Centennial Anniversary of William Abbott Holcomb, Ohio

Article from Leon, Iowa area, 1904

Mrs. Helen J. Close has returned to Mt. Pleasant recently from Ravenna, Portage county, Ohio, where she attended the family reunion and one hundredth birthday anniversary of her relative, William Abbott Holcomb, which was celebrated on Monday, September 5th. Mrs. Close writes that she has just completed a delightful two weeks' tour through the state of Ohio and after a few days' rest at the home of her sister at Mt. Pleasant she will leave for a brief visit at the St. Louis Exposition.

The Ravenna Republican contains a well written account of the Holcomb reunion and picture of Mr. Holcomb and some of his descendants. From this article we learn that William A. Holcomb was born in Westfield, Conn., Sept. 5, 1804. His great-great-great-great grandfather was Thomas Holcomb born in Devonshire, England, in 1590, and afterwards became one of the founders of Dorchester, Mass. Caroline Holcomb married John G. DeWolf and died in 1891.

When William was 18 years old he set out afoot for the Ohio wilderness carrying on his back an 18 pound package containing all his earthly possessions. He remained one year in the wilderness and then returned on foot to Westfield. He worked as a brick mason and also in the iron works. On Sept. 24, 1826, he married Lydia Olmstead, a demure Quaker maiden. They emigrated to Portage county, Ohio, where Mr. Holcomb engaged in farming and later on as a railroad contractor. He built Hiram College in 1840. In 1865 he moved to Ravenna and purchased residence property. Besides his elegant city home he owns a valuable farm of 205 acres near Ravenna.

Mr. and Mrs. Holcomb were the parents of ten children, only two of whom are living. The wife died in 1894. The living descendants of this remarkable centenarian number two children, 17 grand-children, 25 great-grand-children, and one great-great-grandson.

Madame Tussaud and Mrs. Wright

1904

This is the centennial year of Madame Tussaud's waxworks, and what faithful tourist in London has not visited that famous show?

The London newspapers duly commemorate its founder, whose life was indeed of singular interest. Born Marie Curtius, the daughter of a Swiss clergyman, she was left a widow while yet in her teens, and went to Paris to assist her uncle in his studio, where he modeled in wax the celebrities of the day, among them Rousseau, Diderot, Voltaire, Mirabeau, and our own Doctor Franklin and Paul Jones. With all these great men she became well acquainted, and some she modeled, for she soon developed marvelous skill. She gave lessons in her art to the king's sister, who soon became so fond of her that she removed her to court, and formally engaged her as a companion.

Then suddenly came the outbreak of the French Revolution. King, queen and nobles were mowed down by the guillotine, and the young artist passed from directing the dainty fingers of Madame Elizabeth to the dreadful task, not to be declined without peril, of modeling the severed heads of the courtiers and great ladies she had known in happier times, as well as those of the fallen chiefs of the Terror — Danton, Marat and Robespierre.

Once she herself fell under suspicion, and was thrown into prison, where she was a fellow captive of the future Empress Josephine. This comradeship secured her many favors when freedom and security came with the rise of Napoleon; but her memories of Paris were too terrible and she removed to London, where she established her waxworks and at once achieved a brilliant success. She lived to the age of ninety, alert, interesting and full of reminiscence to the last.

She was by no means the first woman to succeed as a modeler in wax, and her most notable predecessor in London was an American, Patience Wright, about whom, indeed, Madame Tussaud must have heard many stories from Doctor Franklin, who had been her good friend for many years. Mrs. Wright was a Quakeress, but her peace principles could not restrain a combative tongue when she heard her native land abused, and she roundly lectured her noble and royal customers on their treatment of her "dear America." She did not even spare the king and queen, who had been her frequent and most friendly patrons, good-naturedly accepting the Quaker plainness with which she addressed them simply as "George" and "Charlotte." But scolding was another matter. She lost custom, and planned a removal to Paris. Franklin, whose son was then his secretary, wrote her a letter in which he humorously embodied the young man's fanciful picture of her coming transit with her figures:

"He supposes that you must put them into post-chaises, two and two, which will make a long train upon the road and will be a very expensive conveyance; but as they will eat nothing at the inns, you may the better afford it. When they come to Dover, he is sure they are so like life and nature that the master of the packet will not receive them on board without passes, which you will do well, therefore, to take out, before you leave London, from the secretary's office, where they will cost you only the modest price of two guineas and sixpence each, which you will pay without grumbling, because you are sure the money will never be employed against your country."

Grouch Germ is Discovered

1910

New Form of Bacillus Particularly Active In Hot Weather Found in Kansas City

Kansas City, Mo. — A new germ, as yet unnamed, has just been discovered in Kansas City. It is a hot weather bacillus and affects young and old alike, being particularly noxious in adults, it is said, and producing a chronic case of what ordinarily is called the "grouch."

The discoverers of this germ are Dr. E. L. Mathias, chief probation officer, and his assistants, who constantly are making a study of human nature and, by the way, this particular bug is one which attacks human nature only.

"It is a hot weather bug," said Doctor Mathias, "and can produce the worst case of grouch in a short time that you ever saw.

"Just now we juvenile officers have little to do so far as the juvenile court is concerned, but we are kept busy as bees looking after what we call hot weather business.

"Somehow or other, this hot weather seems to 'peeve' everybody. It takes the form of grouch in adults and the form of what the grown-ups are pleased to call 'devilment' in children.

"A man lies down to take a nap of a hot afternoon. He is just tuckered out by the heat, he says, and a nap will straighten him out. Just as he gets comfortably settled, boys or girls in the neighborhood begin to romp, and, of course, they call back and forth, and the would-be napper is annoyed.

"Then the irate adult goes outdoors. He is hard hit by the weather bug. He loses his temper and gives the children a calling down. The bug, in turn, attacks the juveniles, and they answer back and make life miserable for the complaining one.

"About that time we got a call concerning a big disturbance. Some of the men go out, learn it is the same old story, and it is up to them to explain to the adult that children must play and that they can't be expected to conduct their game after the fashion of a Friends' meeting. They also lecture the children and take steps to restore the equilibrium of the neighborhood which is ravaged by the summer bug."

The juvenile officers have not gone into the investigation of the bug in scientific fashion, and as yet have worked out no cure.

Busy Stork Brings Fourteen More to Virginia

1909

Busy Stork Brings 14

DANVILLE, Virginia — Two sets of triplets, three pairs of twins and two single babies, born to seven families in the same neighborhood on the same day, is the unprecedented record of Schoolfield, a suburb of Danville, in one day.

Mrs. John W. Yancy gave birth to triplets, two of which are living; Mrs. Jacob C. Brown, triplets, two of which are living; Mrs. J. W. Barber, twins, girl and boy; Mrs. Jane Anderson, twins, both boys; Mrs. P. P. Gridder, twins, boy and girl, and two other women, daughters.


99 Candles on a Cake

WHITTIER, California — Ninety-nine candles, indicating the age of a charming Quaker, Mrs. Lydia Sharpless, blazed on the birthday cake which graced the center of a large table set in the dining room of the Friends' Church. Seventy-five of her descendants were present to offer congratulations to the lady, who clings to dress, manner and speech of the Friends of other days, but keeps informed as to events and movements of the present. She was born in Middletown, Ohio, but have lived in this city for many years.


Please, Mr. Comet, Don't You Kill Us

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island — Frank E. Seagrave, a Providence astronomer, whose calculations relative to Halley's comet have attracted widespread attention, announces that the correction of a slight error in the calculations of the comet has developed the discovery that on May 19, 1910, the comet will reach the same plane as the earth in its orbit. It is thereby determined that the tail of the comet will sweep across the plane instead of clearing it. The earth and comet will meet on the same plane, but not in the same path. There will be a distance at the nearest point of 13,000,000 miles between the two.


16,000,000 Cents Coined

WASHINGTON, D.C. — With a total value of $929,269, there were 16,91,875 pieces of coin executed at the mints of the United States during September. Almost 16,000,000 1-cent pieces were turned out.


If a man is honest, you can always tell it by the way he doesn't talk about it.