Oldest Citizens of Henderson Co. TX 1932-1934 Articles

Newspaper Articles on The Oldest Citizens in Henderson County

Athens Weely Review
January 12, 1932
Negress, 119, Has Lived 98 years In Henderson County
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Believed to be the oldest citizen of East Texas if not the entire state,
Mrs. Emly Anderson of Athens, maintains and there are no records to
substantiate her claim that she has already passed her 119th birthday.

The age negress has made her home in Henderson county since 1834
when she came here as a slave with old Dr. Larkin from South Carolina.
She lacks only two years completing a round century of living in Henderson
county and she denies strenously that this section of the state is unhealthy.

Athens Weekly Review, Athens, Texas
Thursday January 25, 1934
Claim County's Oldest Citizen Is Negress, Past 100
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Who is Henderson county's oldest citizen?
Tobe McClure, well known farmer of near Mabank, claims that the 
county's oldest resident is Aunt Mollie Brown, aged negress of the 
St. Paul community, who last August 11th celebrated her 100th 
birthday.

Still active despite her advanced years Aunt Mollie recalls, many 
things that happened in the days prior to the Civil War when she 
was a slave on a plantation in the Old Porter's Bluff community in
the Northwestern part of Henderson county.  She has been a resident 
of this county nearly all of her life.

"One hundred years in a county where food is as plentiful as it is in
Henderson county is not bad living at all," she recently told a group of
white friends who visited her.

Athens Weekly Review, Athens, Texas
Thursday January 25, 1934
Cites Negress, 122, As Oldest Citizen In Henderson County
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Carl Bennett of the local government relief office challenges the statement
made in Saturday's Daily Review that Aunt Mollie Brown, 100 year-old 
citizen of the St. Paul community, is the county's oldest citizen.

He cites Emly Anderson, another aged negress, whose record on file in the
local relief office indicates that she has already observed her 122nd birthday 
and that seven generations of her family are living today.

These generations include a daughter who has passed her 90th birthday, a
granddaughter who is past 70 and a great granddaughter who is 54.  Three 
other young generations are listed below the 54 year old great granddaughter,
the seventh generation being a child three years of age.

The aged negress claims to have been born in Newburn, North Carolina in
1812 and to have been a slave of the earlier generation of the Larkin family.

Athens Weekly Review, Athens, Texas
Thursday February 1, 1934
Death Claims County's Oldest Citizen, Aunt Emily Anderson, 122
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Aunt Emily Anderson, who many claimed was Henderson county's 
oldest citizen and who acknowledged 112 years, was buried in the
Athens colored cemetery Tuesday following her sudden death Monday
night.

Aunt Emily's residence in Henderson county dated back to the days 
before the civil war and her decendants claim that she was among the
very first citizens to settle in this section of the state, having come here 
as a slave fromNewburn, North Carolina where she was born.

Although she was the mother of fourteen children she outlived all 
but four of them.
Transcribed by Bunny Freeman 2003

Old Newspaper Articles of Henderson County

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