JOHN TUBBERT DIES, 102 YEARS OF AGE

Oldest Man in Syracuse Passes Away, After Awakening from a Long Sleep.

HIS CONSTITUTION SIMPLY WORN OUT

History of a Remarkable Life--Born in Ireland and Comes to Syracuse When There Are Only 6,000 People Here--A Loyal Irishman and a Strong Sympathizer With the Boers.

John Tubbert, the oldest man in Syracuse, who lived in three centuries, through the administrations of twenty-one Presidents, twenty-eight Governors of New York State, four English rulers and all the Mayors of Syracuse, died at 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon at the home of his niece, Mrs. Margaret Doyle, No. 413 Wolf street, aged 102 years.

Death was sudden. Mr. Tubbert had not been in the best of health for the past two or three weeks, but he suffered no pain and was not obliged to remain in bed. Just before his death yesterday he roused from a long sleep, gasped once or twice and expired.

For a year or more Mr. Tubbert's heart bothered him at times and his relatives expected that one of the attacks would terminate fatally. The aged man had often said so himself, but he declared he was ready to die any time.

Physicians who had attended him declared that his system was like that of a clock nearly run down and that his heart was likely to stop beating any minute. The hot weather of the last two weeks weakened him considerably and a light, incessant cough troubled him. A week ago Saturday he slept all night and the following day.

Tuesday night Mr. Tubbert retired, feeling about as well as usual, and when he awakened yesterday morning he had a very light lunch served to him in bed. After eating it he dozed asleep again and did not waken until before his death.

At 4 o'clock Mrs. Doyle entered his room and found him gasping. In a moment he expired.

Mr. Tubbert is survived by two sons, William and James, the latter a patrolman in the Police Department. The funeral will be held at the home of Mrs. Doyle in Wolf street at 1 o'clock to-morrow morning and at St. John the Baptist Church half an hour afterward. Burial will be at the First Ward Cemetery.

CAREER OF A MAN WITH MANY PECULIARITIES

John Tubbert was born in Bastlestone, County Wexford, Ireland, March 16, 1799, and was therefore 102 years old in March last, when he celebrated the event with a birthday party, at which were present his sons and grandchildren, Katharine, Marie, Florence, William and John Tubbert, the three generations representing a total of 244 years.

In 1835, when he was 35 years old, Mr. Tubbert left Ireland for Canada. He settled in Melenasha, but remained there only five years. In 1840 he came to this city. At that time the salt manufacturing industry flourished and Mr. Tubbert readily procured employment digging salt wells for the State in the neighborhood of what is now the First Ward. He remained a resident of the North Side ever since.

Walked Part Way from Canada

When Mr. Tubbert came to Syracuse from Canada he rode part way on a canal boat and walked the rest. Streets were few in the city then and "Salt Point" was a veritable wilderness. There were but three houses in North Salina street between Ash and Wolf streets, cars had been heard of but unseen.

Mr. Tubbert held the distinction of having been born in the year in which George Washington died. He frequently remarked that he was sorry that he had not been born a year earlier in which event he would have lived in the great rebellion in Ireland. He was always a stanch Irishman, always had longed to see the day when Ireland would be free and was in especially exuberant spirits every St. Patrick's Day, when he used to tell his children and grandchildren about the big demonstrations that characterized the day in the early years of Syracuse.

Saw Syracuse Grow from 6,000

Mr. Tubbert lived through four American wars since his removal to the United States--the English War of 1812, the Mexican War of 1840, the Civil War of 1861 and the Spanish-American War of three years ago. He voted at all but one or two of twenty-one Presidential elections, having been an ardent Democrat all his life, and at twenty-eight State elections. He remembered the first Mayor of Syracuse, Harvey Baldwin, well.

Mr. Tubbert saw Syracuse grow in population from 6,000 to 108,000 and he witnessed the rise and fall of the salt industry. He was possessed of a very retentive memory and scarcely an event of any significance happened within the last eighty years that he could not talk intelligently upon. He had dates at his finger tips.

Until eight years ago Mr. Tubbert never tasted an intoxicating liquor. Then its use in moderate quantities was recommended by a physician. He smoked almost incessantly. He declared repeatedly that it never harmed him, but that, if anything, it added to his longevity.

The old man always insisted that a man who drank too much liquor in any form injured his health and shortened his life. He recommended plenty of sleep, the keeping of good hours, the eating of lots of wholesome and strengthening food and as much exercise as possible.

He was a strong sympathizer of the Boers. Until his sight failed him, not long ago, he read the city papers daily and invariably the first thing he looked to was an account of the progress of the South African war.

Wanted to Aid the Boers

"If I could only shoulder a gun myself, I think I'd go and fight with the Boers," the old man used to tell his friends when the subject was broached. He sympathized equally with William Jennings Bryan in the defeats the latter suffered in the last two Presidential campaigns. At every election, municipal, State and National, his interest was aroused to the highest pitch and his fondest delight was to get into an argument over the relative merits of the candidates with some of his neighbors.

Last election day Mr. Tubbert could not get out to vote. His son William visited him during the day and presented him with a crisp, new bill, not of a small denomination.

"Say, Billy," remarked the old man, as he examined the certificate, "if I could only get out to-day I'd bet every dollar of that on Bryan. That boy ought to win, and he will, too."

Had Many Peculiarities

Mr. Tubbert was a man with a great many peculiar characteristics. These were a few of them:

He never wore a pair of overshoes in his life.

H never wore an overcoat and said he never would if he lived to be 200 years old.

He never wore a necktie, save on a few Sundays, years ago, when he was a boy.

He never carried an umbrella, rain or shine.

He never drank anything intoxicating until he was 94 years old.

He never rode on an electric car and said he wouldn't if he was made president of the railway company.

He rode on only one railroad train and that was between here and Pulaski thirty-five years ago.

He never ran away in a fight and although he never looked for a battle, he was always ready to give and take.

Ready to Die Any Time

"I may live a long time yet," said Mr. Tubbert to a Post-Standard reporter on the evening of his birthday party last March. "And I may drop off any minute, maybe to-night. But I'm ready any time."

Physicians last night when asked as to the cause of death replied: "Simply a worn out constitution. Heart worked until it was able to work no longer."

Source: The Post-Standard, Syracuse, Onondaga County, New York, 11 July 1901, Page 6