Glacier County chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1931-1940, 1939-08-11
PAunt Adeline, Near 100, ssDoc" to EARLY Miners,
Corpboys, Says Years Fly elf You Keep Mooin' :"
By CHADBoURNE M. wALLIN

n had Smoker, the 3-year-old, in
my arms when I walked
q through the yard mud and into
the big, two-story stone Skaggs
ranch house in the coulee on the
east slope of the Judith mountains
near Lewistown, Mont. Aunt Ade-
line was in the kitchen, washing
dishes. She came out and I put
Smoker on his feet. She saw him
and said, "Whose boy are your"
Smoker. Is usual when startled: Put
tucked in his chin and looked out
from lowered brows.
II think you're my boy" Adeline
told him. She made a face and ran
out her tongue. Smoker questioned q
out of his mouth and smiled-his o. K.
smile.
Then they stood and beamed at each
other, the span of a century between
them. Smoker, 3, chunky. blond, blue
eyed, just beginning: Adeline, "just
not some more" near the end Of the
trail, black of skin and eye, the hairs
on her chin and upper lip white, the
wool beneath her spotless kerchief
grizzled grey. Years apart, yet friends:
The yellow tom with the bobbed
heater and Smoker went to investi-
gate. said: "Adeline, what have you
been doing these past 100 .years?"
"You see what was dom when
you came in? Washin' dishes! That S
what I've been dom all my life: Lawdy,
washed or a dollar for every child
I've borned-well. wouldn't be
washin'"
"And what did you do when you
SweSetntt. washing dishes or borning
Lived" said Adeline, complacently.
Lived and kept movin'. That's all
there is to life"
Part Of Northwest History.
The Lord has had to grant Adeline
100 years. more or less, because she
had so much living to do. She has
lived through four major phases OF
the the e sps 5s b ns1ry un na IN the
history of the northwest. Her Chill
dren," literally hundreds of them, live
in all parts of the world and have
their children. Born. slave, she never
Just owned me-" For five generations
she has been with the same folks
and is willing and able to help the
sixth generation when 1t comes along.
Hers has been the slavery of mutual
devotion, an influence which, when
she was offered her freedom, caused
her to refuse to leave the family.
You read stories about faithful old
family retainers in the deep south but
you don't often encounter them in the
foothills Of the Rockies, but Adeline
there, maintaining the old servant
tradition Of her native North Carolina
The life she has seen has brought
Adeline her own philosophy, not SO
much cultured as acquired without
conscious effort. Her mind is bright
her memory good and accurate and, as
she nears the century mark. she has
a quiet laugh and an eager "Sho
nuffP" for the new and interesting
You get the impression that she al
ways has been interested in life as
she has gone on cooking, washing
working In the fields, nursing and
mothering not only her own families
but half the countryside as well.
Adeline now may lay claim to being
the oldest woman in the northwest
although accuracy as to her birthday
Is not certain. She was born in slavery
on the plantation of Daniel Ryan neal
Dallas. N. c., about 1910. Her mother
was the property of Daniels but her
father belonged to a neighboring
planter named Ford.
When Ryan died he willed certain
slave children to his sons and daugh-
tiers. To Mrs. Jacob Hoffman, borr
Peggy Ryan, was willed Adeline. Mrs