John A. McWarter

Winfield Courier, July 18, 1878.
                                     A Centenarian. John Anderson McWarter.
In Beaver Township, Cowley County, west side of the Arkansas River in the bend, lives John Anderson McWarter, who is 100 years old. He was born at Cowpens, South Carolina, September 10, 1777. At two years of age he was carried by his parents to Kentucky in company with Daniel Boone, and was with Boone some years. At one time when Boone and his men were in a fight with Indians, young McWarter carried water and waited on the men, lived at Crop Orchard until 18 years old, when he went to the wilds of Tennessee, where he lived 10 years and married, when he moved to Wayne County, Illinois. He was in the 1st Illinois volunteers all through the Black Hawk War as First Lieutenant, for which he was entitled to 80 acres land warrant. He only got forty, so the government still owes him a forty. During the Black Hawk War he pursued a lot of Indians to recover two white girls, Rachel and Sylvia Hall, whom they had captured, overtook them but did not attack for fear they would kill the girls. He negotiated and bought the girls of the Indians, paying forty horses for them. After the girls were recovered and safe, the Indians were again pursued. They attacked them, killing 68 of them and recovering the forty horses. Soon afterwards they captured the rest of these Indians at Bad Axe Creek, on the Mississippi, with Black Hawk.
After this war he moved to Boone County, Iowa, on the frontier, where, like Boone, he could avoid civilization. Here he lived twenty-nine years; but people got too thick, and he went to Dacotah, where he lived four years. He then moved to where he now lives, which was two years ago.
He is hearty, gets around a considerable, goes a fishing, and walks around among his neighbors. He lived with his wife 61 years. She died at the age of 80. He lives with his daughter, a widow named Lusina Corbin. He says his heart has not pulsated so as to be detected for 68 years. He had a sickness then and thinks his heart sunk to some other part of his body. He is dependent upon his friends and ought to have a pension.
[STATE NEWS.]
Arkansas City Traveler, February 12, 1879.
John A. McWarter, an old pioneer, 99 years old, died recently at Oxford.