The adventures of Mount Vernon’s ‘Judge’ Lane, who died at the age of 200… or 123 … or maybe just 90

One of my favorite aspects of digging into local history is the chance for surprises. No matter how well you think you know a place, surprises are always around the corner.

Considering what I’ve learned about the difficult social situation of African Americans in Knox County in the 1800s, the last thing I would have expected to find was that a black man gave a political speech on the square in Mount Vernon in the pre-Civil War era. But multiple sources tell me that is exactly what happened.

The man in question appears to have been one of the most fascinating characters in this county’s history, though documentation of his life is scant. I found him while researching other material occurring in 1881.

His name was Samuel Lane, though he was universally known as Judge Lane in Mount Vernon’s black community — and beyond — because of his age and wisdom. But determining that age is no easy feat, as we shall see.

The newspaper article in the Mount Vernon Democratic Banner came about because a friend discovered Judge Lane in a state of collapse at his residence, which was described as a shanty, during the cold and snowy winter of 1881. Severely frostbitten, Lane passed away a short time after being found.

According to the newspaper, Lane described himself as well over 100 years old. Based on some of his alleged experiences, the paper estimated that he might be over 115 years old, while another estimated 123.

Now, we’ve explored other supercentenarians in the history of this column, such as Susan Devore, who passed away near Brinkhaven in 1904 at the alleged age of 108, though earlier census reports suggest she may have more accurately been in her nineties.

And then there’s the amazing saga of Jerry Gleason, claimed by Ripley’s Believe-It-or-Not to have been 110 years old at the time of his death. However, the sad reality seems to be that Gleason faked stories for attention, probably to escape from the tragedies of his life.

What was the truth of Judge Lane’s life? It’s hard to say.

The first census I found him on was the 1880 census, where the census taker listed his age as 100. That doesn’t necessarily mean a lot. If Lane claimed to be 120, then the census taker may have thought, “I don’t know about that, but he certainly looks old. So, I’ll just put 100.”

The same skeptical estimating was seen from census takers in both Gleason’s and Devore’s cases. But Lane did have some interesting and quite specific details. One such piece of information was that Lane was said to have worked as a body servant to General Mercer during the American Revolutionary War.

If true, that puts him working as what we would today call a valet by the 1770s, for Mercer was killed during the Battle of Princeton in 1777.

One would think for a young man to work as a valet, probably enslaved, to a prominent revolutionary official, Lane would have to have been at least 12, if not older, for a valet’s work included dressing his master, repairing his clothes, doing laundry, cooking food, and doing all this while traveling with the army.

Mercer was quickly involved in the war because he had been a close friend of George Washington ever since they served together in the French and Indian War.

This would likely put Lane’s birth no later than 1765, which would indeed make him over 115 at the time of his death. If he wasn’t that old, one wonders if Lane borrowed the story from his father or some other relative before him?

The Mount Vernon Republican was highly skeptical of that supposed age in its article about Lane’s death, estimating him to be “eighty or ninety,” while noting that others had supposed his age to be anywhere from 100 to 200!

Even if he was of that age, one remarkable detail is that the 1880 census listed Lane as having one resident with him, a daughter named Lizzie, who was only 10 years old. If this man was still fathering children as late as age 105, he is indeed a legend.

What are the facts? I wish I knew. Both newspaper articles cite it as apparently well-known that Lane was born in Africa and brought to America as a slave.

But the 1880 census says that he was born in Maryland, as was his father, and that his mother was born in Africa. If that’s the case, we can see that some details are being overlooked in favor of a good story.

There is no way to prove the assertion that he worked for General Mercer, as no detailed paperwork survives about Mercer’s staff. At that time, the general was a resident of Fredericksburg, Virginia, so it at least puts him in the right area to have crossed paths with Lane, but the time frame is unproven.

We also have no information about Lane’s life between these early years and when he shows up in Mount Vernon. If he started life as a slave, how did he become a free man living in Knox County, Ohio?

It could be possible that he was released from servitude by Mercer or a subsequent slave owner, or he could have run away. It would help explain Lane’s scarcity in official records if that’s the case. A fugitive slave would undoubtedly want to keep a low profile.

However, it is also possible that he was among the few free blacks living in the Maryland/Virginia area in the late 1700s and early 1800s, though I could not find him on any records of free citizens in the region.

According to newspaper articles after his death, Lane came to Mount Vernon around 1830 and set up shop as a barber. He came in the company of hotelier Baker Plummer, who set up a hotel in downtown Mount Vernon, with Lane operating a barbershop as a shopfront in the hotel building.

A search on Plummer tells us that he lived in Maryland, got married in Philadelphia in 1828, then had a daughter born in Mount Vernon in January 1829.

This suggests that Plummer, and presumably Lane, arrived locally in mid-1828. Perhaps he previously employed Lane in Maryland.

Running a barbershop is a good way to be socially engaged with a community. Lane was apparently so well-known and esteemed that within a few years, he was encouraged to give a speech on Public Square in 1844 in support of presidential candidate Henry Clay.

When you think about it, this is an extraordinary thing.

At a time when blacks — especially in Knox County — were treated as lesser members of society, here was an African American giving a public political speech in the very center of the community. Lane must have commanded considerable respect not just among the blacks, but community-wide, to pull off this kind of event. So much for the thought of him keeping a low profile!

The only other census I could find Lane on was the 1870 census, which places him at 93 at that time, supporting the idea that he was over 100 when he died.

Though censuses were carefully tabulated in Knox County in 1830, 1840, 1850, and 1860, Lane does not appear on any of them, which I can confirm after doing a laborious page-by-page search. There was what looks like a “J” Lane, although the census taker’s cursive is so elaborate, it may also be an “S,” and it does have a plausible birth date of 1790.

This person is not marked down as being black, though. Then again, this census taker left the race column blank for everyone.

But that still leaves three decades with no candidate on the census. Even searching by last name only does not provide any candidates for the man known to have lived here that entire time. So, perhaps he did have his reasons, after all, for keeping a low profile.

Having gone into semi-retirement from the barbershop, Sam Lane is listed in the 1870 census as selling shavings for a living. I presume this means wood shavings from lumberyard operations, which could be gathered and used for various home purposes.

Lane apparently gathered and bundled the shavings for his customers’ convenience. The Mount Vernon Republican News said that he always told customers — and I’m only accurately reproducing that paper’s rather rude depiction of his dialect — that they should “put ’em in de barn, where de rats won’t eat ’em.”

The same article says that Lane depended on charity in later years as his health prevented him from working for a living. This brings us to an interesting subject: his marriage.

The only documented marriage we have for Samuel Lane is in 1867. I thought at first that I had found two, for some databases describe an earlier record as “Samuel W. Lane.” However, the original version of that transcribed record makes me think that what the later transcriber interpreted as “W.” was an “M” followed by an almost illegibly small “c,” for the name Samuel McLane, who has nothing whatsoever to do with this story.

But the marriage in 1867 is definitely our subject. At even the most conservative estimate of his age, he would have been almost 80 at the time. His wife, Annie Danceas, was 19 or 20. The 1870 census shows them living in Mount Vernon’s second ward with a one-year-old child!

Now, it’s possible that everything was as plain as it appears on paper. Though highly improbable, such a relationship can exist. But call me suspicious; I don’t buy it.

A man who has long lived without any known wife or girlfriend suddenly marries a teenager when he’s 80… or 113… or 190… and fathers a child? Is that likely?

Or is this scenario more likely: Teenage girl gets “in trouble” and is abandoned by a boyfriend who doesn’t want to settle down.

The girl is highly troubled and possibly unstable because of the situation, and the kindly elder of the community offers to take her in and give her a home for when her baby is born. He marries her to save her reputation.

I think this later interpretation is far more likely, especially when we find out that Annie is said to have later suffered from insanity, and spent her final days at the Knox County Infirmary in Bangs.

Despite her distinctive maiden name, I was unable to find out any further information about Annie, but it is highly likely that she is buried in the patient cemetery adjacent to where the infirmary once stood.

By the 1880 census, it is just Samuel Lane and his “daughter” Lizzie, listed this time in Clinton Township, which I think marks Judge Lane’s transfer from the second ward to a small shack on the south side of the Kokosing River, near the B&O Railroad bridge.

In 1880, this was outside the city limits.

A small question mark in the Republican News article made my thoughts race further.

The editor noted that after Annie’s demise, Lane had only his daughter to live with him. The article stated that there was talk about moving Lane to the county infirmary, though the old man did not want to do so.

It says that a movement arose among the black citizens of the town to pledge to watch over Lane and make sure he was taken care of, so he could continue to live in his railroad shack. The article says that Lane was “comforted (?) in his declining years by his only daughter, Miss Liza.”

What is that question mark supposed to mean? It surely undercuts the word “comforted,” throwing it into question. Is this just a reference to the fact that she was a child, and thus wouldn’t be able to offer much comfort to the old man? Or is it gossiping about the girl’s health?

Interestingly, I could not find any further information whatsoever about Lizzie, Liza, or Elizabeth Lane. She’s on the 1880 census, but by Lane’s death in February 1881, there’s no mention of her other than this little question mark.

Did it mean that she ran away? Was she dead by 1881?

As soon as I noticed this detail, and put it in the context of known events, I found myself wondering if Annie Danceas had been gotten pregnant by a man who then abandoned her, is it possible he gave her a sexually transmitted disease as well?

Syphilitic insanity might explain her demise at the prime of her youth, and it could potentially explain the question mark following the reference to Miss Liza. Such a disease could have been communicated to the daughter during birth, resulting in her young death as well.

I was unable to find any records of a local burial for Liza Lane, and I was also unable to find any later records related to her. However, the lack of any reference to her in the present tense in Samuel Lane’s obituary suggests to me that by 1881, she was dead, too.

The Republican News editor then goes on to denounce Mount Vernon’s black community for not keeping a close eye on Judge Lane and taking care of him that cold and bitter winter. However, he doesn’t offer any explanation of why he couldn’t have gotten off his pontificating arse and walked down the street to check on the old man, either.

Both newspaper articles go into more gruesome detail about Lane’s condition when he was found, of which I’ll spare you.

In the end, I’d rather not dwell on Samuel Lane’s tragic demise, but celebrate the fact that he pulled off the not inconsiderable feat of living as a prominent member of his community despite the widespread discrimination of the times, and even registered as a figure of local legend in his lifetime.

Samuel Lane was indigent at the time of his death and is buried in the potters’ field at Mound View Cemetery without a grave marker. As he was a prominent member of the early black community in Mount Vernon, it would be fitting if we could find a way to raise money for a marker to salute the old “judge.”