“Last Thursday a woman died in this city at the remarkable age of one hundred and eighteen years. It seems incredible that such things can be, but the facts and figures in this case are too well authenticated to admit of doubt. But even this woman would have cut a sorry figure in the days of the Bible patriarchs, and would not have been eligible to membership in any society of old people of that day, when they scored five, six and seven hundred years, and one of them came near reaching an even thousand. The dead lady referred to is Mrs. Maria Seaton, a colored woman, who lived with her son, Henry Seaton, on Thirteenth street, opposite the colored church. She died of pure old age. She had not been able to take any nourishment for two weeks previous to her death. It is almost impossible for a robust person to live two weeks without nourishment, hence the marvelous vitality of deceased is wonderfully observable. She had every indication of great age. Her skin was thick and shriveled, and she had the appearance of a mummy.”
“Her skin was thick and shriveled, and she had the appearance of a mummy. It will be a question of interest to psychologists to determine what it was that kept her alive so long after the functions of nutrition had been suspended. Physiology gives it up. Was it an extraordinary manifestation of the vis medicatrix we read so much about, and if so does it go to prove the truth of the theory held by many writers, namely, that it is quite possible for the human race to return to the days of the patriarchs in the matter of long life?”
“Mary Seaton was born in Virginia, and was fourteen years old when the war of the revolution was going on, for she recollected having assisted in cooking for Washington’s soldiers on their march through Virginia. This was probably on the occasion of Washington’s march to Yorktown, which was in 1781. If she was 14 years old at that time it would make her 118 years at the time of her death. She was born in slavery, and at the close of the revolutionary war was owned by a man named Nichols, who came west and settled in Greenup county, Kentucky. She was sold two or three times after coming to this neighborhood, being in the family of the Thompsons, and finally came into the hands of the Seatons, of Greenup, where she remained until the Emancipation Proclamation set her free. It was customary in the days of slavery for slaves to take the name of their last master, hence Mrs. Seaton’s Kentucky name, which in Virginia was Warren. Dr. Davidson remembers her when a small boy, and says she was then a very old woman.”
“She remembered having seen Daniel Boone and other pioneers of this section, as well as the famous pioneer preachers whose exploits have made such interesting reading in the Church history of the two States. She was married three times, and her children are mostly dead or scattered, some of them having been sold South before the war. Henry is the only living son, and he is quite an old man. She never took any medicine in her life, except the ‘roots and yarbs’ that were always popular with the old wives of Virginia, both white and colored.”
“Mrs. Seaton’s case was mentioned in the Times two or three years ago. The centenarian line is being advanced as the world advances. A few years ago a person of ninety or one hundred years of age was looked upon as a curiosity, but now they are becoming common. Portsmouth advances the record to 118.”1
