Family History Submitted to the USGENWEB Archives Project by Edith Ziegler SEP 2001, courtesy of Ursuline R. Bankhead ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Extracted from a newspaper article, name of paper and date unknown. (Probably a newspaper in New Rochelle, N.Y. abt. 1947) A fire apparently caused by defective wiring forced rescue of a bedridden woman who claimed an age of 112, injured a would be rescuer and caused six families in the three story frame multiple family dwelling at 29 Rochelle Place to flee their homes temporarily, at 1:30 A.M. today. The blaze, brought under control quickly by firemen after the injured woman's screams awakened neighbors, who turned in the alarm, did extensive damage to a room on the first floor and filled the house with smoke. The last of three fire companies which responded to the blaze did not leave the scene until 2:25 A.M. The blaze broke out in a room of the first floor apartment of Mrs. Urseline Clark who police believe was awakened by smoke coming from a room next to the one occupied by her and her great grandmother, Mrs. Hannah Butler, who listed her age as 112. Mrs. Clark ran to the front porch and screamed, police said, to awaken neighbors and sound the alarm. She then found the front door had slammed and locked behind her. And in breaking a window with the intent to carry Mrs. Butler from the house, suffered a severe cut on the left arm. Police sergeant Hubert Lynch removed her to New Rochelle Hospital where she was admitted after received plasma. Mrs Butler, bedridden by reason of a broken hip, an injury several years old, was carried out of the house by Battalion Chief James F. Carroll and Capt. Raymond Rumery. Claiming no ill effects from the smoke which filled her apartment first, Mrs. Butler was left with another relative, Mrs. Annie Bush of the Rochelle Place address. Policemen at the scene of the fire said Mrs. Butler had proved her age to them by displaying a small book in which her sale as a slave (possible under old time law, only at age 12 or more) was recorded under an 1847 date. Extracted from an article in the Chicago Daily News, Wednesday December 31, 1852 FORMER SLAVE, 117, TO BE BURIED HERE Mrs. Hannah Butler, a former slave, who reportedly hid a Confederate soldier under her bed during the Civil War, will be buried here Friday. Mrs. Butler, a former Chicagoan, died last Sat- urday in a convalescent home in New Rochelle, N.Y. She was 117 years old, relatives said. Her daughter, Mrs. Marie Carter, 74 of 440 W. 60th Pl, one of the two living children, said her mother was born in August, 1835 on a cotton plantation in Lake St. Joseph, La. Before the Civil War broke out she had married Jack Butler, had three children, and was living on a farm near Vicksburg, Miss., the daughter said. She told her children and grandchildren how she hid a "Rebel" under her bed when Grant's army moved through Vicksburg. In her lifetime she had 17 children. In addition to her daughter there is a son, Allen, said to be in his late 60's of 5121 S. Michigan. "We just don't know how many grandchildren and great-grandchildren she had," said Mrs. Carter. "We used to live on 36th place 10 years ago and mother walked from our house to the Pilgrim Baptist Church at 3301 Indiana. She was 107 then. "Next to quilt" making, she loved to walk best," Mrs. Carter said. "She never saw a doctor or a dentist and smoked a pipe until 15 years ago. Funeral services are expected to be held Friday in the chapel at 4114 Michigan. Burial is to be in Burr Oak Cemetery. Mrs. Urseline Bankhead is the great-great-great-great-grand daughter of Mrs. Hannah Butler.