11 



THE 



GUIDE TO NATURE 



% Riverside and Sound Beach J 



A Neighboring Centenarian. 

 Not far from Arcadia in a beautiful 

 section of the western part of Sound 

 Beach, lives a lady who on October 15. 

 191 2, celebrated her one hundredth 

 birthday. Last Christmas I called at 

 her home with my camera. Some of 

 the results are here shown. Thinking 

 that our readers would be interested 

 in a sketch of her life, I requested 

 Mrs. W. A. Wilmot of Riverside to 

 give me some particulars. This she 

 has kindly done in the following letter: 



Riverside, Connecticut. 

 Dr. Bigelow, Dear Sir : 



You have asked me for a history of 

 my grandmother, Mrs. Jane Rushardt, 

 Louden, who is a "dear old lady," liv- 

 ing at the present time with her daugh- 

 ter, Mrs. Geo. Palmer, in Sound Beach, 

 Connecticut. She was born in Stan- 

 wich. New York, October is, 1812. 



When she was about three years old, 

 her parents moved to New York, where 

 she first attended school in the old City 

 Hall, in those days children were 

 taught to make their letters and figures 

 in sand. 



When in her teens she married Oba- 

 diah Louden, a resident of Round Hill, 

 Connecticut, and to them were born 

 twelve children, eleven of whom lived 

 to manhood and womanhood, and six 

 of whom are still living, namely ; Wil- 

 liam, a shoemaker of Middletown, New 

 York; Thomas C, a retired butcher of 

 Riverside, Connecticut; Cornelius, a 

 jeweler of Phelps, New York ; Mrs. 

 George Palmer, of Sound Beach, Con- 

 necticut ; Mrs. Richard Banks of New 

 York City, and Mrs. Stephen Barnes 

 of Shelton, Connecticut. 



At the time of writing grandma has 

 twenty-nine living grandchildren, 

 forty-one great-grandchildren and 

 three great, great-grandchildren. 



My grandmother has been a widow 

 for thirty years, and since her hus- 

 band's death has made her home among 

 her several children. She was always 

 iolly and of a cheerful disposition. In 



FIVE GENERATIONS. 

 Mrs. Jane Louden, Mr. Thomas Louden, Mrs. Susie Olmstead, Mrs. Anna Traband and Miss Helen Traband. 



