Evening star., 1939-12-31
By JESSIE FAINT EVANS.

BY JESSIE FAINT EVANS.
Born a slave on January /, 1840
Frank w. Whitted of 1875 Eighth
street NV. will be 100 years old to-
morrow and will celebrate with
cake with 100 candles.
A subscriber to The Evening Star
for the 36 years of his residence In
Washington, he continues to read 1t
without glasses. which he has never
needed to wear.
One of Uncle Sans pensioners
from the Government Printing Or
flee, he owns the home where he
lives with his wife, who was in
valided this past year. He finds life
good" as he turns the century
mark, and means to continue "tc
count the many blessings" which he
feels have been his "all along the
way of his 100 years.
OF his longevity he says. Il just
seem to have cotton the habit OF
living and so I keep on doing it.
He was the oldest of 10 children
and has outlived them as well as
his own children.
He knows that he was born on
January /, 1910. because it was
New Years Day, and President
William Henry Harrison was In
office. His owner, DR.. Frank Whitted
of Hillsboro, N. c.. he said, was
such an out and out Harrison man
that he was for naming every child,
white and colored, that he came
across that year, William Henry
Harrison. But my mother held out
that she didn't see why I should
be named for a President nobody
had ever seen, when I could be
carrying the name of the best
master there was in the country
side. So, that's how I came by my
name of Frank w. Whitted, that !
have tried to be a credit to, all OF
my days"
Resemblance to Indian.
Still hale and hearty. his height
and general appearance carry out
his belief that his mothers mother
was a full-blooded Cherokee Indian,
and his grandfather on his father
side, an African chieftain sold into
slavery in North Carolina.
AS a trusted slave in the service
of the Whitted family until 1865. he
speaks of his former owner with
considerable pride. Why, he was
almost the Lord in that neighbor-
hood where we lived. Some OF his
friends were Judge Graham and
Judge Ruffin, who was relative of
DR.. Sterling Rufln, here in Wash
ington."
His first service for the Whitted
family had to do with "toting hot
cakes" from the yard kitchen under
the colonnade to the big house" as
fast as his little legs could carry
him.
Remaining with the Whitted FAM
lily during the entire duration Of the
Civil War, he mournfully stood by
while his former master and his five
sons lost their lives in the conflict.
Still vivid is his memory of the
time when, through the grapevine
route" knowledge came that the
Yankees were about to descend ION
the, Whitted place" BY "the dim
light of a clouded moon" he worked
all night burying the silver and
china in big sugar barrels. "Our
supply Of hams, that was the finest
in those parts, I hid in a deep pit
that I covered over with stones to
keep the dogs from digging them up
or shifting around them so that the
Yankees would have known where
they were"
Voted for Grant.
The first Yankee troops he re-
members seeing were those of Gen
Fitzpatrick, near Chapel Hill, N. C.
He has recollections, too, of many
of the Civil War generals, and Gen
Grant was the first President he
ever voted for when he qualified as
a voter.
In 1866 it took him a month anc
three days to make his way from
North Carolina to Alabama, because
Sherman had burned everything
before him, including all the bridges
In Alabama he tried in vain to OBJ
tain work.
Like an epic in its simplicity anc
sincerity, is his story of his return