Evening star., 1937-11-04
INHABITANTS TOLD
OF LOST BIRTHDAY.
John R. Mahoney, Financial
Secretary, Relates Story
of Age Mix-up.

How he lost his Goth birthday was
told the Association of Oldest mhabi-
tants last night by John R. Mahoney,
financial secretary.
Already he had laid preliminary
plans to celebrate that Goth milestone
next January 10. AS a matter of fact
the association was to have had some
thing to do with it, to honor one OF
their oldest members.
But Mr.. Mahoney told the organiza-
ton last night at Old Union Engine
House it was nothing less than the
family Bible which tripped him up at
his home, 333 C street S.W., and
showed him how he had lost that
birthday. He had started through the
old Bible, printed in 1915, looking for
family data. To his astonishment,
MIR. Mahoney said, he discovered he
was year older than he had believed
for all these years. Instead of being
born January 10, 1848, as he had al
ways understood, which would have
made him 80 next January, the family
Bible showed he was born in 1847,
and passed his Goth birthday last year
when he celebrated his 89th.
Civil War Recalled.
Recollections of the Civil War occu-
pied most of the program last night,
with j. Eliot Wright, secretary-treas-
urer of the association, and the oldest
member in point of membership, as
the principal speaker.
Plans were announced by John Cla-
gett Proctor, vice president, presiding,
and Mr.. Wright for the annual ban
quet of the association. to be held at
the Raleigh Hotel December 7. The
Entertainment and Reception Com
mittees were combined for the occa-
sion under the Craftsmanship of Jesse
c. Suter, and including the following:
Mr.. Proctor, Mr.. Wright, James F..
Duhamel, Harry A. Burr, Walter E..
Allen, Charles A. Langley, John B..
Dickman, Elra C. Palmer, DR.. Hugh
U. Smith and Theodore w. Noyes,
president of the association, ex-officio.
Women Again Welcome.
In answer to questions, it was an
nounced that "the ladies" will be well
come again this year, following the
precedent breaking banquet last year,
when for the first time in the history
of the ancient organization women
we're present.
In his "reminiscences of the Civil
War, MIR. Wright said he had seen
Lincoln, spoken to Grant, and in fact
had seen all the Presidents from
Lincoln to Roosevelt.
Grant lived around the corner
from me in the house in Douglass
Po.7 (on I street between New Jersey
avenue and Third street N.W) that
was bought by the people of the
United States and presented to him" !"
the speaker explained. After he left
Washington, the people bought it
from him and presented it to Gen.
Sherman. Sherman, when he changed
his residence, sold it to Matthew c.
Emery, who built an addition to it
ond lived in the new part, which is
now occupied by his daughter who
married William M. Hannay"
Mr.. Wright recalled memories of
The war, when he carried soup made
by his mother to the sick in the hos
pitfalls near his home He remembered
vividly scenes of the sick and the dead
in hospitals, and told of having seen
Gen. Burnside as he reviewed troops
On K street between Fourth and Fifth
streets NV.
Elra c. Palmer told of his ad-
ventures as boy in Ohio during the
Civil War and reviewed the Battle
of Manassas. DR.. Hugh M. Smith re-
lated story of his father, as soldier,
who had slept one night in a barn at
Centerville, and awakened in the
morning to find beneath him a snake.
Or. Smith said he still has the snake,
preserved. Mr.. Duhamel promised to
discuss his memories of the war at
greater length at later meeting. DR..
Harry T. Guss pointed out that rep
resentatives of both the North and the
South had pronounced the day of the
Battle of Bull Run "fatiguing." Will
liam F. Sinnott recalled that as child
of in Richmond, Va, bursting am
munition from Confederate store
house flew all over the city, firing
many residences and stores.