Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2011, All Rights Reserved U.S. Data Repository Please read U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the US Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================= U.S. Data Repository NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ========================================================================= Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== NEWSPAPER: Washington Post April 30, 1905 =========================================================================== Only Survivor of War of 1912 105 Years Old Hiram Cronk to Celebrate Birthday Today Doesn't Expect To See Another Despite Newspaper Stories the Old Gentleman is Quite Feeble. Arrangements Perfected For Patriotic Demonstration. The Story of the Times of Hiram Silas Cronk is the Story of the Development of the Nation. New York, April 28 - Hiram Cronk, the only survivor of the war of 1812, will be 105 years old tomorrow, and a patriotic celebration has been planned for that date at his home at Ava, Oneida County. Arrangements have been made whereby every Society in the United States of the Sons and Daughters of the War of 1812 will send a delegation to Ava on the old soldier's birthday. As Mr. Cronk is very feeble this will probably be the last time such an opportunity will present itself. Mr. Cronk was so weak during the winter that he was not expected to survive. Of sturdy Dutch stock, Hiram Cronk was born in the town of Frankfort, Herkimer County, N.Y., and soon after was taken by his parents to Wright Settlement, near Rome. There, for ten years the family lived, Hiram attending school and "doing chores" about the farm. From there they moved to the vicinity of his present residence, where since 1837 he has lived. The fertile farm of 110 acres he now possesses was a wilderness when he built his cabin from which has been evolved the snug house in which he and his only living daughter, Mrs. Sarah A. Rowley - she past 80 - have habitation. When Hiram Cronk was born, Thomas Jefferson was president of the United States, John Marshall Secretary of State, Oliver Wolcott Secretary of the Treasury, and Samuel Dexter Secretary of War. Although but a mere boy, his spirit was aroused over the issues of the second war with Great Britain, and, joining his father and brother, he went to Sakett's Harbor as an enlisted man in the army, serving for 100 days. So young and slight was he that the other soldiers joked with him to a place of safety. Their jesting was soon turned to admiration, however, for in a skirmish with the British the youthful patriot carried himself so well and appeared to such advantage that Captain Davis, then commanding the troops, complimented the boy publicly, and said that if he had a regiment of such soldiers he could invade Canada and fight the enemy on his own ground. When hostilities had ceased young Cronk went home with his father and took up the trade of itinerant shoemaker, going about the countryside and repairing the footwear of the people. He covered his circuit twice a year, and stuck to his last until the building of the Erie Canal, when he sought work there, and afterward upon the Black River Canal, which joins the Erie at Rome. Cronk saw the Marquis de Lafayette pass over the canal in a barge of state, and in his day witnessed the changing order of the land, almost since the time it took its place among the nations of the earth. At twenty-five Hiram Silas Cronk married Mary Thornton, and for sixty years they lived happily together, her death occurring in 1885. Six children were born to them. One son gave his life to his country in the Civil War. Grand children and great and great great-grandchildren are counted to Hiram Silas Cronk by the score, and today a small army of them arrived at the old ancestral home. When Andrew Jackson was a candidate for the presidency, Hiram Cronk voted for him. In religion he is a devout Methodist and still able to carry the tune of the old, familiar hymns in a fairly good voice. Although deaf, his eyesight is remarkable, and he is yet able to read clear print with the aid of glasses. He is an inveterate user of tobacco, and chews almost constantly. Despite newspaper stories to the contrary, Mr. Cronk is not able to plow a ten-acre lot before breakfast, nor does he saw and split all the wood for the family use, but he is remarkably hale for his years, walks with the aid of a cane and evinces an interest in current affairs. He is the only original pensioner of 1812, drawing $12 monthly until his one hundredth year, when congress increased it to $25. Some years ago the legislature of New York voted him a pension of $72 a month, and with an additional small income from his farm, he manages to live very comfortably. The story of the times of Hiram Silas Cronk is the story of the development of the nation. He is the last of the patriots of 1812. The last link connecting the simplicity of Jefferson's day with the strenuous complexity of the present. ===========================================================================