In Vermont, from 1881 to 1884, sixteen centenarians died; and in the last census of the United States there were 322.
In looking over my records I find so many other examples of centenarian life that I shall not weary the reader by their repetition, but examples running for over a century may be worth mentioning. Madame Lacene, one of the most brilliant women of France, died a few years ago at Lyons in her 104th year. Her will was under contest on account of her extreme age, but the court was fully satisfied of her intellectual competence. In the olden time she had often entertained Mme. de Stael, Mme. Recamier, and Benj. Constant.
The oldest person in France, perhaps in the world, is said to be a woman who lives in the village of Auberive, in Royans. She was born March 16, 1761, and is therefore 125 years old. The authentic record of her birth is to be found in the parish register of St. Just de Claix, in the department of the Isere.—Scientific American.
“Among the professors at German universities there were no fewer than 157 between the ages of seventy and ninety, of whom 122 still deliver lectures, seven of these being between eighty-five and eighty-nine years of age. The oldest, Von Ranke, was in active service in his 90th year. Elennich, of Breslau, only thirty-nine days younger, still shows energy in anything he puts his hands to.”
Mrs. Henry Alphonse of Concord, Mo., over 105, retained her memory and eyesight without glasses till after 104. Mr. Charles Crowley died at Suncook, N. H. over 104. Frank Bogkin, a colored man of Montgomery, Ala., was believed to be 115 at his death recently. When he was about 60 years old, he earned money and purchased his freedom. Tony Morgan, a blind negro, was recently living at Mobile, 105 years old. Pompey Graham of Montgomery, N. Y., lately died at 119, and retained his faculties. Phebe Jenkins of Beaufort County, South Carolina, was believed to be 120 years old when she died about a year ago. Mrs. Louisa Elgin of Seymour, Indiana, whose mother lived to be 115, was recently living at 105.
“Jennie White, a colored woman, died in St. Joseph, Mo., Monday last, aged 122 years. She was born in the eastern part of Georgia, and when twenty years of age was taken to Tennessee, where she remained for ninety-six years. She had lived in St. Joseph about ten years. She was a cook for Captain Waterfall, of George Washington’s staff, during the war of the Revolution. She remembered the death of Washington well, and used to tell a number of interesting stories about early times. She died in full possession of all her mental faculties, but was a cripple and helpless.”
Males and Females.—In the first number of the Journal it was stated that although women were from two to six per cent more numerous in population, more males were born by four to sixteen per cent. This was a typographical error; it should have been from four to six per cent, generally four. The greatest excess of males is in illegitimate births. The reversal of proportions in the progress of life shows that the male mortality is much greater than the female. Hence the more tranquil habits and greater predominance of the moral nature in women increases their longevity, while the greater indulgence of the passions and appetites, the greater muscular and intellectual force among men, are hostile to longevity. Hence the establishment of a true religion, or the application of the “New Education,” will greatly increase longevity. It will also be increased by greater care of health in manufacturing establishments, and by diminishing the hours of labor; for exhausting physical labor not only shortens life but predisposes to intemperance. The injurious effect of excessive toil is shown in the shorter lives of the poor, and is enforced by Finlaison’s “Report on Friendly Societies to the British Parliament,” which says (p. 211) “The practicable difference in the distribution of sickness seems to turn upon the amount of the expenditure of physical force. This is no new thing, for in all ages the enervation and decrepitude of the bodily frame has been observed to follow a prodigal waste of the mental or corporeal energies. But it has been nowhere previously established upon recorded experience that the quantum of sickness annually falling to the lot of man is in a direct proportion to the demands upon his muscular power. So it would seem, however.”
Philanthropists should therefore unite in limiting the hours of daily labor to ten or less. But more quiet pursuits have greater endurance; women keeping house have no ten hour limit, and the editor of the Journal generally gives more than twelve hours a day to his daily labor.
A Negro 135 Years Old.—The St. Louis Globe Democrat says: James James, a negro, and citizen of the United States, who resides at Santa Rosa, Mexico, is probably the oldest man on earth. He was born near Dorchester, S. C., in 1752, and while an infant was removed to Medway River, Ga., in the same year that Franklin brought down electricity from the thunder clouds. In 1772 there was quite an immigration into South Carolina, and his master, James James (from whom he takes his name), moved near Charleston, S. C., in company with a number of his neighbors. On June 4, 1776, when 24 years of age, a large British fleet, under Sir Peter Parker, arrived off Charleston. The citizens had erected a palmetto-wood fort on Sullivan’s Island, with twenty-six guns, manned by 500 troops under Col. Moultrie, and on June 28 the British made an attack by land and water, and were compelled to withdraw after a ten-hours’ conflict. It was during this fight that Sergeant Jasper distinguished himself by replacing the flag, which had been shot away upon the bastion on a new staff. His master, James James, manned one of the guns in this fight, and Jim, the subject of this sketch, with four other slaves, were employed around the fort as general laborers. Jim followed his master throughout the war, and was with Gen. Moultrie at Port Royal, S. C., Feb. 3, 1779, when Moultrie defeated the combined British forces of Prevost and Campbell. His master was surrendered by Gen. Lincoln at Charleston, S. C., on Feb. 12, 1780, to the British forces, and this ends Jim’s military career.
He remembers of the rejoicing in 1792 throughout the country in consequence of Washington’s election to the Presidency, he then being 40 years of age. In this year his first master died, aged about 60 years. Jim then became the property of “Marse Henry” (Henry James), owning large estates and about thirty slaves near Charleston. On account of having raised “Marse Henry,” Jim was a special favorite with his master, and was allowed to do as he chose. His second master, Henry, died in 1815, about 55 years of age, and Jim, now at 63 years of age, became the property of James James, Henry’s second son. In 1833 the railroad from Charleston to Savannah was completed, then the longest railroad in the world, and Jim, with his master, took a trip over the road, and was shown special favors on account of his age, now 81. James James was ten years of age at his father’s death, and when he became of age he inherited large estates, slaves, etc., among whom were “old Uncle Jim” and his family. James James in 1855 moved to Texas with all his slaves. He desired that his slaves should be free at his death, and in 1858 moved into Mexico, so that they could be free before his death. James returned to the United States and died in Texas, and in 1865, after there were no longer slaves in the United States, Uncle Jim’s children and grandchildren returned to the United States. Five years ago, at the age of 130, Jim could do light chores, but subsisted mostly by contributions from the citizens, but for the past two years, not being able to walk, he remains for the most part in his little jacal, his wants being supplied by generous neighbors. The rheumatism in his legs prevents him from walking.