From the Democratic Northwest, October 14, 1886, p. 6, cols. 4-5
The Zollars Family Noted for Their Longevity.
On the 9th of this month there was a family reunion at the residence of Frederick Zollars at Macon, which, in some respects, was extraordinary. It was in its primary object a reunion of the brothers and sisters of Mr. Zollars. They were all present, besides about forty of their descendants and relatives, among whom were Mr. and Mrs. Van Horn, of Canton, Ohio; and Allen Zollars, of Ft. Wayne, Ind.
Frederick Zollars, the oldest brother, has been a resident of Macon since 1868, and is well and favorably known. He is now eighty-five years old.
Daniel Zollars, the next brother, is seventy-eight years old. He has resided at Ottumwa, Iowa, for many years.
Enoch Zollars, the third brother, is seventy-six years old. He is a resident of Creston. Iowa.
John Zollars, the next brother, is seventy-two years old. He is a resident of Napoleon. Ohio.
Cyrus Zollars, the next brother, is seventy years old. During the most of his life he has resided near Canton, Ohio.
The next living member of the family is a sister, Mrs. Agnes Beathers, who is
sixty years old. She is a widow and lives at Holden, Mo.
The next brother, and the youngest of the family, is David Zollars, who is fifty-eight vears old, and is a wholesale and retail dry goods merchant at Canton, Ohio.
It will be seen that the sum total of the lives of these seven people is 499 years, and that the average age is seventy-one years, three months, and thirteen days. Another remarkable thing is that with the exception of John who has a second wife, all of the brothers are living with their first wives. The ages of the wives are respectively eighty-on e, seventy-five, seventy, sixty, fifty-two and fifty years, making a total of 389 years, and an average of sixty-four years and ten months.
The oldest brother, Frederick, will have been married sixty-three years on the 27th day of the coming November.
These people are residents of four different states, and the probability is, that in none of those states could there be found another family whose average would be so high, and of which so many brothers of their age still live with the wives of their youth.
They are all people of excellent character, and quite well off some of them quite wealthy. Most of them have retired from active business. The brothers and sisters are children of John Zollars, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1781, and emigrated to Ohio in 1813. The mother was the daughter of an officer who served through the war of the revolution. The descendants of that couple now living, number 193. If all were living, there would be 278. Many of the business avocations, and professions, have had, and now have, representatives among these descendants. Of the official positions now held by them, or any of them, we have no means of knowing at present, except that Hon. Allen Zollars, a son of Frederick, is now one of the judges of the supreme court of Indiana. We know, too, that quite a number of them did honorable service in the late war and that quite a number there gave their lives in defense of the institutions which their ancestors helped to found and establish.
We can scarcely realize the length of the lives of these people, without a retrospect, the events amid which they were born, and the changes that have come to the world since. We take the oldest, Frederick, who was born in 1801. He was born but two years after the death of Washington, and in the year that Jefferson was elected president. At that time there were but sixteen States in the union, with a population of but five and one-half millions. At the time of his birth most of the early movers in American independence, the framers of the constitution, the great commanders, and the patriotic soldiers of the Revolution were still living. In his boyhood, he heard from the survivors the story of the trials, privations, and sacrifices of the heroic and patriotic soldiers of the Revolution. He was born one year before life boats were known; one year before the first importation of Marino sheep into this country; two years before the United States purchased from France Louisiana, which comprised nearly all the vast territory west of the Mississippi; three years before Bonaparte was crowned Emperor, four years before the historic battles of Austerlitz and Trafalgar. He was six years old when Robert Fulton launched the first steamboat on the Hudson. He was eight years old when Madison was elected President. He was ten years old when Gen. Harrison fought in the battle of Tippecanoe. He was eleven years old when United States declared war against Great Britain. He was the same age when the French evacuated Moscow and began the disastrous retreat which was the precursor of the overthrow of Napoleon. He Was twelve years old when the great chief Tecumseh was killed. He was thirteen years old when the British burned the government buildings at Washington. He was fourteen years old when Jackson fought the battle of New Orleans and when Napoleon fought and lost the battle of Waterloo. He was sixteen years old when the first deaf and dumb asylum was established in this country. He was seventeen years old When Illinois was admitted into the union. He was eighteen years old when the first steamer sailed for Europe. He was nineteen years old when George III died. He was twenty-four years old when General Lafayette laid the corner stone of the Bunker Hill monument. He was twenty-eight years old when the first railroad locomotive was brought from England and placed on exhibition in New York. He was thirty-nine years old when the first line of telegraph was put into operation between Washington and Baltimore. During his life the States have Increased from sixteen to thirty-eight, and the population from five and one-half to near sixty millions. The sickle and hand rake; the flail and threshing floor, the rude plow and harrow have given way to the mower, the reaper, the self-binder, the horse rake, the steam plow, the corn-planter, the cultivator, the horse drill, and the thresher and cleaner. The pack horse, the stage and the sailing vessel have given way to the lightening train and palatial steamer. The tardy motion of communication by mail, carried on horseback and by stage, has been supplanted by the mail car, the telegraph and telephone. The world has been wrapped and bound into a smaller compass by the speed of the ocean steamer, the iron railway and the wires of the telegraph and telephone. And thus the countries which In his youth were regarded as afar off, have been brought close to us, and their people have become our next door neighbors. The lands of Judea and Galilee, where our Lord walked, taught and performed his miracles and dispensed his mercies, are not so far away now as was the mother country in his youth. An enlarged and enlightened state policy, and organized christian charities, have erected asylums for the deaf and dumb, the blind, the insane, the helpless, the orphan, the old and infirm. Serfdom and slavery have almost disappeared from the earth, and everything has been and now is rapidly tending towards the universal brotherhood of mankind. And thus as the gas and electric lights have displaced the tallow candle of his youth, so the common schools, multiplied colleges, and a christian benevolence have been working together for the amelioration of the race. Into the glorious light and liberty of this, the most remarkable of all the centuries, he was born, and in it he and they have lived, witnesses of its stirring events, until the century has grown old.
It is to be hoped that in the final consummation, this family, and all other families may be reunited, in that better country, where the years shall not bring age, and where time shall work no separation.