This Day in the History of Waltham - September 1, 1894 – Nathaniel P. Banks died https://sites.google/site/nathanielpbanksbiography/introduction ...Banks, after all, was an experienced thespian. Even the acting idol of that generation, Edwin Forrest, who routinely hissed amateurs, pronounced Banks a good actor. Bankss stage education carried over into private interactions. His signature deep bows and the Banks sweeping hand gestures made every simple Romeo feel like a King Lear for a moment. He had a genius, they said, for being looked at, and only those 5,000 who had filed past his bier at Walthams Asbury Temple in 1894 now had the very last looks. Boston newspapers spelled his name incorrectly, and few outsiders made it to this funeral. Yet Walthamites considered it the event of the century. As the procession moved toward Grove Hill and its cemetery, the citizens came out in respect from the black-draped houses. The large cross of white lilies from Boston Manufacturing Company of Waltham was conspicuous behind the caisson and riderless horse. The mourners passed that companys massive redbrick building where Banks once worked as a bobbin boy, an occupation he made famous in his generation with the sobriquet Bobbin Boy of Waltham. They passed also the tenement site where Banks was born and the houses on the town common where he grew up and started his career, where he trained as a mechanic and where he educated himself to seem to write and speak like a collegian. The cortege reaching the highest point in the cemetery, the husky sergeants, decked out in uniforms and tasseled helmets unfamiliar to Civil-War era men, lowered the more traditionally clad generals body with military precision into the grave from which he could look down on his home town for eternity. Artillerymen provided a final thirteen-gun major generals salute. The casket took with it many secrets because Banks was a secretive man. Reporters could never get him to express a strong opinion, and subordinate generals often thought he had no ideas....
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 12:21:16 +0000
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