Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on March 17, 1956.
92-Year-Old Hebron Man’s Hands Strong
By ROLLIE BERNHART
I have just met Corando (that’s right) John. I am most thankful for the privilege.
Corando John at the age of 92 has more vitality and the will to live than most people have at much younger milestones.
Some say he is the oldest living resident in south Porter county. He was born in Posen, German, Nov. 17, 1863. He came to the United States 70 years ago, and has lived and worked in various parts of Porter county for the past 50 years.
Although Corando’s box-like home in the Praireview section of Hebron is rotting away and badly in need of repair, the man residing within its walls needs little “repairs” of any kind.
A smallish bearded man, Corando weighs a trim 140 pounds, has remarkably good eyesight, excellent hearing, and a head of hair that is still black despite his years.
It’s the hands which are the attraction.
They are big and strong appearing; a strength which, at the age of 92, permits him to do jobs that are amazing.
Loads heavy Iron
While others at retirement age like to sit back and let the world go by, Corando digs sewer trenches and mows lawns in the summer; shoels snow, cuts firewood, and helps an area junk man load heavy machinery iron during the winter.
All of this for a man who calls himself “92-years young”!
Corando has a philosophy of life all his own, a philosophy which has made it possible for him to retain his strength and vitality through the years.
He simply refuses to become interested in the trials and tribulations of the world about him, and he places an unwavering and implicit faith in his best and constant “friend” ー the Bible.
“I see nobody in my home,” Corando said. “Maybe once in 10 years somebody, like yourself, comes in. But my friend, the Bible, is always with me.”
Then he proceeded to prove his point by quoting Scriptures from the Old and New Testaments, with a clarity of memory that was truly a revelation. And, make no mistake, he has an implicit faith and belief in everything quoted in the Bible.
He refuses to be balked by rising economies in the outside world.
For many years he has lived on an average of “six dollars per month” for food, by grinding his own wheat and purchasing a dollar’s worth of meat weekly.
“After all,” he said, “why should I pay the present price buy a bushel of wheat for two dollars and grind it myself?”
There are two hand grinders attached to a chair in the house. One has long since been worn out by constant usage. The smaller one he still uses to grind the wheat, which he cats as mush.
Falls On Teeth
He does not attribute his longevity to lack of smoking or chewing. Humorously, on the question of imbibing intoxicating beverages. Corando said, “Drink, well yes, if you would get it for me as a gift… otherwise, no.”
He has never been organically ill.
The only time in his lifetime that he was hospitalized occurred when he fell from a hay mow on a farm where he was a hired hand. “I landed on my false teeth which were in my back pocket. The imbedded “teeth” had to be removed at the hospital,” Corando said smilingly.
With this humorous retort, I closed my notebook and started to leave. Here was a man, 92 years old, left alone since his wife’s death 20 years ago, existing on only the most meager of sustenance; living in a shack with no running water or sanitary facilities; reading by lamplight at night; and having to chop his own wood (a huge pile outside about seven feet high) to provide warmth and for cooking… yet he could still smile… and mean it.
Then, as if in answer to the puzzlement in my mind, Corando summed it all up by saying, “I seek to live the way God wants me to… that’s who I read the Bible.”
A rare privilege to have met this remarkable man.
