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Show Unear nnroTHOiiSAND octogenarians and over "FSlTFIVl A Ol A W OFMCIIHkFUFOC four ranging from 106 to 112 old saying I feTWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY NONAGENARIANS. ON LIST LLSl S LIlAitiAll S LnlUILfO THAT PENSIONS INCREASE LIFE APPEARS TRUE H (m WASHINGTON, Oct.i.l. There is anl diftold saving that nothing prolongs long-) Javity like a pension. J $ 1 find upon the government records three of our pensioners arc over itiGoMiundred, L'oO are ifi their nineties land 14, S31 are in their eighties. Is 112 YearOld. I Our centeiariaa pemlionor claiming) (Hie greatest are is Mrs. Phoebe E. $p:irkinun of Fairliold Bin. In a sworn Sirtition accompanying m special bill in fcoEgr'sa5 which in January. 1007, in- creased her pen-don tofcj-12" per month, 1 folic set forth that shtt was then 1 10 1 "years old, which would. make her 112 yhis year, t-he i.' poisoned as a sol .jtlief's willow, her lfjjisband. Hi nrv 'tiparl.i'ipn. having sirvfol in the Florida; lndian wnr of ls?,j)-.sjP, as private in. jCnptnin Oliver V coiuoauy. l-'irst regi j jjincnt, rioiida iPoimicHt militia. In m tllirl.!el -tnte.-'u-nl. v.-ajj-'h Mrs. Sp-irk Lilian & 1110 oit'.e linfflL :go, she ays: ft " was brojgln b-ffjny pnrenrs (oj !,t.liiB .-late (Fln.-idu) vjn"t I was eight war old fivm Gr-orgiSf. am.1 settled in iUviint s :inv.- known nS Gainesville, in frAlasluia emmtv at tlialfp'"10, course! nt was a wild country t. that time. In rilians were all around S". , ! , "Vu I'ned in railing ';'do ot pal fcinnto blades mid pj,u . t ops, same as In-idi'us. In-idi'us. 1 wor. -111111 rill1! ' of' fftwtiitv-hve, on the sitoHpbi've stated. At, itlio ujjrisiiig ,if the lni.i"lh husband hvjiH imis'nrcd int Hyrviro and, ?seri( ilirough the waEf NXt' ii,,n 1,vo'1 at Ufliiicmllc when iS Wv was over ftaiiil raised a fninilyWf hve childvcn. plv husband died iii fen-nesv,,Ac and ' Uwith my fjin.ilv mo,'cH to Hernando Ki-oimiy. in .South Floil lhy fl,l-v aftor limy husband was bur"' & Attributes Age ' ' Gof ky' ' ' "T did not stay tl,cl"5 ,on-: nnrl moved Iji'.ort'i to Marion" co ,l!jy-where I liave 16 vol fir tlit iVn-Tt kP" years- ,J 1,0 W&ii vT W h'-W'"i e!lS mutton HiaU'of'hr'V ag,.Ms!; S bwawbilo "liGeorri- W-iai,;,,,,,' vas still president, Hl'id was ii'S vears old when Sh Our revt ni!il,a pSi'oner, according Hflo I, iisJL01?!, "l!1y Doru.au of Lib-f Lib-f Tnl. M ',""5-i!.15 -crfcin the civil war Knlrv. In i t?vc,lnppliMitioii made BUpi;u JnnwHtv if) 'S0' vh,,i "vo1ul(1 KniakB hi.,, ulnmst frlir , L "whon HQcorgo Wn.Miin ton dfe 011,1 U( y-''lTa Kmiil 3 mouthy 7 ,? ..n!1'1' Present tune. ,;:U'.k,'ln ofi vhn ftivil,R u.n.der. the-Kdniintration the-Kdniintration "fM president or nHvi! United StiW- 7pM'H tu havo 5SBi:cn conirinivirn;,.', ! "vcry m.ln who mgtf l'W fflf 2c ;T"ilI Prca- cnt month I wrote- out west lo inquire about him and roceivod the reply that he "is still alive and in good health." According to his statement of his age ho was tili at- tho time of tho out break of the civil war, in which ho fought. Claims 108 Years, The I bird pensioner claiming to bo a centenarian is Micajah Wiso of Beaver Lbook, X. Y., who says he is 10S years of age. Ho served in Oompany G, Mist Pennsylvania infantry. In Juno of this year lie whs reported to bo "halo and hearty." A fourth ccntonarian veteran of our vars who is not, strictly speaking, a pensioner, but n sailor on the retired list of tho regular 'navy is William Mac.abce, who has iust celebrated his 0110 hundredth birtu'day anniversary at tho United States Naval Home, Philadelphia. Phila-delphia. His records show that ho was born in Baltimore, September 22, ISO:, which wno in tho first administration of Thomas Jefferson. Shortly aftor the war of 1S12 he enlisted as a cabin boy on the old frigate Constitution, and this fact alouo establishes his great age, tiiiec ho wau but cloven years old when our second war with Great Britain Brit-ain closed. Ho was promoted lo tho rani: of able seaman on the Constitution, Constitu-tion, remaining in active service in the navy throughout the civil war, and until un-til u; ago co in polled his going upon i the retired list, sinco when ho has re-1 mained in the naval home. On his ono hundredth birthday anniversary ho was visited by Secretary of the Navy (now Justice) Moody, accompanied by a delegation del-egation of naval officers of high rank, and upon that momentous event he said he would be "0110 of tho crow" for soiuo timo to come. . Spry as Any Sailor. Until this summer ho has been as Kpry ns any old salt at the home a quarter century his junior, and has been accustomed to walk about unaccompanied, unac-companied, but lato last month whilo strolling down ono of tho corridors ho fell and fractured his right, thigh. All first his life was despaired of. but within a few days to a visitor who found him propped up with pillows he said: "My head is clear, but my pins gavo out. Broken bones don't. 1'othcr mo much, sonny. I'm too old for that. Now if they didn't lot me have my old pipo I might bo suffering some. But mo and my old pipe havo a good timo whonevor we get logo thor." The last remaining veterans of all four wars havo passed the cunturv murk. Daniel F. Bakoinan, tho fliml survivor of tho revolutionary war, diod at I'rcpdoni. Cnttnragus cou'utv, N. Y., April 0 ISO-?, aged 10!) years G months and S days, and Hiram Cronk of Ava, Y.. the last surviving puusioued sol- l I dicr of the war of 1S12, was 105 years and 1G days old wbou finally iiiustored out by the Great Commander on May 13. 3905. Sa,v Our Four GrcatWars. Bakcmau, who is remembered bv many men still young today, was born back in 1 759, wlion we wore still content con-tent with the yoke of England. He was a lad of J7 when independence was declared and when tho Liberty Boll proclaimed pro-claimed the frcodom of the land- When the war of IS 12 broko out ho was a middlo-agcd man of 53, considered too old for active service and when the Mextcau war was fought ho was an aged man of S7, looked upon by his neighbors as ready for the grave." Yot ho lived twenty-two years moro and upon his hundredth birthday the civil war had not yet come. Wlicn its first guns wero hoard ho was 102 and no ono dreamed that he would soo its cud. But still ho fought tho last; l'oo as tenaciously tena-ciously as, under tho command of Washington, he had battled against his first enemy and when Lee surrendered he was Hearing 100. Then ho remained on tho fighting line until after Johnson's John-son's administration had gone and Grnat had been inaugurated, and moro than a year and a month when Bakcmau Bakc-mau finally foil out of line after having hav-ing seen tho beginning and ending of our four great wars. Cronk also saw four of our Trnrs begun be-gun and ended. Having been born in 1S00 lio was only fourteen whou ho finished his service in tho second strug-glu strug-glu with Britain. Ho was ut tho tunc of tho Moxicau war, (51 when Sumter was fired on and OS whon Dowe3' ran tho gauntlet of Manila Ba'. Two Real Daughters of Bovolution. Our most iutorosting class of pensioners pen-sioners now alive, if wo excludo tho centenarians already described, are our two remaining daughters of revolutionary revolution-ary soldiers whom congress has pensioned pen-sioned by special act. These aro Mrs. Phocba M. Woollcv Palmiter of Brook-fiold, Brook-fiold, N. Y., and "Mrs. Sarah C. Hurl-butt Hurl-butt of Littlo Marsh, Pa. Mrs. Palmiter Pal-miter iu a letter to mu a few weeks ago says: "I am oightv-Bovcn years of ago; was born in Wind iam county, Vt.. JDecom-bor JDecom-bor 5. 1821. I camo to New York state in 1830 and was married in Dccomber, ISJI. to Jtuesell Palmiter. Of this union w.cro born six children, four ot which are living two sons and two daughters I am a cripple now, having broken my hip nearly seven .years ago, nnd am almost dependent on others to do for mo, I am a great sufferer, as I am able lo eat scarcely anything on necoiiiit of a. partiallv paralyzed throat, 'aud havo to live almost entirely on liquid foods. I receive a pension of $12 per month, but it is insuffic&ut j for in- support, being barely what 1 1 need to supply my needs 1 am 11 member of the Mohawk Valley Chapter of Hie Daughters of the American Ameri-can devolution and have a gold spoon, presented to 1110 by that chapter. I prir.o it very highly. Tho ladies of that chapter write to me occasional, and theso things help to brighten my war, "My father's naino was Jonathan Woolloy. Ho wan born in Swansea. N II., August 21, 1755), and died in Vermont Ver-mont July 21, 1S-1S. Ho cnb'sted under Colonel On pro n in the Vormont Volunteers Volun-teers in 1775. at the ago of sixteen. Ho served under Gales and Sullivan. lie was nt Saratoga nt tho surrender of Burgoyne at Valley Forge, lie was Bovorely wounded in the back, but I do not know at whal baltlo. He suffered many hardships, like tho rest. havo heard him tell of Valley Forgo, about somo one driving in with corn when they wero so hungry that thoy dipped in their old hats and took the corn and ato it. My father was an honorable man and an earnest Christian." Chris-tian." The other surviving roal Daughor of lite Involution, Mrs. Ilurlbutt, is ninety-one, ninety-one, and lives with her son. P. G- Hurl-butt. Hurl-butt. (She is the daughter of Elijah Weeks, who served in a Massachusetts n I company during the great struggle for j independence. These Uro old ladies jH ' are our nearest connecting links with IH tho great event iu which our republic H 1 was conceived, and it "should pa' them ' homage as long as the live. j last Revolutionary Widow. IH Surprising as it may seem that there IH mill survive daughters of actors iu tho jH I great drama upon which tbt rod cur- H j lain rose a century ami a third, ag') I especially when most of our "Sour, H and "Daughters of the devolution " an. Wm ' harking back to the records of rcvolu H , lionarv ancestois-" of' two or threo 1 l greats it. is nevertheless tine that b-r- IH than three years ago we hnd surviving IH among us the widow. of a revolutionary H This woman, who linked the thrilling H days of 177G with our present decade Oi H airships and automobiles was .Mr?. H Esther Sumner Damon, a first cousin ot WWt former United Slates Senator Clr.rlcs H Sumner. During the last years of her H life she subsisted on a pcusiou ot 12 per month allowcdrhcr by congress, buc a year before her death this was H doubled. She was" born in Bridgewater, H Vt.. August 1. :j$H, the year ol tlio cloae of our second conflict with the jH British lion, and when r-lie was eight jH her father niota fatal accident wnu-li H left her family in" need. She worked her H wav through 'school, became tho teacher H of a school iaillie Grcou mountains at IH seventeen, and at twenty married Tsonli lH Damon, a revolutionary wav veteran ot mWmm sevom v-six. -Their wedding took place H September G. - 1S44 two years beioro tho Mexican war.- It is related t lint. Da- Wm 111011 was possessed of SJG.nfi at the H time, and Hint ho was, married 111 bor- H rowed clothes. Aftor living trom iian -H to mouth for" three vears, the ill-matched mMWm couple separated, Damon going to hve JH with a daughter at whoso bouse he died immm two years later, at tho age 0 feign v- Wm one. Until his death, however, his faith-ful faith-ful wife clothed him out of her meager income. During the, remainder ot hor MWMUM life as long us hor strength held out H she earned her . living by sowing ten- a mgM tailor and nursing ho sick. Her Hist MUMUMM pension was but $80 a year, which was H increased to $12 per month about twenty Wmmmm v" ars before hor death. For some reason MgM she remained true to the memory ot hor JH agnl husband and refused, a nniubor of JHH subsem ent offers of marriage. When HM s l o d ffl November 11, 1000, she was ... D her uinotytliird year. .From hw; hus- JHHB bnluVs birth in 1750 until her death was gSB a soau of 1-J vears, or what science calls JHsB five eeneri) lions. Thi-l) period covered oven- age of our history, including ei- H entccn Y'rs under the colonial regime. mWWmmmm the entire )criod under the Continental WmmW Congress ami tho .subsequent epochs ot Wmmmmmm our national growth under all oi oi jH presidents, savd Mr. Tatt H Vbuiit -100 widows of the war of - H Tbey arc dyiX 1 having been WmWmWmWi JOHN KLFdETII W JH MWmmmmmt |
