American Folk Figure. Alleged Supercentenarian. A former seaman and farm hand, he died a month short of what was claimed as his 132nd birthday. His name appears in studies of human longevity from the 1890s until the present day. Born at Gates Courthouse, North Carolina, to a white woman and a full-blooded Cherokee Indian named Andrew Bass, Raby went to sea as a youth and served in the USS Brandywine during the War of 1812. He later earned a meager living as a farm hand in rural New Jersey, ultimately retiring to an almshouse known as the Piscataway Poor Farm. According to an article which appeared in the New York Herald in 1895, this "modern Methusaleh" once heard George Washington give a public address while his ship was in port in Virginia. The factors in his exceptional longevity appear to be favorable genetics, an active lifestyle, and good luck, as he shared the same diet as his shorter-lived contemporaries and enjoyed both tobacco and liquor. After his death he was interred in the plot of the Denmans, a prominent Springfield family.
American Folk Figure. Alleged Supercentenarian. A former seaman and farm hand, he died a month short of what was claimed as his 132nd birthday. His name appears in studies of human longevity from the 1890s until the present day. Born at Gates Courthouse, North Carolina, to a white woman and a full-blooded Cherokee Indian named Andrew Bass, Raby went to sea as a youth and served in the USS Brandywine during the War of 1812. He later earned a meager living as a farm hand in rural New Jersey, ultimately retiring to an almshouse known as the Piscataway Poor Farm. According to an article which appeared in the New York Herald in 1895, this "modern Methusaleh" once heard George Washington give a public address while his ship was in port in Virginia. The factors in his exceptional longevity appear to be favorable genetics, an active lifestyle, and good luck, as he shared the same diet as his shorter-lived contemporaries and enjoyed both tobacco and liquor. After his death he was interred in the plot of the Denmans, a prominent Springfield family.
Bio by: Nikita Barlow
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