Octogenarian Party, Sherburne, NY 1877

An Octogenarian Party, Sherburne, Chenango Co., NY

Chenango Semi-Weekly Telegraph, March 14, 1875

An octogenarian party was given at Sherburne on Monday of last week, in honor of Mr. A. Booth, who resides with W.G. Queal, who was eighty years old March 4th. This occurring on Sunday, the party was held on the succeeding day. The News gives some interesting data of the "boys and girls" who assembled upon that occasion which we condense as follows:

 

There were five present who had passed their eightieth birthday as follows:

 

Deacon Hezekiah Harris was born in the town of Scituate, Providence county, R.I., April 15th, 1790, and is now nearly 87 years of age.  he removed to Sherburne in 1802 and has lived in this town 75 years.  His first wife was Catharine Crist with whom he lived fifty years on a farm two miles east of the village.  He has had seven children of whom four are now living [in 1877].

 

Silas Ames was born in Bridgewater, Plymouth County, Mass., March 5, 1795, and was therefore just 82 years old.  He moved to Columbus [Chenango Co., NY], July 8th, 1806, and from thence to Sherburne in 1839.  He married Betsey Cutler in 1817.  They have had ten children of whom six are now living.  He resides one mile south of the village where he has been nearly forty years.

 

Betsey Cutler Ames was born in Bridgewater, Oneida County, N.Y., Nov. 14th, 1796, and is therefore 80 years old last November.  She moved with her parents to Brookfield, N.Y., when she was three months old.  She was married at 21 years of age to Silas Ames as above noted, giving them almost 60 years of married life.

 

Harvey Rosbrooks was born in New Hampshire, March 11th, 1796, and is therefore now almost 81 years of age. When a child he removed to Holland, Hamden County, Mass.  He was there married to Prudence French and came from thence to Sherburne in 1818, where he is now living with his youngest son.

 

Aaron Booth was born in East Winsor, Hartford County, Conn., March 4th, 1796.  He removed to Oxford, Chenango County, N.Y., in 1830, and was married the same year to Lydia Parson, of Guilford, N.Y., with whom he lived 41 years.  He has one child, the wife of Rev. W.G. Queal, with whom he has lived since the death of his wife.

 

Of course the afternoon was very agreeably spent in fighting the battles of youth over again.  A poem by W.G. Queal, dedicated to his aged father-in-law, was read, and then the entire company sat down to a sumptuous repast.  The veterans appeared hale and hearty.  May they enjoy many such reunions.