*Interview with*
*Charles Gabriel Anderson,*
*St. Louis, Missouri.*
_Hale And Hearty At 119_
Charles Gabriel Anderson, 119 years old, lives at 1106 Biddle Street in
St. Louis alone. He is 5 feet, 3 inches in height, has mixed gray hair
and weighs 145 pounds.
He is slightly bent, but does not have to wear glasses, and is able to
go anywhere in the city without assistance. He has a good memory, and
cheerful attitude. Seated in the church of God in Christ, a store front
church, next door to his home, where he attends because of the
convenient location, he tells the writer the following story:
"I was born January 5, 1818 in Huntsville, Alabama de son of Sallie
McCree and George Bryant. My owner's name was Miss Margaret Tony. She
sold me to Edmond Bryant while I was quite young. I sometimes go by de
name of Bryant.
"I was just big enough to carry water and help a bit with farming while
Miss Tony had me, but I jedge I was 'bout 14 years old when Mr. Bryant
got me, 'cause I was old enough to plow and help with de cotton and I
done a man's size work in his field. I was his slave when de war broke
out. I joined de army in 1864. I used to git a pension of $65 a month,
now I only git $56 a month but last month I didn't git no check at all.
I don't know why. Wish I could find out 'cause I needs it bad to live
on. I used to nurse de white folks children when I was a little boy. I
made a better nurse dan most girls, so jest kept on at it till I was old
enough to be a field hand.
"I had a hard time till de war broke out. Soon as I got a chance, I run
off and went to de army. I served two years and six months. I come out
in 1866. 'Course I was in de hospital till '66. I don't know how long I
was in der wounded. But I do know when I got better, I was such a good
nurse de doctors kept me in de government hospital to help nurse dem
other soldiers and dere sure 'nough was a heap of 'em up dere. Dat was
in Madison, Wisconsin. After dey turned me loose from de hospital, I
went to work in a barber shop up dere. I worked in it one year to learn
de trade. After I learned de barber trade I don't remember how much
longer I stayed dere. I left dere and went to Dodgeville, Wisconsin and
opened a barber shop of my own and run it about two or three years. Den
I went to Dubuque, Iowa, and stayed about one year and barbered in a
hotel dere.
"I come to St. Louis in 1876 and started being a roust-about and firing
on boats. I changed from dat after awhile and went to driving private
carriages and done glass cleaning.
"I got what little education I got, 'tending night school here in St.
Louis. I got 'nough to git ordained in de Chamber Street Baptist Church
for a preacher. Den I come in holiness in Elder Jones, Church of God in
Christ on Kennerly Avenue. I pastored the Macedonia Spiritual Church
eight years in East St. Louis, Ill. I been married twice and am de
father of three children, all dead, and both wifes dead. I don't know
how long none of 'em been dead. My mother died while I was in de army
and my father got drowned before I was born. I only had two sisters and
three brothers, and dey is all dead. My brother, Jim Bryant, died in de
army. He enlisted one year before I did, but in a different regiment. I
has voted many times in my life time, and always voted Republican till
dis last election, I decided I better vote de Democrat ticket and I did,
and I don't regret it either.
"I gits my washing done by de neighbors dat do washing and I eat at de
restaurant on de corner. De Ku Klux never bothered me none 'cause I
stayed up north out of dere reach.
"I 'member de old slaves used to sing: 'Amazing Grace How Sweet De
Sound'; 'I want to be a Soldier, Since de Lord has set me Free';
'Fighting for Liberty'; 'Why Should We Start, and Fear to Die'; 'Death
is the Gate to Endless Joy and Yet We Dread to Enter There'; 'The pain,
the groan, the dying strife, rights our approaching souls away'; 'Jesus
can make a dying bed, soft as downy pillows are, whilst on his breast, I
lean my head and breathe our lives out sweetly there'.
"Sister, I just think dis younger generation is gone totally. Dey ain't
taught right in de home, and de teachers can't do a thing with 'em. If
it wasn't for de prayers goin' up to de throne of grace from all us old
saints what's got sense enough to trust in nothin' else but Jesus, de
whole business would be gone plum to rack. Dey ain't even got sense
enough to know dat. De young folks' mind is on worldly goods and worldly
pleasures and dere ain't no good in none of it, just misery and woe, to
all it touches. And still dey don't seem to see, and don't want to see
and nobody got any sense, can't make' em see. God help dis generation is
all dat I can say.
"I figure I lived dis long 'cause in de first place, I obey God, I never
did drink liquor or smoke in my whole life. I never wore glasses but
precious little and dat was when I did what little reading and writing I
knowed how to do; 'cause after my children went to school long enough to
read and write for me I just stopped doing dat little bit. Now dey's all
dead so I just makes marks, and lets it go at dat. I am a member of The
Kennerly Avenue Church of God in Christ."