Many years ago, so history relates, Ponce de Leon sailed bravely across the Atlantic ocean to search in the new land of America for the fountain of eternal youth.

History also tells that he didn’t find it, though he searched valiantly through the glades of Florida, believing that in that land of sunshine and flowers the font must be hidden.

Ponce de Leon had the right idea but his “dope” was wrong.

Not in Florida, but in New York state, Cayuga county, township of Moravia is the fountain of eternal youth located.

Or, if not that, something very like it that in inquisitive old Spaniard could hardly have failed to be satisfied with it, had he been clever enough to find it – something which so invigorates those living near its youth-sustaining influence that few of Moravia’s residents grow old – except in years.

If there were not such an influence, how could it be that out of a population of 1,500 souls, 158 men and women are living who have passed the three score and ten year mark, many of them left it so far behind them in fact that they speak of that dim seventieth birthday as having been celebrated “when I was young.”

In the little village with its comfortable homes, its wide streets – wide enough to allow four automobiles to meet and pass at once without any one of them loosing a mud-guard or scratching the paint on its wheels; with its busy shops and its tall trees which throw their kindly shade alike over those who are young in years and those who have failed to grow old, there are four men and a woman who have gone beyond the four score and ten mark.

There are 58 who have passed the four score milestone, and many of these have but a step to go to attain the honor of being nonagenarians. All the rest of this aged but youthful company are mere boys and girls of more than 70, the greater number being 76 and 79 years old.

The combined ages of these men and women amounts to 12,521 years.

Allowing a year to count a mile, the years of these folk in the little upstate town would reach to within a few miles of half way around the earth.

And these are real calendar years too, not the kind skeptics believe were used in computing the age of Methuselah.

There is almost no sickness among these venerable men and women. Not a single case in which the years have left their mark by bringing those infirmities which render old age the saddest thing on earth.

Some of the older ones are beginning to find it a bit difficult to hear well and a few of them use glasses when they read, but they have all retained their interest in affairs of the world, their joy in living and all but a very few are getting about and mingling with their acquaintances in the world outside their immediate home circle.

While it is true that the most of these old folks have homes with younger members of their family there is not a case where this has been made necessary because father, mother, grandparent or great-grandparent was too feeble to look after his or her own affairs. They all work, these men and women. Perhaps not such long hours as they did once, but it is not necessary that they do so.

Many of the women in the list attend to their own household affairs, even those who have gone past the 85th birthday. All the men are active, several among them being farmers who till the soil and look after their dairy produce with all the avidity of those younger farmers of the age who realize that in their effort lies the strength of a nation.

Just to show how great an extent the spirit of youth unquenchable has held its grip on this little band of men and women who have counted all and more, and more of the years allotted to mankind in the beginning of things, is best illustrated in the answer made by one … replied pertly:

“Well, I’m 78, if you must know, but please don’t publish that. It might hurt my chances of getting work if it becomes necessary for me to go out and earn my living.”

Mrs. Cornelia Powers, who lives in a roomy, beautifully appointed home on Church street, is Moravia’s “oldest citizen.”

Mrs. Powers is 96, having celebrated her birthday only a few weeks ago.

Mrs. Powers wears glasses, sometimes. The most of the time, they are pushed high on her forehead and she needs them so little that she seldom remembers to adjust them over her nose when using her eyes for reading or sewing.

She is one of those whose hear has become a little defective in the last few years and it worries her. Also she thinks that maybe she isn’t so “spry” as she was some years ago, years when she was helping her husband, Cyrus Powers, to do the good deeds for which his and her name are famous in the town. Mr. Powers founded the Powers library in Moravia, and the library is but one of many monuments which stands to commemorate the name of Powers.

Mrs. Power’s home is filled with rare old furniture, pictures and china, and nothing pleases the gray-haired woman more than to tell bits of the history in which these heirlooms have figured.

She’s rather proud of being the “oldest citizen,” though she has no notion of using her citizen’s rights in casting a ballot this fall. She’s content to remain at home and “let George do it,” though she doesn’t state the case in just that way. Mrs. Powers would never indulge in slang; one just could never imagine her doing so.

At 91, Mrs. Ruth E. Rynders ranks third in years. Mrs. Rynders isn’t at home in Moravia this fall. A few weeks ago, when a relative with whom she was living, died. Mrs. Rynders decided she would a-visiting go, it was so sort of lonesome at home.

So she packed her trunk and made a little excursion over to Poplar Ridge. She rather expects to stay there this winter since there are no insistent duties to bring her back to Moravia, and Poplar Ridge isn’t so far from that village that a person living in Poplar Ridge is altogether removed from that source which supplies the influence under which one does not grow old.

Two citizens share the glory of being 90 years old, Mrs. Arcelia Spore and B.F. Barnes.

Mrs. Spore is a little lame, but in one foot only. Her hands aren’t a bit that way and ..it was three quarters of a century ago.

Her blue eyes have never been dimmed either by age or glasses and she has just finished sewing two huge bed quilts, the kind that used to bless the homes and beds of those who knew not the comfort, or discomfort, of steam-heated apartments.

During the war, when America’s soldier boys were crying for warm socks to keep their feet warm as they waded in the cold mud, Mrs. Spore knitted 76 pairs, and not to one pair, it is said, could that little Canadian ditty which made so many smile, be applied. The verse ran so:

“Dear Madam: I received the socks;

they are sure some fit.

I used one for a helmet, t’other for a mitt.

I’m glad to know you’rs doing your bit. –

But where in time did you learn to knit?”

‘Tis said the letter was received by a Canadian woman who had enclosed her card with the gift of stockings.

Nobody could have wondered where Mrs. Spore learned to knit, so perfect were the socks that she turned out. Red Cross officials have so declared.

Mrs. Vernelia Richardson is Mrs. Spore’s younger sister. Much younger, for Mrs. Richardson is only 80. The two live together and Mrs. Richardson has retained all the “snap” of her girlhood.

She refused to pose with her sister for a photograph.

When a Herald reporter prepared to beg the favor it was quite apparent that it wouldn’t be granted.

“I’m afraid you are going to ‘sit on me,’” laughed the reporter.

“I’m not, but neither am I going to sit for you,” replied Mrs. Richardson tartly.

Miss Julia Everson, 87, is one of the most loved women in the town.

Many years ago Miss Everson was a “school marm.” Now she says she’s “just an old maid.”

But there are old maids and maiden ladies, and Miss Everson is one of the latter class.

Miss Everson’s home is in West Cayuga street and while it is a big house with quantities of fussy furnishings, the slender little woman with the silver white hair and the hands of an artist, does nearly all the work there.

You see, it was her mother’s home, and she loves it and all it contains for the associations they hold. It was because of the mother’s and father’s need for the ministrations of their daughter that the latter gave up teaching and became housekeeper.

Miss Everson was vastly amused at the thought that her photograph was wanted to help illustrate a story.

“Indeed yes, if it will help any,” and she smiled sweetly.

“Just wait until I have dressed up a bit,” and she vanished into an inner room, to appear a minute later in exactly the same garb in which she had greeted the photographer.

“You see,” she explained whimsically, “I went to put in my teeth. I wear them only on special occasions and I judge this to be one.”

To this day her visitors are unable to determine whether she was “spoofing” or not. Certainly if she wasn’t wearing all her teeth when she opened the door to her callers the fact was not apparent.

C.W. Brigden is an 82 years old blacksmith.

There are those who doubt that Mr. Brigden is 82, though all admit the blacksmithing part of the indictment, even adding that he’s a might good one.

One of he causes for doubt lie in the fact that every morning, weather permitting, Mr. Brigden rides his bicycle the half mile that lies between home and work, then rides it home again, and between which if there happens to be an errand he must do in a part of the town away from his place of business, he rides his “bike” to save time.

He’s an ardent fisherman, is this 82 year old lad.

When brook trout are in season and business is not too pressing, – sometimes when it is, – he goes fishing.

When business presses and the trout streams call he admits that he “sneaks away,” his patrons can only guess it, so the affair is between him and his conscience, and he tries to be not too hard on his conscience as he spends a long summer day with rod and line.

Of course it wouldn’t be possible to have such an aggregation of folk who have been a long time in this world without there being some very notable persons among them.

There’s the Hon. S. Edwin Day, 80, who for 12 consecutive years held the office of county judge, elected on the Democratic ticket in a district notoriously Republican. Mr. Day is practicing law now.

How many persons know that John D. Rockefeller, the old magnate, once lived in Moravia?

It is true, however, and a few weeks ago Mr. Rockefeller visited his old home there. As Mr. Rockefeller is 82, perhaps it is to his years of residence near the mystic influence that he owes his longevity.

When he visited Moravia he was accompanied by a retinue of servants and secret service men, but Moravians knew that these latter were only to guard against the mischances of a long automobile trip and that the former were to be used otherwhere than in Moravia. When Mr. Rockefeller comes to Moravia they like to look on him as a Moravian, not as the world-famed millionaire.

J. Oscar Snyder, who is 86, isn’t an assessor now, but he held that post for 36 consecutive years.

James A. Wright, 82, has written a history of Moravia. He was formerly an attorney, and while he doesn’t practice now it is only because he wants to use his time otherhow. He has a camp on Owasco lake and as early as may be in the spring he likes to go there and live close to nature. He has been spending the early fall there, too.

Joel B. Jennings, attorney, is 76 and is carrying his law practice with all the enthusiasm of his early days at the bar.

Darius Brockway, 80, is one of the young farmers near Moravia. He’s a large section of the backbone of the grange in the neighborhood and served as a justice of the peace in Moravia for 20 years.

S.H. Steele, 85, is superintendent of public water works. He’s “on the job” every day and as often as occasion requires he goes to the reservoir and personally superintends necessary repairs and improvements.

Henry Jennings, who has been in business in Moravia for more than half a century, is another “old boy” who never misses a day on the job. He was for a long time sole proprietor of a department store in the town. Now he has disposed of it but is retained by the new owners as manager. They knew, those new owners, that he had learned how that particular business is managed.

David Dennis attends to all the work on his big farm and he looks after his dairy work in a manner that is the envy of other dairymen thereabouts. He drives his own milk wagon, too, coming into Moravia each day with his supply.

Perhaps no small town in New York state boasts a greater number of veterans of the Civil War than does Moravia. The names of those who fought in that historic struggle and returned to their homes in the New York state town, follows:

B.F. Barnes, 90; Joseph Whitcomb, 87; Hosea Munn, 85; Alfred T. Atwood, 85; George Burlingham, 79; Isaac Hubbard, 78; Aspah Whiting, 78; Dwight Porter, 78; Charles Caldwell, 78; John P. White, 78; W.H. Baker, 74; Benjamin Wilson, 74; Wayne Lester, 78; A.L. Hutchinson, 74; Elijah Greenfield, 78; Ira Scott, 78; Thomas Sandwick, 77; E.E. Palmer, 72.

Mr. and Mrs. B.F. Barnes are the oldest married couple. He is 90, she 81. Mrs. Barnes has been seriously ill lately and during that time her husband has been one of her most faithful attendants, vying with the nurse to give the patient every attention. He told the Herald people that his wife is now on the road to recovery and expressed his profound gratitude for this feat.

There are many married folks in this company young-old, a few, very few, spinsters and bachelors, but not a divorced person among the number.

Might it be that the mysterious force gives off other influences than those which make it possible for one to live long and be happy?

In addition to those already mentioned, Moravia’s colony of old folks includes:

Mrs. Emily Pease, 87; Joseph Whitmore, 87; William Covey, 87; Theodore Tuthill, 86; James Loyster, 86; Mrs. Rowena Reynolds, 86; Mrs. Marian Kenyon, 86; Robert Teeter, 85; Mrs. Joseph Whitmore, 85; Mrs. Julia Adams, 84; Mrs. Cordelia Follett, 83; Charles F. Smith, 83; A.J. Camp, 83; Mrs. Ann Smith, 83; Mrs. Helen Westfall, 83; Mrs. Ruth Hoyt, 82; Mrs. Lavina Bush, 81.

Mrs. Cornelia Lefever, 81; Clarendon Lick, 81; Mrs. Sarah [Jane] Wade, 80; Mrs. Julia Titus, 80; Mrs. Bess Wright, 80; Mrs. Nancy Vosburg, 79; Peter Brown, 84; Mrs. Elizabeth Maxwell, 84; Mrs. Peter Amerman, 81; Mrs. Antionette Johnson 77; Mrs. Catharine Duggan, 77; George McMaster, 77; Mrs. Harriett Ferguson, 76; Mrs. Theodore Shaver, 76, Ai Atwood, 76; Alonzo D. Anthony, 76; Mrs. Nancy Main, 75; Mrs. Evaline Patterson, 76; William Ferguson, 74.

Mrs. Thomas [Julia] Wootton, 74; Mrs. Susan B.[Bower] Anthony, 73; Mrs. Sylvania Wood, 73; Irving Perry, 73; Thomas Wootton, 72; Mrs. Alzina White, 71; Mrs. Fannie Lawrence, 71; Mrs. Jennie Adams, 71; Mrs. Charles McCartin, 79; Frank Folts, 71; Alfred Atwood, 88; Mrs. Eleanor Willis, 88.

Mrs. Helen Snider, 87; William Johnson, 86; Mrs. Adelle Green, 85; Henry Jennings, 84; Mrs. Matilda Clark, 84; Mrs. M.A. Townsend, 84; Mrs. Phebe A. Mather, 81; Cornelius Murray, 84; Mrs. Mary Fitch Rathbun, 83; Mrs. Matilda Bates, 84; Mrs. Sarah Raymond, 83; William Jennings, 82; Sarah I. Robinson, 82; Raymond Van Benschoten, 82; Mrs. P. Frank Barnes, 81; Mrs. Kate Murray, 82.

Mrs. Mary Kenyon, 78; Mrs. Francis Ames, 70; Jean D. Harris, 80; Mrs. Mary Nolan, 80; Mrs. Mary Brockway, 79; Mrs. Lucy M. Tripp, 77; Mrs. M.L. Jennings, 7_; [name unreadable]; John Andrews 79; Mrs. Julia Jennings, 78; Mrs. Clara Robbins, 78; L. Couse, 73; Helen Goodrich, 78; Mrs. Lucy A. McGee, 78; Mrs. Clara Jennings, 78; Mrs. Lucelia Smith, 77; George Ripley, 77; William Tripp, 77; Mrs. Helen Smimer, 77; Mrs. Francis Chandler, 77.

Mrs. Darius Brockway, 76; Mrs. Alice Tibbets, 76; C.J. Drake, 76; William Foster, 76; Mrs. Helen M. Ercanbrack, 76; William McLean, 76; H.M. Jewitt, 76; Mrs Levi Van Etten, 76; [?] Beach, 76; James Rightmyre, 76; Mrs. Harriet Ferguson, 76; Fred Small, 75; Mrs. Alma Richardson, 75; Mrs. Chloa Lillie, 75; John Morse, 75; Mrs. Charles Brigden, 75; Mrs. Ann Shaver, 75; David Jennings, 74; Mrs. Phebe Tubbs, 75; J. I. Horton, 74; Delos Adams, 75?; Mrs. Mary Main, 75.

Miss Jane Whiting, 74; Mrs. Mary E. Whiting, 74; G.D. Foote, 74; Mrs. C.J. Drake, 74; Mrs. Ai Atwood, 74; Mrs. Jerusha Galloup, 74; William Ferguson, 74; Fred Downing, 73; Willard Cutler, 72.

Henry Tifft, 72; Mrs. Irene Wright, 72; Mrs. Mary Rathbun, 72; T.A. Hilliard, 71; James Shimer, 71; John Mattoon, 71; Edwin Parsons, 71; Dorr McLean, 70; Henry Ercanbrack, 70; Oscar Tifft, 70; Mrs. L. Crouse, 70; Mrs. A.K. Clark, 70.

Moravia has been called upon to mourn one of her aged citizen in the last fortnight.