Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 March 1899 — OLD TIMERS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OLD TIMERS

On the first of January Tommaso Salvini celebrated his 70th birthday. He has had a career on the stage of more than fifty years. Marcos H. Wheeler, father of Eila Wheeler Wilcox, the writer, died at his home near Madison, Wis., recently at the age of 91. Abraham Cohen Lnbott of Galveston, Texas, is the latest claimant to the title of "Oldest Mason in the United States.” He is 97 and was a member of St. John’s lodge, Boston, the oldest lodge in the country. Gen. Gomez stands about 5 feet 7 inches in his shoes, weighs about 150 pounds, and though 70 years of age, has been from 1895 to 1898 often in the saddle for thirtysix hours without sleep. Indeed, he found bis health better in a tent than in a house. Mrs. Catherine C. Quantrell, mother of the notorious guerrilla, William Clark Quantrell, is dying in St. Joseph’s hospital at Lexington, Ky. She is 79 years old and is anxious to return to die nmoug her friends in her former home at Canal Dover, Ohio. Gen. Sir Arthur Cotton is one of England’s oldest soldiers, being in his 90th year. On four different occasions his medical advisers told him that he had not a week to live, and sixty-four years ago, while serving in Persia, bis grave was dug in readiness for his occupation. Gen. Sylvanus C. Boynton, a wellknown lawyer of New York City, who is over 70 years old, has just finished a term of six months’ imprisonment for refusing to pay a SIO,OOO jndgment in favor of a relative which he considered unjust. By his staying in. jail the judgment was vacated. Sims Reeves, the greatest ballad tenor the world has ever known, is nearly 90 years old, but recently sang at a concert arranged for his benefit. The song he chose was “Come Into the Garden, Maud,” which he gave in a manner recalling to his older hearers the matchless phrasing and tenderness of years ago. David Kahnweller, the inventor of the cork jacket life preserver, who died in New York recently, lost a fortune several times and mode it again by new inventions, among which were a milßhg machine, a metallic life raft and a cash carrier system for use in large stores. He was born in Bavaria and was 72 years old. Sevier Forcier, who died recently at Chippewa Falls, Wls., was. perhaps toe oldest resident of the Badger State. He was born at Montreal a century ago and settled at Chippewa in the early 30’s. He literally never knew what sickness was until a few weeks before his death. Mme. Candelaria, who died at San Antonio, Texas, the other dajr, at the age of 114, crossed the enemy’s lines and entered the Alamo daring its memorable siege, when sht acted as a nurse, Bering the death of James Bowie and Davy Crockett. The State Legislature gave her a pension to $72 n year.