Dekalb County GaArchives News.....One Hundred Candles Lighted on Cake at "Granny" McElroy's Birthday Party February 14 1915 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Denise Murphy denisemurphy13@msn.com August 21, 2004, 4:00 pm The Constitution, Atlanta, GA The Constitution, Atlanta, GA, Sunday, February 14, 1915 One Hundred Candles Lighted on Cake At “Granny” McElroy’s Birthday Party Five Generations at McElroy Reunion Norcross Centenarian Has Big Time at Hundredth Anniversary—Photo Taken of Five Generations She Enjoys Motoring, But Doesn’t Approve Modern Girls’ Dress Great Grandson Is Christened With Water Brought by Roosevelt From the River Jordan Norcross, Ga., February 13—(Special.)—A hundred candles blazed on the birthday cake served to Mrs. Margaret Tilly McElroy yesterday, when, surrounded by half a hundred of her descendants, she celebrated her hundredth birthday. And “Granny” McElroy, as the old lady is lovingly known throughout the county, was the spirit of the occasion. At the head of a great and growing family she takes a personal interest in each individual, knows all her great- grandchildren by name and keeps track of their personal affairs. Although “Granny” shows plainly the austerity of the times of long ago, when folks were more straight-laced, she does not scorn to take advantage of the pleasures offered by a modern age. She tells of the days when, as a girl, she could travel but 25 miles a day on horseback or by buggy, but takes keen delight in going as far today in her son’s automobile. Twelve Aggregate 858 Years. The birthday of Granny McElroy was celebrated at the home of her eldest son by quite a gathering of kinspeople and friends, with the most delightful weather, so that the old lady could sit out in front for a group picture without harm to her health. Dinner was announced at high noon and the first twelve seated aggregated in years 858, averaging 72 and running from 56 to 100 years old. The 100 little candles were lighted on the big cake just as Mrs. McElroy took her seat at the table. This cake was cut after all had eaten and given out to the fifth-three people attending. Letters of congratulation were in evidence from a large number of relatives who could not come. Quite a number of presents were received, and representatives of five generations were in actual attendance, reaching down to the little 6-months-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. F. Take, of Atlanta, who will says “great,” “great,” in addressing the elder Mrs. McElroy as grandmother. Great-Grandson Christened. Another feature of the occasion was the christening of a little 6-weeks-old son of Mr. and Mrs. W. L. Hogsed, of Toccoa, using water out of the river Jordan, brought over by former President Roosevelt, and furnished directly by United States Federal Prison Warden Moyer and wife, who came in time to witness the ceremony, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. McC. Brown, of Atlanta. Rev. V. E. Lanford officiated. Another attractive, useful and ornamental table trimming was a large iced cake, baked and lettered by a granddaughter, Mrs. John Cobb, of Jacksonville, inscribed “Mrs. Margaret McElroy, 1815-1915.” Out-of-town kinspeople present were: Mr. and Mrs. N. M. Lankford, Mrs. P. L. Collinsworth and son, Allan; Mrs. T. O. Estes, Clarkston, Ga.; Mr. and Mrs. W. C. Lankford, Powersville, Ga.; Mrs. M. E. Mathews and daughters, Beatrice and Edith; Mr. and Mrs. J. F. Take and baby, little Juanita; Mr. and Mrs. Press Huddleston and daughter, Louise; Arthur B. Ewing; R. C. Tilly, Mr. and Mrs. M. L. Lively, of Atlanta, Ga., Dr. S. L. McElroy, Ocilla, Ga.; Dr. and Mrs. W. H. Born, McRae, Ga.; Mrs. S. E. Byrom, Carrollton, Ga.; J.S.A. Tilly and daughter, Mattie, Decatur, Ga.; Mesdames Alvin Dean and Robert Lightfoot, Alexander City, Ala.; Mrs. Nannie Smith, Cave Spring, Ga.; John C. McElroy, J. W. Tilly, Mrs. Sallie Chestnut, Mrs. Mary Sparks, Mr. and Mrs. C. D. Jones, Doraville, Ga.; Mrs. J. O. Riggs, Bremen, Ga.; Mrs. C. M. Jones, Emerson, Ga.; Mr. and Mrs. W. L. Hogsed and little son, W. L., Jr., Toccoa, Ga. The home folks assisting Mr. and Mrs. J. E. McElroy, W. M., L. L., N. T. and Miss Mina McElroy and Mrs. F. B. Nesbit, Norcross, Ga. Rules for Long Life. When asked to what she attributed long life, “Granny” replied: “To my temperate habits, never eating quite as much as I could and only simple foods, a little meat once or twice a day and one time with vegetables. And I never want more than three things to eat at any meal and never more than half a glass of water or milk or half a cup of tea or coffee. If I take soup I do not want anything to drink at that meal. I honored my parents by obedience, so my days have been long on earth in keeping with the Bible promise.” When asked her opinion of the European war, she quickly answered: “It is vainglory of the wicked-hearted rulers to sacrifice human life as they are doing.” Granny reads the daily newspapers, by theaid of a strong lensed lorgnette, on bright sunny days and keeps up with the times. “Do you think humanity the same as it used to be?” she was asked. “Well, I don’t see much difference. I have found good people all my life but I am grieved to the heart to find so much irreverence for God’s church and His holy day.” “Granny, what do you think about the favorite mode of traveling these days—the automobile?” With a smile, for she is very progressive, she said: “I like it. When I was young twenty-five miles a day on horseback or in a buggy was considered an average day’s journey. Now, my son carries me, in comfort, too, that far in an hour. Yes, I like it.” When asked about the modern style of dress and dancing, she said: She Raps Modern Dress. “I am horrified at both. So much extravagance in dress is a sin and not like it used to be when a good silk merino or bombazine would last at least three years as best dress. And they were made roomy too, not like those awful tight things my granddaughters have been wearing. I have never seen any dancing in my life nor ever wanted to, but as the ministers, as a rule, condemn it surely it must be an institution of evil one. Young girls should not fritter their lives away in any such unprofitable amusement, while so many other things are calling them. Nor do I believe in the teas, where a little dab of indigestible food on a plate is given one. They should have something wholesome to eat. “I want young people to meet, get acquainted with each other and marry and raise a family of children for sweeter to me than any son that a grand operate singer could sing is a young mother talking or singing to her little baby while she goes about her work.” “Do you believe in large or small families these hard times?” she was next asked. “Well, that depends,” she said; “where husband and wife are practical and have sense I believe in good sized families, for the parents will find the right way to raise them, but where the husband and wife are not that kind, none at all, for the children’s sake.” “Well, Granny, would you like to live your life over again?” was finally asked her. She hesitated an instant and said: “I don’t think I would, I am too near the other side. Could I live my life over I would not do some of the things I have done, but I might do others I should not, and I am tired and I am ready to answer the call which must soon come to come up higher.” Born in South Carolina. In Pendleton district, South Carolina, on February 12, 1815, Margaret Tilly McElroy was born, with the exception of a brother, the oldest of seven children and the only one of them now living. Surrounded by loving and thoughtful attention which is accorded only to helpless infancy and extreme old age, she reigns the chief figure to her three children, S. F. McElroy and J. E. McElroy, of Norcross, and Mrs. N. M. Lankford, of Clarkston, Ga. Her father, Stephen Tilly, moved to DeKalb county, Ga., when she was quite young and very soon afterwards her mother died and she was left to the responsible position of being her father’s little housekeeper, which position had a tendency to develop, with her father’s influence, a pious, thoughtful disposition, which she has carried through life, never missing an opportunity of attending her church. Having joined the Methodist church at the age of 12 years, at a little church about where Dunwoody is now and where her membership remained until after her marriage to William McElroy at the age of 25. Soon afterwards Prospect church, near Chamblee, was chartered and she moved her membership there, becoming one of its charter members and the only one now living, where her membership still remains, making her the oldest living Methodist probably in the world—88 years—and only belonging to these two churches in all her life. Her husband; William McElroy, a very strict Associate Reform Presbyterian, did not believe in slaves and never would own one and as that was before 1866, when a wife’s property became her husband’s without a marriage contract, he would sell the slaves given his wife by her father to kind masters for money or land. A remarkable fact in that the home in which her hundred birthday was celebrated Friday was built on part of the farm which came into the McElroy’s estate by exchange for six negroes, her part of her father’s slave estate. Half of the town of Norcross has been built on this estate. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/dekalb/newspapers/nw1394onehundr.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/gafiles/ File size: 9.8 Kb