KENTUCKY'S AGED ----------------------- THE REMARKABLE OLD MEN AND WOMEN --------------------------------- THE EVENING DEMOCRAT Wednesday, April 19, 1899 Warren, Pennsylvania THEY HAVE TWELVE THOUSAND RELATIVES-- ALL ARE CALLED BY THEIR GIVEN NAMES-- IN THE PRIME OF LIFE AT SEVENTY--EIGHT—AN APOLOGY The most remarkable family in point of age in the Unite States lives, moves and run things in the Cumberland Mountains of Kentucky--in Letcher County, to be exact. Webb is the name of these old persons, whose number is six, and to whom every individual of the 12,000 population of the county is directly or indirectly related. Three old men there are, and three old women. Their father was the first cousin of Daniel Boone, and was, in addition, the earliest settler in the rugged mountain region in which his descendants are now all powerful There are all called by their given names, with the prefix "Uncle" or "Aunt" as the case may be. There is Aunt Letty. She comes first by reason of her age, which is eighty-nine years. She is growing rather appreciative of the burdens which come with advanced years, and she is not so spry as she has been up to a few years ago. The too, the murder of her son, Wiley W. Craft, a dozen years ago has had much to do with aging her. To Archibald Craft, her husband, she presented eleven pledges. Her grandchildren number ninety, her great-grandchildren sixty, and her great-great-grandchildren forty. After Aunt Letty comes Aunt Polly, who is eight-five years old in her own right, and who is growing old gracefully at the home of her son. She married a man named Adams, and ten children were born. It was to visit her eldest daughter that aunt Polly last year rode one hundred miles on horseback over the roughest of mountain roads. she didn't mind this experience so unusual for an octogenarian, and remarked that the Webbs came of hardy stock. She has 100 grandchildren, and seventy great-grandchildren and about forty great-great-grandchildren. Jason is next in point of years, being eighty, and most prolific of the family. He doesn't know the meaning of illness from any personal knowledge of it, and he says he feels as fine as a yearling. Nineteen children is the record which makes him the proudest man in Letcher County. These nineteen have obeyed the Scriptural injuction and have multiplied to such an extent that the old gentleman has 175 grandchildren, 150 great-grandchildren and more than one hundred great-great-grandchildren. He is one of the two members of the aged six who have ever looked upon the landscape from a car window. It was two years ago that he first ventured on the "kyars," and that was when he went on a visit to friends in Tennessee. Then there is Uncle Miles, who considers himself in the prime of life. Although he is seventy- eight years old, he rides his horse all over the rough neighborhood and is apparently as unrestrained in his movements as a youngster. With him too, the storks have been generous, and the children of his number 165, his great grandchildren count up to 150 and the last generation ninety. Aunt Sally, with seventy-five milestones to her credit runs around her home with as much agility as any of her grandchildren. She is a widow and does her own work, even to shouldering a sack of corn and carrying it to the mill. She had thirteen children, eighty grandchildren, sixty-five great grandchildren, and more than fifty great-great-grandchildren. The baby of the family is Uncle Wiley, who is only seventy three. His eleven children perpetuated the race to the extent of seventy five grandchildren, and he has fifty great-grandchildren and thirty great-great-grandchildren. He apologized for his comparatively small number of descendants by stating that his sons married late in life. Joanne