The following article appeared in the "Watertown Daily Times," of Watertown, N. Y. on a July 18th sometime during President Theodore Roosevelt's term, 1901-1909. The newspaper clipping given to me did not contain a date. Although the genealogical content is valuable for researchers in the three-county area of Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence in New York State, it appears to have more relevance to Lewis County. There are undoubtedly many descendants of those mentioned in the article and I present it with the hope that it may prove helpful to someone. I do have a somewhat limited interest in the Lalone name -- my husband's great-grandmother having married a Luke Lalone about 1869. It seems possible that Luke was a brother of Louis Lalone spoken of here. Take note of the last paragraph which gives us clues about the maiden name (Gardiner or the French Galarno) of the matron of this 5-generation marvel. Enjoy.

Mrs. Mary Mathilda Lalone,
the wife of Louis Lalone
FIVE GENERATIONS

Women Members and Baby
Under One Roof.

OLDEST 68, THE YOUNGEST 2
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Here is a family, Mr. President,
Where There is No Race Suicide.

MOST REMARKABLE RECORD

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Great Great Grandmother, 68 Years
Old--Great Grandmother 52--All Wives
Before the Thirteenth Birthday
and Mothers Before the Sixteenth--
Maternal Ancestor Died at 117, Her
Husband at 115, Leaving Twenty-
three Children.

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WATERTOWN, July 18.--Could President Roosevelt (have) looked in upon a little family party assembled recently in the humble cot that crowns a rocky knoll in the rear of No. 5-1/2 Grove street, this city, his fear regarding the dangers of race suicide through late marriages and childless unions would undoubtedly have been considerably allayed. In the low-ceiled kitchen of that little red house were gathered the women representatives of four generations of a family, every one of whom was a wife before her 15th birthday and a mother before her 16th, while in a cradle that had rocked successively the babies of all four women slumbered the representative of the five generation (sic) of the family, the great-great-grandson of the oldest woman, the grandson of the still comparatively young mistress of the little cottage, and the son of the girlish-looking matron who was the youngest of the quartet.

The members of that family party, beginning with the still vigorous representative of the fifth generation, were Mrs. Mary Mathilda Lalone, the wife of Louis Lalone of Carthage, who looks much younger than the 68 years which she acknowledged as her age, and who is undoubtedly the youngest great-great-grandmother in northern New York. She was married when 14 years old, and her first child, a daughter, who was likewise named Mary, was born just before the mother's 16th birthday.

This great-great-grandmother by no means considers herself an aged woman, but can do a washing more quickly and deftly than most young women, and every morning scrubs with sand and soap(s) the floor of her little home down on "the Flats" at Carthage until the beech boards are as white as chalk. Besides being a tidy housekeeper, she is a good old-fashioned cook, who can get up most appetizing "boiled dinners" and stews and soups such as they make nowhere else except in Canada, whence she came in her girlhood. To her great-great-grandson she sings the "habitau" lullaby that her mother sang to her back in the Acadian land of Lower Canada.

Great Grandmother.

The daughter of the great-great-grandmother above described, Mrs. Mary Matilda Sablin, is the wife of Charles Sablin, a "shanty boy" employed in one of the lumber camps of the Deer river country. Although 52 years old and a great-grandmother, Mrs. Sablin would easily pass for a woman of 40, not a silver thread showing in her black hair, and her step being as sprightly and light as that of a girl.

While her husband is working in the woods she lives with her daughter at No. 5-1/2 rear Grove street. She was born in Potsdam, St. Lawrence county, her maiden name being Mary Matilda Frazier, and when 13 years old was married to Samuel McClure of Brasher Falls, that county. Her first child, Mrs. Wright, with whom she lives in Grove street, was born when the mother was but 14 years old.

After the death of her first husband, MacClure, the (sic) married Charles Sablin, a native of France, and accompanied her husband to his home in the sunny land of vines. After spending several years in France, the couple returned to this country and have since lived in this vicinity.

Grandmother.

Mrs. Mary Jane Wright, whose portrait shows her to be a decidedly youthful looking grandmother, is 38 years old and was married when but 13 years old to William J. Hughes of Tug Hill, going with her husband to the town of Watson, Lewis county, where she was living when her first child was born, when she was 15 years old. That child is John R. Hughes, a young man now living in Paiges, Lewis county.

Mother.

Her second child was a daughter, Ina Agnes, the fourth member of the maternal party. After the death of Hughes the widow married James Wright of Paiges, Lewis county, who had a son, Edgar, of a former marriage. This son became the stepbrother and afterward the husband of the daughter, Inez Agnes.

The daughter of Mrs. Mary Jane Hughes Wright, Ina Agnes Hughes, 20 years old, was married to her step-brother on her 14th birthday, and still lives with him in the town of Denmark, Lewis county.

About a year after her first marriage her first child, a son, Paul Wright, was born, dying during infancy. Her second child, Floyd, the representative of the fifth generation of the family who now occupies the well worn cradle that was first used by Mrs. Mary Matilda Lalone, was born two years ago at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Wright, in the backwoods settlement of Paiges.

Mrs. Lalone, Mrs. Sablin and Mrs. Mary Jane Wright are all mothers of large families. The family, besides being prolific, is one of great longevity, the mother of Mrs. Lalone, who had she lived until now would be a great-great-great-grandmother, dying about 26 years ago at her home in the village of Brasher Falls, St. Lawrence county, at the great age of 117 years. The husband of this centenarian, Charles Galarno, or in English Charles Gardiner, was 115 when he died, the couple being the parents of twenty-three children.