New York Times, Oct 25, 1885:

From the Louisville Courier-Journal, Oct. 23.

SAID TO BE ONE HUNDRED AND TWO

Mr. Asa Emerson, of No. 940 Ninth Street, celebrated his one hundred and second birthday yesterday. Mr. Emerson was born near the present site of Lexington on the 22d of October, 1783, and when a boy moved from his birthplace to what is now Union County, where he engaged in trading with the Indians and the first settlers. He subsequently settled in Louisville, and for many years traveled to and fro between his post in Union County and Louisville, which then was a small village.

Mr. Emerson tells a great many interesting stories of pioneer life in Kentucky, and is very fond of referring to the early days when as a young settler, he hunted deer and found Indians along the banks of the Ohio. He says that he has chewed tobacco and smoked incessantly since boyhood, and has never suffered any evil effects from its use.

He said that he had never had a moment of sickness before the year 1856, when he was shot in Union-town by a young scoundrel to whom he had given a severe and just chastisement for an insult offered to his gray hairs. The ball lodged in his left shoulder and was never extracted. He has since suffered very much from the wound but has nevertheless been very vigorous for a man of his years. The old gentleman is very tall and erect, and was in his younger days one of the handsomest men in Kentucky.

Mr. Emerson has been married twice. His second wife is still living at the advanced age of 76 years. They have had three children, who are all living. About 10 days ago the old man was taken sick, and has been confined to his bed ever since.

[Note: newspapers in other cities across the country picked up this item and reported it, usually as a short blurb to the effect that Asa Emerson, Kentucky pioneer or oldest resident, had celebrated his 102nd birthday. The next month, November 1855, several papers reported that he was being buried in Louisville."