Week 40 – Longevity

 

Of the companies that do DNA testing, some offer insights into your genetic health.  My mother had Alzheimer’s and if I do carry that gene, I really don’t want to know, for obvious reasons. I would expect, however, that if I were to be tested, I would show to have the longevity gene. I apparently come from hale and hearty stock. Many of my ancestors have lived well into their nineties.  I love to chat with older folks.  I’m almost one of them myself, but there are still plenty older than me for now.  The stories they can tell! The history that they’ve witnessed first-hand!

I’m blessed that my paternal grandmother, Henrietta Patton Powers shared her stories with me. She was born in 1890, so she witnessed the beginning of the twentieth century. She was a young mother during the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1917, and she saw the 19^th Amendment passed to give women the right to vote just two years later. Her brother went off to serve in World War I, and she rejoiced when he returned.  Living in oil field camps around Texas and Oklahoma is how she spent most of her married life.  The last twenty-three years of her life, she lived as a widow. A stroke in 1984 hindered her memory, but up until that time, she could be found chasing my girls around the house. She passed away at the age of ninety-five.

My maternal grandmother, Mable Pennington Ditmore, was born in 1900. Just before Oklahoma became a state, she came by wagon with her parents and siblings to stake out their piece of heaven.  She married at the age of sixteen and she and her husband brought four children into the world during the height of the Dust Bowl and Great Depression. In the 1940’s, they sent three sons off to World War II, only two of whom returned. Mable’s mind was a clear as a bell until just a few years before her death at ninety-nine years old.  Even as her memories dulled when you went to visit her, she may not have known who you were, but she made sure you knew she was awfully glad you stopped by.

Mable’s mother, Amanda Hollingsworth Pennington, was born in 1874. I remember her from when I was young, but by that time she was old in every sense of the word.  Also, by this time, she didn’t like children, so this is the side of her that I saw. According to my mother and my grandmother, however, she was the sweetest person ever to walk the earth. Orphaned at a young age and raised by her older sister, she saw much sadness in her life. A tiny frail woman, it is said she could pick more cotton and haul it in faster that anyone on the farm.  Grandma Pennington lived to be ninety-two.

I never knew my paternal grandmother’s mother, Mary Rosa Neth Patton. She was born in 1860 in Philadelphia. Both her parents were German immigrants, so she always spoke with an accent.  Along with her mother and siblings, they left Philadelphia when she was a young girl and traveled by train halfway across the country to live in Missouri. She lived at the time when the railroad first spanned the continental United States and travel became much more convenient, and as the wife of railroad man, was there for the Great Railroad Strike of 1922. My dad’s Grandmother Patton passed away in 1953, at the age of ninety-three.

Mary Ann Blythe Hampton was my third great-grandmother. She was born in 1800 in North Carolina. Her mother, Annie Barnes Blythe, was the subject of many Eastern Cherokee Applications which were submitted to the government for compensation after the Indian Removal Act of 1830. It was never proven that Annie was of Native American heritage, but it is certain that Mary Ann saw the beginnings of the Trail of Tears in her home state. Mary Ann would have also been witness to the Civil War, losing one of her sons in the conflict. In 1898, Mary Ann Hampton passed away at the age of ninety-eight.

The longest living ancestor I’ve found is Joan (Savage) Earle, wife of Ralph Earle. She was born circa 1595 in England.  After Joan and Ralph married, they immigrated to America, specifically Newport, Rhode Island, in 1634.  Her age is verified by the writing of Samuel Sewall, who on 15 September 1699 recorded that, “Mr. Newton and I rode to Newport; see aged Joan Savage (now Earl) by the way. Her husband, Ralph Earl was born 1606, and his wife was ten or eleven years older than he; so she is esteemed to be one hundred and five years old.”

It's not only the women in my lineage that record a long life.  Levi Moore was born in 1784 at the same time as our new nation.  As a Quaker, his family did not engage in the War of 1812, but most assuredly was aware of it. He lived until the age of ninety-one.

Three of my proven Revolutionary Patriots lived long lives. William Blythe (Mary Ann’s grandfather) was born in 1737. He died in 1832 at the age of ninety-five. William Haley was born in 1748 and lived until 1838, at the age of ninety. Howard Cash lived to be eighty-nine, being born in 1754 and passing away in 1843. One more ancestor, who also fought in the Revolutionary War, but I haven’t been able to put all the pieces together to prove him is John Prince. He was born in 1744. He lived until 1840, dying just shy of his 97^th birthday. They not only witnessed history, but they were also actually a part of it. What stories they would be able to tell!

Grave of Howard Cash

Being an eyewitness to almost a century of historical events provides the older folks with many stories to share. Although my generation hasn’t quite made it that far, we have seen the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War and those that followed, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement, Rock and Roll music, the first man to walk in space AND on the moon, Y2K, 9/11…all of us have our own stories of each of these. I would venture a guess that any of you alive during these can recall exactly where you were at that time.  I challenge each of you to write down what you personally recall of the historical events that affected your life.  To pass along firsthand accounts to your descendants will bring history alive for them. Who knows, they may take your lead and write their own stories for their future descendants.