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- Newspaper Article - Thursday, July 4, 1878 Pulaski Democrat - Pulaski, New York - George P. Doane, who recently called upon the aged Mrs. Fry, of Albion, hands us the following statement of her age and that of her children: Mary Fry, 107 years. Henry Fry, 75 years. Caty Fry, 84 years. Polly Fry, 73 years. Annie Coger, 66 years. John Fry, 70 years. Total, 475. The old lady and her children reside in the town of Albion and she hopes, with no accidents to prevent, that she may be able to bring up her offspring to mature years.
Newspaper Obituary - Thursday, August 22, 1878 Pulaski Democrat - Pulaski, New York - The Oldest Inhabitant - Died - In Albion, Friday, August 16, 1878, Mrs. Mary Fry, aged one hundred and seven years, eleven months and six days. The death of this, the oldest person in Oswego County, has revived the public interest which has attached itself for the past few years to this remarkable instance of longevity. Mary Fry, whose maiden name was Quackenboss, was born in Charlestown, Montgomery County, New York, in 1770. She removed to the town of Albion in this county, in the year 1816, where she had resided ever since. Her life has been uneventful save in its wonderful extent. Her duties as a wife and mother were, in early years and while vigor lasted, performed in an exemplary manner. In early life she united with the Dutch Reformed Church, and after settling in this county became a member of the Presbyterian Church at Prattville. When quite an old lady, she was known to walk seven or eight miles to attend church. Her memory, especially of the happenings of the Revolution, of perils from the Indians, of the occurrences of nearly one hundred years ago, was remarkable and these events remained fresh and clear in her mind and were narrated with evident pleasure to all who came to see her and wished to converse. She was of German descent. The children of the deceased are all of a good old age and some of them bid fair to see as many years as the venerable mother for whom they have cared so tenderly. There are now living one hundred and twenty descendants of Mary Fry and representatives of six generations, many of whom were in attendance at her funeral. Short services were first held at the house on Sunday last and then the remains were taken to the Dugway Methodist church where the funeral sermon was preached by Rev. W. H. Hall, of South Richland. The day was one long to be remembered by the inhabitants of that region. Nearly everybody for miles around flocked to the place. Teams were hitched along the roadside for some distance from the church. The audience room and vestibule was densely packed. Around each window a crowd was gathered and many, unable to get in a position to hear the preacher, sat in their carriages. Someone who had taken the trouble to count informed us that there were one hundred and eighty wagons about the church, and the number of men, women and children present was estimated as high as twelve hundred. The remarks by Rev. Hall were appropriate and interesting, his text being from the 116th Psalm, 7th verse. The remains were exposed on the green before the church and were viewed with mingled curiosity and awe by the vast crows. Burial services at the cemetery were impressively rendered by Rev. M. B. Comfort, of this village, and now the withered remains of our oldest inhabitant are quietly at rest. Since the above has been placed in type a communication on the subject has reached us, an extract of which we publish herewith: She was the first representative of six living generations. Her religious experience dates from her 20th year. Her father was a captain in the war of the Revolution, and we were shown a pistol captured by him from a tory; also a deed executed upon paper stamped with the British Crown. She related many incidents of the war from her own personal experience when but a girl. She retained consciousness to the last, and with her own hands closed her eyes in death and then gently sank into its embrace, not from disease, but because the vital forces of life were exhausted. J.R.H.
Newspaper Article - Friday, August 7, 1874 Sandy Creek News - Sandy Creek, New York - Sand Bank Items - Mrs. Fry, living in the town of Albion, will be one hundred and four years old in September if she lives. She has a daughter eighty years old and a son seventy. The old lady retains her faculties, and is less childish than in former years. They have been in the habit of keeping her quite close, but recently she wandered out, and the next they knew of her she was at a neighbor’s, three and one-half miles away. -Camden Advance.
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1781 - 1878 (97 years)