42 



Sl)c farmer's AUon_ tl)li) lhsitor . 



visited Montrose, travelling in another direction, 

 which since that lime has much increased and 

 the' lands around been sreatly improved. The 

 county of Siisquehannah easterly and westerly 

 of Montrose much resembles the rough granite 

 ridues of the highest parts of Worcester in Mas- 

 sachusetts, and old Hillsborough, Cheshire and 

 Grafton in New Hampshire with the improve- 

 ments upon them fifty years ago. 



The stage-house where we stopped over 

 night was the meeting place for stages thai 

 brought in the evening a bouse full of passen- 

 gers passing north and south, cast and west. 

 We had only been able to find Harford of that 

 county upon the map easterly of Montrose : after 

 much inquiry we ascertained the object of our 

 search was nearer to the stage road in Milford 

 than the stopping place in Harford. Just as we 

 were leaving a -gentleman stepped up and in- 

 formed us that it had been reported the old gen- 

 tleman was dead for whom we had inquired: 

 and we went from Montrose to Milford under 

 the strong apprehension that we had undertaken 

 this journey too late. 



Depositing our baggage at the village in Mil- 

 ford about ten miles out of Montrose, we found 

 the residence of Mr. James Adams, to whose 

 family his father had removed at the age of 

 ninety-four years after having journeyed alone 

 when over ninety years of age out anil back 

 from Ashbuniham, Massachusetts, over a most 

 difficult and hilly country to the distance from 

 home one way of more than four hundred miles, 

 to be s«me four miles from llie stage road. We 

 were gladdened by ihe report that John Adams 

 was still alive ; and after some delay we engaged 

 the minister of the parish with his own young 

 horse to carry lis out, all the horses else of the 

 village being employed in transporting the men 

 and boys to a military muster in another town. 

 The clergyman was acquainted and had often 

 visited the Adams family without the limits of 

 bis own town, and he gave of them and of the 

 old gentleman such a character on the way as 

 we had desired to bear of our childhood acquain- 

 tance of forty lo fifty years ago until we left 

 their State and neighborhood. 



John Adams will he recollected for the several 

 letters written over the atie of one hundred 

 years, the last of which was addressed to the 

 editor of the Visitor in his own hand after he was 

 one hundred and two j ears old. That letter, con- 

 densing more facts than we ever recollect seeing 

 in any epistolaty manuscript of a single common 

 sheet of letter paper, has been shown to hun- 

 dreds as a mark of wonder. The like of it, we 

 presume, cannot be presented in the country. 

 With limited means ol education nearly a cen- 

 tury ago the old gentleman has advanced as 

 the modern improvement both in the arrange- 

 ment ol capiials and in the spelling: he has 

 written u letter that would not discredil the lite- 

 rary acumen of the man who bad made reading 

 and study the business of his lite. 



Information probable and further than we had 

 received when the aged man was first noticed 

 has BUice come n> us, that the Adams family (the 

 mother of our mother, deceased thirteen years 

 aim ,-it the age of ninety-four was, the only sister 

 of John Adams by one mother) has been of a 

 long-lived race. Thomas Adams, their father, 

 well remembered in our youth, died at Ashburn- 

 ham iii 1802 at the age of ninety-two years. 

 The letter of our venerable relative taught us 

 how to seek out the spot in Worcester where 



this sreat ancestor lived one hundred years ago, 



and where his first living children were born. 

 Our friends, Gov. Levi Lincoln and Col. John 

 Waldo Lincoln sought out and introduced us to 



the spot: it had been purchase. I by Dr. Green 

 ninety-seven years ago, and remains in that name 

 to this day. There stands the ancient house 

 eiccled by Thomas Adams a century old: upon 

 this farm, as a married relative of the Green 

 family under the name of Ruggles, was buried 

 the body of Airs. Spooner, whose execution more 

 than seventy years ago in company vvith two 

 British subaltern officers as tee murderers of her 

 husband at Brookfield produced a sensation not 

 yet forgotten by the oldest inhabitants. The old 

 Adams now Green farm lies about one mile 

 north-east of the Insane hospital on the norther- 

 ly declivity of the same height of land improved 

 as the hospital pasture and mowing lands. The 

 house, at first of a hip-roof making only one 

 story upon the hack, has been altered to squared 

 upright dimensions: the front parlor and the 

 front entry and stairway, ample ill their ex- 

 tent, stand as Ihey were first finished. The old 

 clock, proving its age by the receipted bill in the 

 case, stands in the square front room, bearing 

 date as of the year 1752. A friend of the Ad- 

 ams family, curious to obtain information, wrote 

 us lately as follows : 



"I was at Worcester this winter, and examin- 

 ed the church and city records in relation to 

 dipt. Thomas Adams' family. I found the 



death, of bis first wile Anne Frost, and son Jo- 

 seph both Oct. 6, 1740, and the birth of his son 

 John (living) Jan 31, 1744-45.— I have an old 

 sermon of Rev. Samuel Conk (of West Cam- 

 bridge) preached Nov. 12, 1758 ' Upon the re- 

 turn of ("apt. (Thomas) Adams and company.' 

 1 copied and sent it lo Mr. John Adams in Har- 

 ford. His son read it to him, which brought all 

 fresh to his memory. He was then about four- 

 teen years old, and heard the sermon preached 

 ninety years ago last November." 



We found the aged centennarian residing 

 under the humble roof with the favorite son of 

 his old age, James Adams, the latter being sev- 

 enty years old, himself having raised six sons 

 and five daughters, six of them by a first and 

 five by the second wife still living: the two 

 youngest sons, Andrew Jackson, aged 20, and 

 William Byiugton, aged 17 years, were at home 

 with their father— the daughters and sons re- 

 maining were all married and settled with fami- 

 lies, most of them as and with respectable farm- 

 ers in the neighborhood. The old gentleman of 

 a sunny September day was not resting in his 

 house. He was abroad leaning upon his cane 

 not far off. Not having seen him for over twen- 

 ty years who bad been forty-five years since fa- 

 miliar as our own grand ance-tors living in the 

 same neighborhood, we could not but look upon 

 ihe venerable old gentleman with admiration as 

 living far beyond all bis neighbors of t ho same 

 n"e. He did not hesitate long to turn with all 

 the affection of a lather to his child, as soon as 

 our name was announced. "Gov. Hill (said he) 

 1 did not think you would ever journey lo this 

 rough country to see an old man tottering on the 

 grave." We tarried with him from eleven in 

 ihe forenoon until about eight o'clock the follow- 

 ing morning, thai time being given us to pursue 

 our travel with only one day's delay at Harford. 

 During the twenty bonis id' our tarry the man 

 of one hundred and four years three times sat 

 he. ide us at the table of his family, and helped 

 himself as well as the rest, lie entered at once 

 upon conversation, and continued for the resl <>l 

 lie day to talk upon all those subjects to which 



we turned his attention. His memory was so 

 perfect that we regarded as truth and no mistake 

 every word of his utterance. He was the old 

 man, hut not the tottering old man. He bad 

 used not even a cane till be was a hundred and 

 one years old, and his step even now was firm : 

 his flesh was not that of the wrinkled old man. 

 The eyes deep, set in the head very near on 

 either side of the nose, with general uniformity 

 in feature of face, under prominent eyebrows 

 .over which horizontal wrinkles stood as the base 

 of a high forehead — marked the highly intellect- 

 ual head which had been preserved beyond the 

 natural time of a man of perishable bone and 

 flesh. 



It would be uninteresting to the reader to give 

 the substance of every thing said during this in- 

 terview. The old gentleman who in generosity 

 to others had parted with what he perhaps 

 ought to have retained for tb • support of old 

 age — it required at no time thousands of dollars 

 to carry him through — was really stinted and de- 

 pendent: he found in the ten last years of his 

 life a willing support in the son who was but 

 little able to do for others beyond the wants of 

 his own family. . The small rough farm which 

 gave them all support was only about fifty acres: 

 the labor of their own bands, constant and per- 

 servering labor, was indispensable to the means 

 of comfortable subsistence. The son informed 

 us that the father between the age of ninety-four 

 to a hundred that 'he had resided with him in 

 Pennsylvania had dune a portion of the time the 

 work of one man: reaping wheat on trial at 102 

 he had done it for two hours with the agility of 

 a young man : be laid over and bound seventy 

 common sheaves in about as many minutes. 

 The young men of the neighborhood had erec- 

 ted a liberty pole with the flag of the Union as a 

 tribute to Independence for the 4th of July 

 1847. His son loaded high a musket for a loud 

 report : the old man held out the gun fairly at 

 arms' length, and tired after the exclamation, 

 " May the Eagle continue to float high as long 

 as the sun shines." 



In his destitution of means, ihe old man had 

 fixed on his mind the idea of a pension from the 

 government for services done in the war of the 

 revolution: his papers four or five years ago had 

 been made out and sent to Mr. Wilmol, the re- 

 presentative in Congress from this district. He 

 supposed his grand nephew, from the public po- 

 sitions he had filled, might aid him in procuring 

 this stipend which he wanted for the relief and 

 benefit of the limited means of that son and 

 daughter-in-law who made his support ample 

 and his home happy. It turned out that his 

 proof of service did not literally comply with 

 the laws. We consulted Mr. Wilmnt during our 

 last short resilience at Washington, but could 

 make no pi ogress in his behalf. The very day 

 that the patriarch died, just at the close of 

 the session, we urged on the representative 

 of his district, the propriety of action : there 

 was too much confusion at the close of 

 Mr. Polk's administration then lo make any 

 headway towards the passage of a special act of 

 (.'ongress for bis benefit. 



The personal relation of Mr. Adams of the 

 events of the revolution was to us exceedingly 

 interesting. The revolution broke out in the 

 Lexington battle or " Concord fight" on the 19ih 

 April 1775: the first guns were fired near ihe 

 spot of his nativity. Mr. Isaac Muzzey, one of 

 the eight soldiers first shot down on the utter- 

 ance of the British commander " Disperse you 



