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Kinston: |
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Biggest crowd in this town’s history!
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Only 200 lived here yet 12,000 came
What happened in Kinston August 3, 1881, that drew twelve thousand people?
They poured in from all over the Carolinas on horseback, by train, in wagons, on foot. Word had gotten around that something historic would happen that day involving one dead man and one live.
It turned out to be an unforgettable success. Zeb Vance, North Carolina’s most famous citizen, was coming to lionize Kinston’s most famous citizen, Richard Caswell, dead 92 years.
Zeb had done his homework. His speech was sharp, moving, handsomely constructed. It was not laced with Zeb’s usual thigh-slappers. Adam Hang from Raleigh was so entranced he didn’t realize he’d been standing in the hot sun so long. He died from the heat.
Everybodies and nobodies showed up to see the most-loved man in North Carolina history. From Governor Thomas Jarvis to Grand Master Henry Grainger to soldiers too tired to march but not too tired to hear Zeb and watch the dedication of a Caswell monument. They were there to hear Zeb talk about a brother Mason and one of his lifelong heroes.
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Produced by the public relations committee of the Grand Lodge AF&AM of Masons in North Carolina,
2921 Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh, NC 27628 MMVIII
Author/editor: Walter J. Klein wklein(at)carolina.rr.com
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