF the young
woman of today, believe she will
work out her destiny successfully de-
spite scant clothing, autos, liquor, Gig
arettes, love movies, trashy literature,
modern dances and other distractions.
self preservation is the law Of ma
ture. the way of the transgressor is
hard. the wages Of sin IS death, a
burnt child fears the FIRE, and the
modern girl knows these things much
more thoroughly than her grand
mother did
| Copyright 1881. by the North American
| NewsEaper Alliance. 1ne. ,