Aunt Hagar

The Cincinnati Gazette of yesterday says: “Old Aunt Hagar, a colored woman, born on the 21st day of March, 1751, and consquently 122 years of age last spring, died last Sunday at her home in the country above Alexandria, Ky. She was born in Virginia, and came to Kentucky in the days of its early settlement with Lewis W[illeg], whose wife was a sister of Ben Beall, the elder, grandfather of Benj. Beall, the present Circuit Clerk. At the time of her death she was living under the care of a colored man named Anthony Lee. She was one of the oldest, if not the very oldest person in the United States. She died of old age.

Courier-Journal, July 11, 1873

However: We believe the obituary exaggerated her age by about ten years. According to the 1870 U.S. census, living in the Gubser Mill precinct of Campbell Co., Kentucky, was Hagar Thomas, age 108, a black woman. Additional notes record that she was blind, born in Maryland, and her occupation was listed as Gen. Washington's waiter! She was living in the home of Anthony Lee, black male age 74, born in Virginia, a farmer, and Anna Trimble, black female age 73, born in Virginia, keeping house.