Bancroft Street
From Worcester Activist wiki
Also BANCROFT TOWER
When George Bancroft caught an overripe muskmelon smack in the face, it added up to one more conviction – he didn’t want to be a teacher.
Trouble was, he wasn’t sure what he wanted. He had tried following a famous father – Rev. Aaron Bancroft, who preached in Worcester more than 50 years.
But neither young Bancroft nor the congregation felt at ease. Out of this uncertain beginning sprang a great man of whom Worcester has always been proud.
He was born on Salisbury street October 3, 1800; was graduated from Harvard at 17. The college paid for a five-year scholarship in Germany – he was that brilliant a student.
In 1834, Bancroft determined to write a history of the United States. The 12 volumes took him more than 40 years.
One critic said that Bancroft wrote the history of America as if it were the history of the kingdom of heaven. But the work was hailed as a monumental achievement.
In 1835, Bancroft went into politics as a Democrat. He became collector of the Port of Boston; Secretary of the Navy under Polk.
He founded Annapolis; outlawed casual flogging; introduced promotion by merit; was credited with opening the way to annexation of California. He became minister to England; to Prussia. The world paid him tribute, lavishing honorary degrees upon him. He knew Lafayette, Byron, Goethe, Irving, Dickens, Hawthorne, Browning, Longfellow, Bismark – nearly everyone who was anyone.
“I find I am growing very old and must begin to take farewell of the world,” he wrote in his diary.
The Senate honored him with full privileges of the Senate floor in 1879. “His occasional visits to the capitol called for newspaper reporters and suspension of Senate business until his departure,” wrote a biographer.
In 1882, he gave ten thousand dollars to Worcester to establish the Aaron and Lucretia Bancroft college scholarships for poor but brilliant students. He died on Jan. 17, 1891, at 90 in Roseclyffe, his Newport, R.I. Summer home.
A lover of roses, he had raised nearly 500 varieties in Newport and Washington. Admirers sent thousands to his grave.
His body was brought back to Worcester to rest in Rural Cemetery with his father and mother.
Worcester named Bancroft street in 1892, Bancroft heights and Bancroft Tower drive to honor him. Bancroft Tower was built as a testimonial by Stephen Salisbury.
The core of this article comes from A History of Your City Streets.
