Pittsburg Co. OK - OBIT: Elizabeth Jacobs Quinton USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. Submitted by: Vivian V. Sternenberg zapot54@yahoo.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quinton, Elizabeth Jacobs >From article in "The Quinton Shopper" dated May 29, 1969: "Mrs. Quinton was more than 115 at the time of her death and claimed 125 descendants. One other piece of information that we were able to gather about Mrs.Quinton was that she ate cornbread three meals each day without baking powder, soda or salt. The remainder of this article is the copy of the article written at the time of her death. The oldest woman in Oklahoma died Thursday morning when Mrs. Martha Elizabeth Quinton, 115 and for many years a resident of the town whichbears her name, passed away at the home of her granddaughter, Mrs. Jim Huggins, with whom she had been making her home. Mrs. Quinton had been in bad health for several weeks but was not considered to be seriously ill. Funeral rites for the aged woman will be conducted at 2:30 Friday afternoon in the Quinton Baptist Church with the Rev. G. E. Swaim, Baptist pastor, in charge. She will be buried in the Jim Quinton Cemetery, atop a nearby mountain, where when had expressed the wish to be interred. Burial will be in charge of the Mallory Funeral Home of Stigler. Mrs. Quinton, whose maiden name was Jacobs, was born in Tchula, Mississippi, November 25, 1825, and was at the time of her death 115 years, four months and 29 days of age. She was married first to Beverly Young, who was a Captain in the Confederate Army, and who was killed in action during the Civil War. In 1868 she was married to Samuel Quinton, who died in 1904 and is buried in the cemetery where she will be laid to rest. She is the mother of nine children, two of whom survive their mother. They are Mrs. Matilda Bene of Red Oak and Joel Quinton of Bakersfield, California. She has been a member of the Baptist Church for more than 75 years and lived a devoted Christian life. She received her education at New Hope Academy for women, near Fort Smith and received the equivalent of a tenth grade education. At her death she lacked ten years of attaining the age she desired to reach before her death. She stated in 1938 that it was her desire to live to be 125 "if God is willing", but said she was ready to go at any time. Mrs. Quinton had smoked a pipe for years, but believed that it was harmful to smoke cigarettes. Her favorite song "How Firm A Foundation" will be sung at the funeral, and Rev. Swaim will read from the last two chapters of Revelation, her favorite chapters. ------- >From "The Quinton Times" dated Thursday, May 27, 1976, article written by Diane Basen: "One of the greatest centenarians of Oklahoma history was Elizabeth Jacobs Quinton. Not only was this woman recorded in history books of our state, but she was the founder of our small town - Quinton. Very few people know how the town of Quinton came to be and it should be important to all of us who are a part of this heritage to have some knowledge about the background of our estate. Mrs. Quinton was born on November 25, 1825, and died April 24, 1941, at the age of 115 years old. At the time of her death she was the oldest living person in Oklahoma. According to the World Book of Guiness the oldest living person in the world was recorded to be 112 years old. If this is true, this woman who gave Quinton her proud name is one of the rarest individuals to ever have lived. During the emigration of Choctaw families, Elizabeth Quinton rode in a small boat from Mississippi to Oklahoma territory. Her first settlement was at Ft. Smith, Ark., in 1839. She was only 14 years old at the time and the trip to this new country was an event of great interest. Mrs. Quinton dealt with very few white people in their new home in the Choctaw Nation. She was sent to school at New Hope Mission, a Methodist school for girls near Ft. Smith, to learn the "White Man's" ways. While attending school at New Hope Mission she spoke bought how careful girls were trained in deportment. She said they were not allowed to laugh "out loud", like these big "horse" laughs girls to now days. If the teachers heard them laugh "out loud" they would have been chastised. Girls weren't even allowed to whistle! The Choctaw pupils were never permitted to speak their native Tongue. If they talked Choctaw the white teachers would give them a teaspoon of red pepper for every Choctaw word they said. Mrs. Quinton married three years before the Civil War. Her age was not mentioned, but stated that she waited until she was old enough to know what she was doing! Beverly Young, a Captain in the Confederate Army, killed in action during the Civil War, was Elizabeth Jacobs Quinton's first husband. In 1868 she was married to Samuel Quinton, whom died at Quinton in 1904. She was the mother of nine children. The exact date when she came to Quinton is unknown. Nevertheless, her long journey brought her into a surroundings of dry soil stretched miles on an empty wilderness. Her family set up a tent, which was their home and this spot is where Quinton High School Building now stands. In those days, the Choctaw Indian had to file with the government for land property, so she made her claim; and not too long after that she gave an unknown piece of land her last name. Elizabeth Jacobs Quinton was a pioneering woman who traveled many, many miles. And just to think of how our small town has grown from a tent to the size it is now, should make us all feel that this woman should be remembered especially during our celebration of America's bicentennial birthday." Submitted by: Carol Sue