The old newspapers are filled with claims of people dying at extraordinary old ages. On further research, some of the claims turned out to be false or just plain errors. Others are unverifiable. Regardless of what may or may not be, here is one claim that a man died at the ripe old age of 185 years.
Man Was 185 Years Old
Austin, Tex., July 26. — That Jose Calvario, who died recently at Tuxpan, Mex., lacking only fifteen years of the 200 mark, was married for the last time when he was past 150 years of age, was the statement in a letter received here today from Frank L. Watson, an American mining man of Colima, Mex.
Watson’s letter further substantiates the report of Calvario’s extreme age, the American saying that he was at Tuxpan the day the Mexican died. Watson said he had often seen the aged man doing odd jobs about town for a living.
“Calvary was an Aztec Indian,” was wrote. “He ate whatever he liked, but his poverty prevented him faring sumptuously. He was a moderate drinker of native liquors for 165 years, according to his own statement, and his memory did not go back to the time when he began smoking the Mexican hand-made cigaret.
“No one knows how many times he was married, but it is commonly reported that he took his last wife when he was past the age of 150 years and that he had several children by her. He left several thousand descendants.”
Watson confirms the statement that the state officials investigated Calvario’s claim of extreme age and found that the church records showed he was born in 1727.
Source: The Day Book (Chicago, Illinois newspaper). July 26, 1912.
