Frerick Messer Obituary: "His Wild Vocation of Hunting and Trapping"

From Charlotte, North Carolina.  February 20, 1907.

FEDERIC MESSER DEAD, WAS 114 YEARS OF AGE

South's Oldest Citizen Dies at His Home Near Waynesville, N.C.-- His Age Proved By Authentic Records.  Used Tobacco and Whiskey.

Another obit described him as "Trapper Messer."

Federic Messer, the South's oldest citizen, famous as a hunter and trapper before civilization blazed across the Blue Ridge  mountains, is dead at his home in Haywood County, at the age of 114 years, 6 months and 5 days.

Messer was born Aug. 12, 1792, in Lincoln county, and in early life when western Carolina was an unexplored wilderness, people by the Cherokees, he located in the mountains 21 miles from what is now Waynesville, the county seat of Haywood county, there pursuing his   wild vocation of hunting and trapping.

He was hale and vigorous up to within a few months of his death, frequently walking to Waynesville to attend the county court, and once every year, on his birthday, swimming the Pigeon river, which runs by his mountain home.

He married a woman of Milmington, this state, (probably Wilmington) who bore him  nine children, and lived to the age of 84.  But one child, now a woman, survives him.  His age is established by authentic records.

He used tobacco and corn whisky of the mountains, in moderation, all his life, and attributed his great longevity to his regular sleeping and waking hours, most of which were spent outdoors.

Now, That's A Life.  --Brock-Perry