Charles Gabriel Anderson, 119 years old, lives at 1106 Biddle Street in St. Louis alone. He is 5 feet, 3 inches in height, has mixed gray hair and weighs 145 pounds.
He is slightly bent, but does not have to wear glasses, and is able to go anywhere in the city without assistance. He has a good memory, and cheerful attitude. Seated in the church of God in Christ, a store front church, next door to his home, where he attends because of the convenient location, he tells the writer the following story:
"I was born January 5, 1818 in Huntsville, Alabama de son of Sallie McCree and George Bryant. My owner's name was Miss Margaret Tony. She sold me to Edmond Bryant while I was quite young. I sometimes go by de name of Bryant.
"I was just big enough to carry water and help a bit with farming while Miss Tony had me, but I jedge I was 'bout 14 years old when Mr. Bryant got me, 'cause I was old enough to plow and help with de cotton and I done a man's size work in his field. I was his slave when de war broke out. I joined de army in 1864. I used to git a pension of $65 a month, now I only git $56 a month but last month I didn't git no check at all. I don't know why. Wish I could find out 'cause I needs it bad to live on. I used to nurse de white folks children when I was a little boy. I made a better nurse dan most girls, so jest kept on at it till I was old enough to be a field hand.
"I had a hard time till de war broke out. Soon as I got a chance, I run off and went to de army. I served two years and six months. I come out in 1866. 'Course I was in de hospital till '66. I don't know how long I was in der wounded. But I do know when I got better, I was such a good nurse de doctors kept me in de government hospital to help nurse dem other soldiers and dere sure 'nough was a heap of 'em up dere. Dat was in Madison, Wisconsin. After dey turned me loose from de hospital, I went to work in a barber shop up dere. I worked in it one year to learn de trade. After I learned de barber trade I don't remember how much longer I stayed dere. I left dere and went to Dodgeville, Wisconsin and opened a barber shop of my own and run it about two or three years. Den I went to Dubuque, Iowa, and stayed about one year and barbered in a hotel dere.
"I come to St. Louis in 1876 and started being a roust-about and firing on boats. I changed from dat after awhile and went to driving private carriages and done glass cleaning.
"I got what little education I got, 'tending night school here in St. Louis. I got 'nough to git ordained in de Chamber Street Baptist Church for a preacher. Den I come in holiness in Elder Jones, Church of God in Christ on Kennerly Avenue. I pastored the Macedonia Spiritual Church eight years in East St. Louis, Ill. I been married twice and am de father of three children, all dead, and both wifes dead. I don't know how long none of 'em been dead. My mother died while I was in de army and my father got drowned before I was born. I only had two sisters and three brothers, and dey is all dead. My brother, Jim Bryant, died in de army. He enlisted one year before I did, but in a different regiment. I has voted many times in my life time, and always voted Republican till dis last election, I decided I better vote de Democrat ticket and I did, and I don't regret it either.
"I gits my washing done by de neighbors dat do washing and I eat at de restaurant on de corner. De Ku Klux never bothered me none 'cause I stayed up north out of dere reach.
"I 'member de old slaves used to sing: 'Amazing Grace How Sweet De Sound'; 'I want to be a Soldier, Since de Lord has set me Free'; 'Fighting for Liberty'; 'Why Should We Start, and Fear to Die'; 'Death is the Gate to Endless Joy and Yet We Dread to Enter There'; 'The pain, the groan, the dying strife, rights our approaching souls away'; 'Jesus can make a dying bed, soft as downy pillows are, whilst on his breast, I lean my head and breathe our lives out sweetly there'.
"Sister, I just think dis younger generation is gone totally. Dey ain't taught right in de home, and de teachers can't do a thing with 'em. If it wasn't for de prayers goin' up to de throne of grace from all us old saints what's got sense enough to trust in nothin' else but Jesus, de whole business would be gone plum to rack. Dey ain't even got sense enough to know dat. De young folks' mind is on worldly goods and worldly pleasures and dere ain't no good in none of it, just misery and woe, to all it touches. And still dey don't seem to see, and don't want to see and nobody got any sense, can't make' em see. God help dis generation is all dat I can say.