Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 March 1893 — A Well Ventilated Tomb. [ARTICLE]

A Well Ventilated Tomb.

The most peculiar and eccentric character that ever lived in Alabama was Thomas Banks, who died at Montgomery some time during the year 1890. Physicians say that he would have lived years longer than he did had it not been for the fact that he was continually brooding over the danger of being buried alive. He was a man of considerable property, being rated at about $200,000, but to his way of looking at the matter money could not provide against the horrors of a premature burial. Away bsck in the ’7os he had a mausoleum built in the Montgomery Cemetery, and directed that he and his only brother should be laid there together after death. In 1889 the brother died and was carefully aDd tenderly laid away in one of the niches of the mausoleum. After this solemn event Thomas had his bedroom furniture moved to the tomb and ever after regularly made his toilet there. As mentioned above Thomas also died in 1890, and now the two brothers lie within handy reach of fresh air should either wake from his dreamless sleep. The Banks brothers were natives of North Carolina, and went to Montgomery boom time about the year 1856.—i9t Louis Republic.