On January 9, 1907, the Gettysburg Compiler noted the passing of Eliza Armstrong, a black woman then residing at the Adams County Almshouse. As with similar articles of the era, it fixated on curiosities barely connected to the life of the person. In this case, the issue was one of age, and here the newspaper supposed that Eliza had reached the age of 120.

In Eliza’s case, at least some of her lifetime records supported a very advanced age of at least 100. The 1900 Census shows her living as a boarder with Otho and Annie Adams and family and gives her age as 90.

Other than her age, who was Eliza Armstrong? She was born in about 1807 in York County, Pennsylvania. Whether she was free or enslaved is unclear. If she was born to an enslaved mother in Pennsylvania, she would have been “free” but indentured until age 28. She undoubtedly had a family of her own—on her death certificate, the informant was Lloyd Francis Asbury Watts who seems like to have been her son-in-law. That would make her daughter Sarah L. Armstrong, second wife of Lloyd and mother of Laura Watts. That would place the Armstrong family in Gettysburg no later than the mid 1870s. We don’t know Eliza’s maiden name, and we don’t find her Census records before 1900. Nor do we have marriage records for her or birth records of Sarah.

In 1900, she was living as a boarder. The Otho and Annie Adams family was prominent among black citizens of Getttysburg. Society news in the local papers noted their involvement with the Lincoln Lodge of Elks.

Eliza’s death in the almshouse signals a number of things. Why did Eliza live with the Adamses in 1900 and not her daughter? That could have been an issue of space, money, or any number of factors. Why did she live in the almshouse at the time of her death? In that case, it was certainly that her advanced age had made it impossible to care for her, and families lacking the funds to continue with her would have had to rely on institutions like the almshouse.

These are the barest of details, the very least to mark a long life that had to have been filled with family, love, tragedy, and sickness.