I've been 'visiting' Philadelphia a great deal in my various searches and writings recently. Occasionally I stop and investigate a little more deeply. Today this piece of music caught my eye ..
It is not exactly Mozart or Adolph Adam stuff, is it, but I wondered who was Miss Wilks, 'the American danseuse? So I looked, and .. oh dear ...
Henrietta Margaret Wilks was born in Philadelphia 1 January 1839, the first daughter of an Irish musician, Benjamin G S Wilks (1814-1890), from Dublin, and his American wife Marion Bates Packer.. Benjamin had been a singer and actor in the Philadelphia theatres. He also had something to do with firemen and proffered a song titled 'The Fireman's Barcarolle'. 25 April 1838 he married Maria Bates Parker, who apparently joined the company at the Walnut Street Theatre. Mr Wilks went on to become a company secretary (Hope Hose Company, Philadelphia Brass Band), his wife continued at the Walnut, and in 1855 a sixteen-year-old 'Miss H Wilks' made a first appearance in a pas seul. After that, Miss H featured on many programmes ...
She also featured in the marriage registers when she took to husband her young colleague, Mr Linington Roberts Shewell (17 June 1856). The couple appeared a little while at the Walnut, but ..
Henrietta died, aged just 18, on 15 May 1857.
Shewell made himself a fair career, remarried ... Father lived till 1890
A short story and a sad one. I wonder why I picked that one.
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