Current Events > The last Civil War veteran died in 1956

(+) Yeah! (+)

My mom was alive when a civil war veteran was alive.

The last former slave died less than 52 years ago.

When my great grandmother was born there were people alive whose fathers fought in the Revolutionary War.

Time's kind of freaky when you think about it. Shit that seems like ancient history wasn't that long ago.

The last widow of a Civil War veteran died just a couple years ago. That was a very unusual circumstance, of course. The guy was in his 90s when they got married.

__aCEr__ posted...

The last widow of a Civil War veteran died just a couple years ago. That was a very unusual circumstance, of course. The guy was in his 90s when they got married.

I looked up a list of the last surviving widows. Crazy age differences.

I wonder if the last vets had some sort of celebrity status. Old cartoons sometimes depicted union and confederate soldiers.

LeoRavus posted...

The last former slave died less than 52 years ago.

This is highly doubtful, I am assuming you are talking about Slyvester Magee.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvester_Magee

If his claimed birth date is accurate he would have been 130 years old when he died. That's very unlikely since the oldest person ever with records to back up their age claim died at 122 years old.

An interesting one to me is that one of the grandsons of the 10th president, John Tyler, is still alive today. His name is Harrison Ruffin Tyler. The story is that his father, Lyon Tyler, was one of John Tyler's 15(!) children. Lyon had 6 children of his own, 3 of which were late in his life with a woman who was 35 years younger than him.

So we have someone living today whose grandfather was born during George Washington's first presidential term.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Ruffin_Tyler

YellowSUV posted...

This is highly doubtful, I am assuming you are talking about Slyvester Magee.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvester_Magee

If his claimed birth date is accurate he would have been 130 years old when he died. That's very unlikely since the oldest person ever with records to back up their age claim died at 122 years old.

Yeah his birth year isn't verified.

I think Peter Mills is and he died in 1972. Still kind of amazing some were still alive in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

LeoRavus posted...

Yeah his birth year isn't verified.

I think Peter Mills is and he died in 1972. Still kind of amazing some were still alive in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

I can see Peter Mills being legit. He died when he was 110. He didn't have a ridiculous claim of being 130 years old.