Mariah Vance, Sangamon Cty., Ill., 1902
St. Charles (Kane County, Illinois) Chronicle, Jan. 10, 1902. Illinois News Items. Aged Negress Learns to Read. Mrs. Mariah Vance, at 91, Is Mastering the Alphabet. Mrs. Mariah Vance, familiarly known to hundreds of citizens of Danville as "Grandma Vance," at the advanced age of ninety-one years, is learning to read. This is of itself remarkable, but it is equally wonderful that she is "learning her letters," as she calls it, without the aid of spectacles. She declares that she can see as well as she ever could. She ha been a hard worker all her life and never had time to study. Besides being able to see as well as she could when a young woman, her hearing is just as acute. Grandma Vance is one of the oldest colored women in Illinois. She was born in Round Prairie, Sangamon county, Illinois and was reared in the country five miles west of Springfield, and in that city. She was never a slave, but her mother was in bondage in Virginia. Mrs. Vance was well acquainted with the family of President Lincoln and she packed up all the belongings of Abraham Lincoln when they went to the White House. Mrs. Vance says that President Lincoln was "the best man in the world." (Posted as a courtesy, not related.)