Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 69, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 March 1914 — PASSED THE CENTURY MARK [ARTICLE]

PASSED THE CENTURY MARK

Sickly Boy, Expecting Early Death, Lived to Be Oldest Clergyman in Great Britain. Believed to have such a slender hold on life that he was christened when two days old, Philip Carlyon lived to be the oldest clergyman in Great Britain. He died recently at Pennance House, Falmouth, within six weeks of his one hundred and second birthday. He was ordained in 1836 and retired at the age of seventy. Mr. Carlyon possessed remarkable vitality until within a short period ol his death, taking long walks and attending church regularly. He remembered his father lighting a bonfire on receipt of the news of the Battle oi Waterloo and was terribly frightened when an effigy of Bonaparte was thrown into the flames, thinking it was a real man. On three occasions be narrowly escaped a violent death. The first was when as a boy of six he was carried out to sea while bathing, being rescued just in time by his uncle. In 1833 he had a thrilling adventure while climbing Ben Cruachan and came within an ace of death. His third escape was on a narrow railway cutting, a jump sideways saving him by Inches only from being run down by a train. Mr. Carlyon’s youngest brother died at the age of ninety-two.—From the London Chronicle.