In doing research for my family I came across the remarkable newspaper item below. I am not of African/American descent, but felt the newspaper story about Eliza King should be shared on a website where perhaps a descendant might one day find it. It's quite remarkable! 

SOUTHERN GLEANINGS, Death of a Remarkable Colored Woman
September 17, 1892, from the Huntsville Gazette

ELIZA KING, colored, died in St. Louis, aged 116 years. She was, perhaps, the oldest person in the United States, with the exception of a Yuma Indian woman now living near Texas Hill, in Arizona. “Old A’ Liza,” as she was familiarly called, was born in Kentucky long before that state was admitted into the Union. Her parents were brought from Africa, and were sold to a rich South Carolina planter by the name of Hampton, who was a relative of ex-Senator Wade Hampton, of that state. They were resold and taken to Kentucky by a planter named Thompson Smith, who owned a small farm near Paris, in Bourbon County. Eliza had nine brothers and two sisters, all of whom lived to be old people. She remembered the time of the earthquake nearly a century ago, and in her declining days often referred to that time and how frightened the darkies were. Eliza never worked on the farm during slavery time, for, being a neat, tidy woman, she was assigned by her master to house duties. She was married seventy years ago to a slave who was also owned by Smith. Twelve children were born unto them, the youngest being now only 36 years old, she having born a child at the age of 82, a case almost unparalleled in the history of modern times. When God appeared unto Abraham and told him that he should be the father, and his wife, Sarah, the mother of a nation, Abraham laughed and said: “Shall a child be born unto him that is an 100 years old? And shall Sarah that is 90 years old bear?” God answered, and commanded Abraham to name the child Isaac. These are the only two cases known where women have become mothers at such an old age. Twenty years ago Eliza lost her husband and she moved away from her Kentucky home to St. Louis, and she obtained employment as a washerwoman. She led an active life up to a year ago, when her health and eyesight failed her and she was compelled to take to her bed.”