Edie Dennis Has
From:
Georgia Narratives, Part 2
AUNT EDIE DENNIS HAS
REACHED GOOD OLD AGE
--SPECIAL--
(FROM ATLANTA CONSTITUTION,
NOVEMBER 10, 1900.)
Quite a remarkable case of longevity is had in the person of Edie
Dennis, a colored woman of Columbus, who has reached the unusual
age of 109 years of age and is still in a state of fair health.
Aunt Edie lives with two of her daughters at No. 1612 Third Avenue,
in this city. She has lived in three centuries, is a great-great
grandmother and has children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren
and great-great-grandchildren, aggregating in all over a hundred
persons. She lives with one of her "young" daughters, sixty-six.
Edie Dennis is no doubt one of the oldest persons living in the
United States. Cases are occasionally reported where 105 years is
reached, but 109 years is an age very seldom attained. A wonderful
feature of this case is that this old woman is the younger sister
of another person now living. Aunt Edie has a brother living at
Americus, Georgia, who is 111 years old.
Notwithstanding her great age, Aunt Edie is in fairly good health.
She is naturally feeble and her movements are limited. Even in her
little home, from which she never stirs. Although she is feeble,
her faculties seem clear and undimmed and she talked interestingly
and intelligently to a Constitution reporter who called upon her
recently.
Aunt Edie was born in 1791, just eight years before the death of
George Washington occurred. She was a mother when the war of 1812
took place. The establishment of Columbus as a city was an event of
her mature womanhood. The Indian War of the thirties she recalls
very distinctly. She was getting old when the Mexican War took
place. She was an old woman when the great conflict between the
states raged. She was seventy-five years of age when she became
free.
It is quite needless to say that Aunt Edie was a slave all her life
up to the year 1866. She was born in Hancock County, Georgia,
between Milledgeville and Sparta. She was the property of Thomas
Schlatter. She came to Columbus just after the town had been laid
off, when she was a comparatively young woman. She became the
property of the family of Judge Hines Holt, the distinguished
Columbus lawyer. She says that when she first came here there was
only a small collection of houses. Where her present home was
located was then nothing but swamp land. The present location of
the court house was covered with a dense woods. No event in those
early years impressed itself more vividly upon Aunt Edie's mind
than the Indian War, in the thirties. She was at the home of one of
the Indians when she first heard of the uprising against the
whites, and she frankly says that she was frightened almost to
death when she listened to the cold-blooded plots to exterminate
the white people. Not much attention was paid to her on account of
her being a Negro. Those were very thrilling times and Aunt Edie
confesses that she was exceedingly glad when the troubles with the
red men were over. Another happening of the thirties which Aunt
Edie recalls quite distinctly is the falling of the stars. She says
quaintly that there was more religion that year in Georgia than
there ever was before or has been since. The wonderful manner in
which the stars shot across the heavens by the thousands, when
every sign seemed to point to the destruction of the earth, left a
lasting impression upon her brain.
Aunt Edie says that she was kindly treated by her masters. She says
that they took interest in the spiritual welfare of their slaves
and that they were called in for prayer meeting regularly. Aunt
Edie was such an old woman when she was freed that the new
condition meant very little change in life for her, as she had
about stopped work, with the exception of light tasks about the
house.
There seems to be no doubt that Aunt Edie is 109 years old. She
talks intelligently about things that occurred 100 years ago. All
her children, grandchildren, etc., asserts that her age is exactly
as stated. Indeed, they have been the custodians of her age, so to
speak, for nearly half a century. It was a matter of great interest
to her family when she passed the 100 mark.
Aunt Edie is religious and she delights in discussing scriptural
matters. She has practical notions, however, and while she is
morally sure she will go to a better world when she dies, she
remarks, "That we know something about this world, but nothing
about the next."
Perhaps this is one reason why Aunt Edie has stayed here 109 years.
* * * * *
NOTE: Mary Gladdy (806-1/2 - Sixth Avenue, Columbus, Georgia). A
grand-daughter of Edie Dennis, states that her grandmother died in
1901, aged 110.
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Mary Gladdy
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Mary Gladdy
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