Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1892 — He Has Seen Many People. [ARTICLE]

He Has Seen Many People.

A man who has seen many interesting people in his life is J. B. McMichael, of Decatur, 111. He is a Scotchman and 92 years old. He is in perfect health and always has been, for he has never taken a dose of medicine nor visited a doctor. He has seen every President from John Adams to Ben Harrison, served in the Black Hawk war under Lincoln and with Jeff Davis, helped to organize the Republican party, voted for Fillmore and went to the Philadelphia Convention as a delegate. He was a personal friend of Lincoln’s, saw him breathe his last, and was accidentally at the depot when Guiteau shot Garfield. He saw Mrs. Suratt hung, saw the ashes of the barn where Boston Corbett shot Booth, has seen fifty-four men hung and four women executed, but is not in favor of capital punishment. He saw Lovejoy murdered at Alton, 111., on November 9, 1837, and he himself came near having both legs shot off for being a black abolitionist. He carries bullet marks on his limbs and head. In his lifetime McMichael has lost a fortune, but now has a competency acquired by engaging in tree culture and fruit raising.