A Trace of Royalty Read online

  “What a small world it is to be able to see someone from Baden, right here in New York City!” The woman spoke loudly with a slight German accent. She looked at Karolina and observed her traveling attire and the sleeping child in her arms. Next to her, Stanislaus was unsuccessfully trying to stop his oldest child from running through the lobby.

  Karolina looked at her in surprise and said, “Anna? My god it is you!” She handed her son to her husband and rushed to give her friend a big hug. She was excited to see another one of her friends in her new country, in, of all places, the St. Nicholas Hotel!

  Anna attended the wedding of Princess Marie ten years ago with Karolina and her mother and had not seen her since. During the wedding, they struck up a fast friendship, discussing the handsome men, and comparing each other’s dance partner but each had gone their separate ways.

  Anna recently immigrated to New York City with her new husband, a lawyer, who was establishing his legal practice and trying to land clients from New York Society. In fact, one of his new clients, a prestigious member of the Society with a real fortune was getting married later in the fall and looking for legal help for her and her potential husband’s estates and he had secured a meeting with her.

  Karolina introduced her husband and her family and then pointed to her two squirming children. Anna shook her husband’s hand and patted Karolina’s two children on the head while telling her she was too busy supporting her husband’s career to have any children.

  She told her proudly, “My husband is, in fact, meeting one of his potential clients in this fine hotel,” as she pointed out the drawing room at the other end of the lobby.

  Anna asked Karolina about her plans and how long she was staying in New York. Karolina explained how they were traveling with her cousin’s family and would be leaving for Ohio the following day.

  Anna stopped her in mid-sentence and insisted she stay a day longer and visit with her. She told her she would be attending an affair with her husband the next evening at this same hotel and she would not know a soul in attendance.

  She begged Karolina to attend with her. Karolina protested and explained she did not have any formal clothes with her and her two children needed her care.

  Anna smiled and pointed to Stanislaus who was chasing after the older boy through the lobby of the hotel. “He appears capable enough”, she said. “I have an extra gown that I can have dropped off at the front desk of the hotel that should fit you. Now, anything else?” she said resolving all of Karolina’ concerns.

  Karolina nodded her head and resignedly said, “Yes” to her friend’s request.

  “Good”, Anna said as she spotted her husband leaving the drawing room at the other end of the lobby. “I will tell Frederick and he will be so pleased that I have someone to talk with during the evening. We will call on you at 7:00 pm, tomorrow night in the lobby.”

  Anna turned one last time and pointed to a discarded newspaper on a chair in the lobby.

  She said, “The Grand Duke was right. The Russians and British recognized Louis-Napoleon as the new Emperor of France like he said they would,” and she hurried off to meet her husband adjusting the mink stole on her shoulders as she walked.

  Bewildered, Karolina joined her family standing next to Franz Sigel at the hotel front desk, who was completing arrangements for their stay. Her husband shrugged when she told him she would meet with Anna and her husband.

  Sigel looked up at her when he overheard her plans for the following evening. He was aware of the next day’s festivities and had tried for days to secure an invitation to the evening reception. He asked Karolina if he could also go with her and her friends to the gala event.

  Karolina grasped his arm and said, “Of course; you saved us today from those terrible robbers. Anna will not mind and she will love to meet you.”

  Sigel smiled realizing his good luck. He suggested they all dine and then retire to their rooms. The Ohio and Baden immigrant families exhausted from the day’s events bid their goodbyes to their countryman, and after an early dinner, retired to their rooms and slept until dawn the next day.

  Chapter Ten

  The next morning, Franz Sigel spotted Stanislaus at the end of the St. Nicholas Hotel lobby. Sigel offered to show Stanislaus and his family the sights of New York City as a courtesy to Karolina for allowing him to accompany her and her friend Anna that evening. “A carriage is waiting for your family in front of the hotel,” Sigel told him as they waited for Karolina and her children to catch up. Karolina’s Ohio cousins decided to stay at the hotel, but requested their son come with them for a tour the city. Stanislaus and Karolina agreed to take him to have a playmate for their oldest child. After they completed their arrangements, Sigel escorted the group through the doors of the hotel toward the waiting carriage.

  Outside of the hotel, a driver was standing at the curb waiting for them to arrive while talking to the other carriage drivers. The driver’s name was Joseph, an African-American, and a former slave. He was a tutoring student of Franz Sigel’s and worked as a carriage driver for Sigel’s wealthy New York City employer.

  Joseph escaped from a southern plantation via the nascent Underground Railroad to New York City and was trying to make enough money to help the rest of his family escape to the North. He met Sigel when the family he worked for told him Sigel would be able to teach him to write English. Sigel, tutoring other German immigrants after his work day offered to teach his employer’s other workers as well.

  Joseph bowed low to Sigel and pointed Stanislaus towards the waiting carriage. Stanislaus is taken aback at seeing a black man for the first time, shook the man’s hand profusely and settled into the carriage next to Sigel and the two older boys. He called for his wife and youngest son to join them.

  Sigel explained to them how he drafted the plans for the New York Crystal Palace building in his new job and needed to check on the status of construction on behalf of his employer. He mentioned to Joseph that they were already running late.

  Joseph told them not to worry and said, “I will show you the sights of this fine city on our way,” and he clambered aboard the top of the carriage and yelled at his horses to start walking up Broadway Street.

  Joseph shouted out the names of the buildings as they passed by. Stanislaus awed by the building’s architecture, thanked him as he looked out the carriage windows. The carriage traveled up Broadway, crossed over to Fifth Avenue, and passed a large arena, the Hippodrome, covered by a red, white and blue canvas. This structure would be housing P.T. Barnum’s circus in a few short weeks. He dodged and steered the carriage and horses past other Horse Drawn wagons, carts, and men on horseback as it went down the street and then pulled it up to a large building under construction.

  Joseph jumped down and opened the carriage door. “I told you I would show you something magnificent!” he said and pointed to the building.

  The carriage parked directly in front of the centerpiece building of the new “Exposition of the Industry of all Nations”, scheduled to open in New York City later that summer. Sigel pointed out to them the New York Crystal Palace, a magnificent glass and iron building modeled after the Crystal Palace, built in London for its own exposition two years earlier. Sigel tipped his cap and took his leave and went to discuss his architectural plans with the building’s construction foreman.

  Stanislaus was fascinated by the size and design of the building and asked the workmen questions as they were completing the construction of the dome. The exterior of the building made of cast iron and glass windows sparkled in the sunlight. The two wings facing the street would contain exhibits of classic pieces of sculpture and portraits of historical figures when finally completed.

  New York City was a bustling and major world-class city in April 1853. The wealthy citizens of New York living at that time could boast that their commercial buildings rivaled those of any of the European capitals. The growing young nation was exuberant and embraced the new technologies and science discoveries b
eing made almost every day. The “Exposition of the Industry of all Nations” was a way for New York City to prove this to the entire world.

  Karolina and her family were interested only in the exhibits on the exposition grounds. At one they saw, a man named Elisha Otis was building a demonstration of his new invention, the “elevator” and Stanislaus and Karolina peppered him with questions in their broken English as he worked on the display.

  A “Quadricycle” was on display at the next exhibit and Stanislaus asked the owner if he could try it out and the man said, “Yes”. He rode it around the exposition grounds while his sons and their older cousin followed him laughing and shouting. The boys played for hours on the exhibits as their parents walked the exposition grounds marveling at the artistic and technical wonders of their new country while waiting for Franz Sigel to finish his business.

  Chapter Eleven

  The immigrant tourists and the former soldier returned to the St. Nicholas Hotel early that evening. As they entered the hotel, the front desk clerk spied Karolina and waved her over. Karolina went to the front desk with a puzzled look on her face. The clerk said, “A lady dropped this off for you,” as he handed a parcel to Karolina. “She said it was for this evening’s gala.”

  Karolina took the parcel and went with her husband and children to their room to dress for the evening. She unwrapped the parcel and saw the beautiful gown that her friend Anna had promised her. She put on the gown and her husband said she looked beautiful. Her children did not even notice her as they were too busy playing with toys they received from several of the exposition exhibitors. Karolina kissed her husband and children and went down the grand staircase to the lobby to meet her friend Anna, Anna’s husband, and Franz Sigel.

  New York City society invited to the reception that evening would be wearing their latest formal wear including black frock coats for the men and colorful, flowing long ball gowns adorned with new jewels and furs for the women to impress each other. Anna and her husband were also dressed in the latest formal wear, but Karolina was wearing a simpler evening gown without any jewels and Franz Sigel wore his best suit looking a little worn for the occasion.

  Anna was grateful Karolina agreed to attend and introduced her husband who bowed and kissed her hand. Karolina, in turn, introduced Franz Sigel to Anna and her husband and explained how he saved her family from the hoodlums down at the docks, omitting the part of their original plan to stay in a cheap hotel in the worst part of the city.

  Anna’s husband recognized Sigel and steered him directly to the bar to discuss how he could give any legal assistance to him and the other “48er” immigrants while the two women proceeded to the center of the ballroom.

  Chapter Twelve

  The evening’s reception was in honor of former President Martin Van Buren, who was staying at the St. Nicholas Hotel on the eve of his journey to visit the capital cities of Europe. He would be the first ex-president to travel outside of the country and his plans included an ambitious travel itinerary including an audience with Queen Victoria. But this evening he was meeting with New York City Society to shore up his standing in New York State politics.

  Karolina and Anna found a place to sit in the ballroom at an empty table with two empty chairs next to several elegant Society ladies. All of the men were milling around the ballroom puffing on their cigars and discussing politics.

  Adjacent to the table where Karolina and Anna sat down, several men were standing in a semicircle around a short old bald headed man with slight wisps of white hair. This man was the former president himself, Martin Van Buren. Anna’s husband spotted Van Buren from the bar and trailed by Sigel, hurried to introduce himself, his wife, and their guests to the former president. Martin Van Buren bowed to the ladies and barely acknowledged the two men. Franz Sigel managed to approach him and told him of his recent exploits in the Baden revolution trying to impress him. Van Buren only raised an eyebrow and turned to face the other men in a semi-circle around him.

  “Mr. President, will you be continuing to support President Pierce and his policies on slavery?” A man asked the former president.

  The short round former president guffawed and looked at the questioner with a keen eye while an older man next to Van Buren smirked and said, “President Pierce is not the future of the Democratic Party and my friend here knows nothing!” as he gestured at the young man.

  They all laughed, including the former president, realizing the pun, a reference to the “Know Nothing Party”, a nativist and an anti-Catholic political party founded in response to the influx of Irish and German immigrants which was becoming popular in New York City.

  Sigel listening intently to the former president, began to shake his head when he realized the main issue tearing apart his new country was slavery in the Southern States. His tutoring student, Joseph, had told him of the horrors of plantation life and Sigel realized how similar Joseph’s situation was to the serfdom abolished many years earlier in his native country of Baden.

  Van Buren continued speaking to his cronies, “Senator Douglas from Illinois is the future star in our Democratic Party and he will be president one day!”

  However, another man in the group surrounding the former president begged to differ and described a lawyer from Illinois by the name of Lincoln as a possible candidate for national public office and he was also against slavery. Sigel, ambitious as always, made a mental note of the name and resolved to find out more about this man.

  Van Buren looked at him and turned away. “Gentlemen, we must return to our ladies”, he declared and walked away, putting his cigar out and rejoining his sons and their wives at the large banquet table.

  Sigel and Anna’s husband returned to the bar to discuss their country’s future while the orchestra began to play a new waltz recently arrived from Europe and the men and women began to dance in the center of the ballroom.

  As Karolina and her friend Anna sat at the table, they were approached by two rather distinguished looking ladies of New York Society. They made their introductions and inquired about Karolina, mentioning Karolina’s simple hairstyle and her lack of jewelry for such a formal occasion.

  Anna proudly explained to them, that Karolina was a friend from the Grand Duchy of Baden, visiting New York City and then she described the wedding of Princess Marie that they attended in the Mannheim Palace several years before. The two society women were suitably impressed as Anna described the royalty who they danced with during the wedding, exaggerating their importance as Karolina looked on in alarm. The two women bowed to Karolina and Anna and hurried off to tell their friends about the two noble ladies from Europe who were now in their fair city. After they left, Anna squeezed Karolina’s hand and mouthed the words, “Thank you” to her as other affluent Society women slowly came up to both of them to introduce themselves.

  Karolina turned her attention back to the orchestra playing in the room as Anna repeated her story to more and more of New York City Society. She recognized the music being played and wistfully remembered the handsome soldier from so long ago, as she watched other uniformed officers in their finest uniforms and beautiful ladies continue to dance in the center of the grand ballroom.

  After a while, she decided it was time to leave and rejoin her family. Anna gave her a hug and requested she keeps in touch with her after she arrives in Ohio. Seeing her ready to leave, Franz Sigel bowed low to her and wished her and her husband good luck in their travels the next day. Sigel finished his drink, thanked Anna and her husband and left the ballroom with Karolina.

  Karolina walked up the majestic hotel staircase to the room she shared with her husband and children. They were all fast asleep in their beds. The family would be taking the New York and Erie Railroad train the next day to Ohio with her cousin’s family and she was anxious to rise early to pack their belongings for the trip. She undressed and settled on the bed next to her husband and youngest child. Her husband was snoring so she nudged him gently, he turned over and she fell fast as
leep holding her child in her arms.

  Next: The sweeping saga continues with new leaders in Europe and America on the precipice of war!

  Afterword

  During the research for this book, I discovered online records which describe new details of the lives of my great-great-grandparents unknown to earlier generations of our family. One of these digital records depicted in the Appendix below, show how the Bavarian Knighthood Order of St. Anne of Würzburg evolved in the 19th century from a religious and spiritual order to one of social welfare used to help the nobility maintain royal traditions and customs.

  This book continues the saga of An Immigrant American family as they struggle to succeed in building a home in the new world. During their remarkable lifetimes, Stanislaus and Karolina, my great-great grandparents, encountered many historical figures and events that would affect them but also the destiny of a new nation. Their lives, intertwined with these events, are the basis of the Kopp Chronicles.

  Appendix One – Karolina Sorg’s birth

  Karolina "Caroline" Sorg was born on February 12, 1826, in Sulz a small village in the Grand Duchy of Baden which is now in modern day southwest Germany.

  Appendix Two – Stanislaus and Karolina’s marriage record

  Record of the marriage of Stanislaus Kopp and Karolina Sorg in Sulz, Grand Duchy of Baden, on November 29, 1849.

  Appendix Three – The Order of St. Anne of Würzburg

  “The Knight’s Orders to Honor Service Character Aristocrat Ladies in the Kingdom of Bavaria” (translated) indicates Therese Sorg received the Pin of the Order of St. Anne of Würzburg in 1835.

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