Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 May 1889 — Used Tobacco for a Hundred Years. [ARTICLE]

Used Tobacco for a Hundred Years.

There lives in Breckneck Township, this county, a colored man who is in all probability the oldest person in the State. His name is Kobert Springer. He claims that he is 114 years old. He was bom in slavery in Delaware, near New Castle, and was the slave of John Dent. Prior to the war of 1812 he was set free by his master, and shortly afterward was pressed into the Government service. In 1816 he came into Pennsylvania to earn money to purchase his wife’s and children’s freedom, but W'hile he was trying to do so they were sold farther South and he never heard of them again. He then settled down where he is now, and has lived there for over seventy-five years. His neighbors, a number of whom are from eighty to ninety years of age, confirm the story of his great age, saying that they knew him as boys, three-

quarters of a century ago when he wa i a man of considerable age. He is now very feeble physically, although he is bright in conversation and has an excellent memory. He smokes, chews, and takes snuff constantly. He says he has used tobacco continually for aliont a hundred years. —Heading (PaJ letter.