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Social Security Death Index
Name: Harley B. Cobb
SSN: 236-30-6801
Last Residence: 25312 Charleston, Kanawha, West Virginia, United States of America
Born: 10 Nov 1885
Died: 2 Feb 1989
State (Year) SSN issued: West Virginia (Before 1951 )
News paper article Charleston Daily Mail Nov. 10, 1987
Man Still independent at 102
by Charlotte Cavender
He can fry bacon, spin tales and keep up with the television game shows. Not bad for someone who is 102 years old today.
Harley Lewis Bennett Cobb lives alone in his Cross Lanes mobile home and like it there just fine, thank you.
"I'm happy to be right here and I'll spend my birthday right here," he said.
His daughter and son-in-law live nearby, but Cobb is fairly independent.
"I get up of a morning, pour me a little glass of orange juice, take my blood pressure pill, take boiling water to make me a cup of coffee and eat my Cream of Wheat," he said.
"I like good fried bacon," he continued. "I fry bacon so it'll curl up so all the grease is out. That bacon tastes so good you can't hardly quit eatin' it. I fry eggs and sausage. I got me a steel skillet. I keep canned stuff mostly all the time. That way I don't have to bother much."
Until about a year ago, he went grocery shopping with his daughter. He quit going when his eyes grew too weak to read the prices. But he still goes to the barber shop for his regular hair cuts.
And he loves visitors.
"I like plenty of company." Cobb said. "I don't sleep through the day. I go to bed at 8:30 or 9 o'clock."
He uses his sharp memory to entertain guests with tales of the past.
The son of C. H. and Mary Cobb, he was born in Jackson County, where his father was a carpenter. He grew up in Belgrove and married his childhood sweetheart, Clora Casto.
"We went to school together at the White Pine Schoolhouse and played together right over in the botton." he said. "I got married Jan 8, 1908. I was 23 years old and my wife was 20 years old. three years younger."
Cobb recalls the day he decided to pop the question. He was trudging through a deep snowfall on his way to Charleston in quest of work. He decided the weather was too cold and dreary to finish the journey and instead, he retraced his steps to ask for his sweethearts's hand in marriage.
"I said we don't have to put off no big wedding." Cobb recalled. "I can send and get the license and we can get preacher Parson to come over and marry us right here in the house. I say your clothes are good enough for me. I ain't a marryin' your clothes. I'm a marryin' you."
Cobb remember exactly what he owned at the time. "I had three milk cows, all a comin' fresh, and oh, maybe 75 or 80 dollars in money."
The couple lived on a farm in Jackson County where four daughter and two sons were born. When Cobb was 39, he and his family moved to Kanawha County where he managed large dairy farms, including one at Pocatalico.
Mentioning that farm led him to recall a story he once heard about how the community was named. According to the tale, Indian encountered white men trying to get a mule or mules across high water in the river.
"Said the Indian come along there and the waters was up and told 'em just to poke the tails and then they go," he laughed. "Poke the tail ye go."
The Pocatalico farm, located where a housing development now stands, was one of about a half dozen farm Cobb managed. He also bought and sold horses.
"I know how to handle all livestock more than any other man in West Virginia." he said proudly. "I was named farm of the year. They put it to a vote and they all voted me in." He doesn't recall the year or the organization which gave him the award.
"Every place I went I made money at it for me and my little wife."
He said he was paid more than $300 a month and furnished with a home at each farm.
His marriage was a happy one, he said Mrs. Cobb died four years ago.
We lived a happy life all our lives." he said. "We always give each other a smile back and forth. We was the happiest married couple all around the nation."
Cobb said he worked hard all his life. Since most of his time was spent on the farm, he never saw a need for a car.
"I didn't have time to drive." he said. "I spent more time at the barn than the house. I didn't have time to travel."
In his 102 years, Cobb was hospitalized only once, when he was struck in the eye with a piece of fence wire.
"I'm an old man and I've had pretty good health all my life," Cobb said.
Asked for his secret, Cobb said moderation is the key.
"There's a time to eat, a time to sleep and a time for everything." he said. "you can overeat or oversleep or over everthing. You've got to take it moderate. Alcohol? I never bothered it much. I never smoked cigarettes or used tobacco in any way."
There is also a law that is important to obey, he said.
"In God we trust is printed on a silver dollar." he said. "God gives us law to abide by and that's what we should abide by."
His children all still living are Opal Taylor of Cross Lanes, Carl Cobb of Kanawha City, Mable Young of Sissonville, Sibil Whetherholt of Sissonville, Myrtle Gibson of Belle and Clair Cobb of Staunton, VA.
JACKSON NATIVE DIES AT AGE 103
H. Bennett Cobb died Thursday in Heartland Nursing Home after a short illness. He was 103.
He was a native of Jackson County and was a retired dairyman and horseman. He managed several large dairy farms in Kanawha County and was once named Farmer o the Year. At the age of 102 he was living alone in Cross Lanes and was, for the most part, independent.
He was a member of White Plains (Pine) Methodist Church in Jackson County.
Surviving: daughters, Opal Taylor of Tyler Mountain, Mabel Young and Sybil Whetherholt, of Sissonville, Myrtle Gibson of Belle; son, Clair A. of Staunton, Va; 16 grandchildren, several great-grandchildren.
Service will be 1 p.m. Saturday at Long-Fisher Funeral Home, Pocatalico, with the Rev. William Layne and the Rev. Delbert Hawley officiating, Burial will be in Tyler Mountain Memory Gardens.
Friends may call from 6 to 9 p.m today at the funeral home.
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West Virginia Pioneers
1885 - 1989 (103 years)
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