Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 297, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 December 1916 — NEARLY 100 YEARS OLD AND VOTES [ARTICLE]

NEARLY 100 YEARS OLD AND VOTES

NEBRASKA MAN SAYS HE HAS BEEN AT IT 78 YEARS AND EXPECTS TO KEEP ON BATTLED WITH INDIANS IK 1835 Wife, Cousin of Daniel Boone, Taught Him to Write When He Waa 48. Lincoln, Neb.—Ninety-nine yean of ginger, pepper, spryness, or what you will, is crowded Into Jacob C. March, the oldest voter in this city, if not in the state. • No one suspected that a man 99 years of age would want to vote at the primaries, even if he did live here. City Clerk Berg was astounded when the registration came to his attention. “What in the world do you want to be voting for?’’ he asked of the venerable old chap. “Why that’s a right I expect to exercise some time yet—what’s the use of quitting when you reach my age? I’ve been at it for 78 years and I’m ’ going to keep it up,’* replied the old man. “Ah, you must be a republican,” insisted a bystander, who thought that a man of such years must necessarily have gained them through contact with the teachings of the G. O. P. “Wrong,” said the near centenarian, as his eye twinkled and he turned towlard the questioner. Tm a Democrat and mighty proud of IL And I’m a woman suffragist too.’* And then he proceeded to give the listening crowd of city officials and. ethers an interesting talk on the whys and wherefores of politics as he viewed it* March was bom in “Old Kaintuck” along in July 1817. The Blue Grass State was then a frontier, but March’s parents were anxious to push eveq further into the interior to take up their home. They removed to Missouri when Jacob was a stripling of 12 years. There he lived through some of the most rigorous experiences any settler ever had. - n In 1840 as a young man ready to combat with the world and make his way even as his father had in his younger days, March went to lowa. His neighbors werd the Sac and Fox Indians and he learned their ways quickly because of his Indian waT experiences four or five years before that time. March is the only survivor of that war now alive. He is drawing a pension from the United States Government for his part in it. That occurred in 1835, though not "long in duration, was bitterly fought as far as several battles were concerned, battles in which March ’ When the civil war came on this man was over the age limit and he did not enter. He sent along a contribution, however, In the form of two sons, who had all the old man’s patriotism and all of his energy too. His wife who died 11 years ago was a cousin of Daniel Boone and a descendant of one of the oldest houses of England. It was she who taught her husband to write. This old man remembers everything from his youth up—even his 600 mile walk from Kentucky to Missouri. But, strange to say, there is no storehouse in his memory apparently for adversity or trouble. He cannot remember' that he ever, had any trouble. Of course he recalls a multitude of things other people would call trouble, but not so with him. He attributes his extreme age to the fact that for twenty one years he obeyed his parents strictly and never saw any real misfortune, and because he never “Worried. He has five living children. They have 36 children, and they in turd have 86 children and among those—his great grandchildren—there are several couples who have children.