The Shelbyville Republican
Thursday
February 25, 1909
Page 4 column 1
----------
NINETY-FIVE YEARS OLD
----------
(St. Paul, Ind., February 25)
Isaiah McCoy, who lives near here,
celebrated his ninety-fifth birthday anniversary Tuesday at a reunion of
relatives and friends, who will go to the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Garrett,
with whom McCoy lives, taking well filled baskets, which has been customary
for years. Mr. McCoy, until the last few months, was nimble on his feet and
could dance to the music of a violin as well as a person thirty years his
junior, but now his health is failing fast.
He was born in Ghent, Kentucky, February
[13], 1814, and he came to Decatur county in 1819. His father fought in the
war of the revolution, and he was wounded at the battle of Cowpins. After the
war he sailed to South Africa, where he was a prisoner among savages for three
months. On returning to America he settled in Ghent, Kentucky, and later he
came to Indiana and started a mill.
“Uncle” Isaiah, as he is familiarly called,
says he has worked many a day when a young man for 37 ˝ cents a day. The
first half dollar he earned, he says, looked as big as the hind wheel of a
wagon.
Mr. McCoy was married when twenty-six years
old to Miss Mary Short, who died May 5, 1891. He still lives at the
old home with a granddaughter, Mrs. Ada Garrett, and her husband. He
has six children living, and they include, Mrs. J. R. [Courtney] Kanouse,
John N. McCoy, Mrs. J. M. [Julia] Bright, and Mrs. Lewis [Eliza] Garrett,
of this place, Mrs. George [Arminda] Boicourt of Westport, and
Benjamin F. McCoy of Greensburg.
Contributed by Barb Huff
Newspaper Index
Main Page