Imagine owning a stock that once paid a dividend when the estimable — if also unforgettable — Rutherford B. Hayes was president. That’s pretty impressive, no? Hard as it is to believe, seven companies recently identified by Paul Tracy at StreetAuthority have paid dividends for almost that period of time, without once missing a payment.

Does Tracy’s list have any names that surprise you? I’ll let you decide in a few seconds, and then I’ll add five stocks to it that are getting long in the tooth … in a good way, by paying dividends for over 100 years in some cases.

But first, a quick reminder that these companies, all 12 when we’re finished, tend to have many of the same characteristics: You see them in one way or another virtually every day, and your parents and grandparents saw them, too. The majority  are truly among the biggest brand names in the world, not just the U.S.. These icons, like Coca-Cola, IBM and Clorox are also some of the oldest dividend-paying machines anywhere.

Add Exxon Mobil and Proctor & Gamble to the list, and you get the idea: Find names that equate to everyday products, and build on them as a base for your dividend portfolio.

And now to our lists, starting with Tracy’s stocks that haven’t missed a dividend payment since the indicated dates:

Quite an impressive lineup, with all seven starting dividend payments before the turn of the previous century.

Now, let’s look at five companies that while not quite as old, have been paying dividends for nearly as long.

Again, notice the familiar pattern. These are well know and branded companies that offer products most of us have grown up with:

• Pfizer: pharmaceutical products like Lipitor and Celebrex and Zoloft
• Chevron: gasoline and other petroleum products
• DuPont: housing materials and products such as Corian and Tyvek, and Teflon
• Caterpillar: construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives
• IBM: computers, software storage and networking, servers and systems

I’ve left off a few “young guns” that may find themselves on a similar list down the road, including W.W. Grainger (NYSE:GWW) at 48 consecutive years, J.M. Smucker (NYSE:SJM) at 63 years and Kellogg (NYSE:K), closing in at almost 90 consecutive years.

The names change, but the premise doesn’t: Find companies that you see and use in your everyday life, do some homework and maybe give them a chance to keep paying dividends to you — and your grandchildren.

Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing he is long XOM.