I had a great-great grandmother who was born in 1849 in the days of Upper Canada (she was from King County, north of Toronto) and she lived until 1947. Her husband (my great-great grandfather) drowned in Lake Huron in 1895. But she would have lived through the US Civil War, Canadian Confederation, the building of the Canadian Pacific railway, the Boer War, and both World Wars.
A few years ago, the local newspaper reprinted a letter my Grandfather had written to the paper in 1918.
In it he mentioned his sorrow over so many deaths of friends. He also spoke of the school he was teaching at in Madison, Florida. He also said that he had been forced to suspend his college education due to financial reasons. (He later earned his degree from Stetson).
Reading between the lines, the flu epidemic of 1918 was probably the reason for so many deaths. As to their financial situation, I remembered that Daddy was born in that same year.