Re: Louis Krouskopf
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In reply to:
Louis Krouskopf
Robin Grey 12/01/02
Answer to posting by Robin Grey on
Robin,
I know some additional facts about the family line you are inquiring about.Louis Krauskopf's real name was Ludwig.This is the oral tradition from my branch of the family.We can verify some of the facts, but I found this website while trying to get confirmation of other parts of the family history that was passed down to us.
Ludwig left his home in Kassel (in Hesse) to become a camp boy in the French army in the last couple of years of the 18th century).(unverified).He later became a foot soldier and fought under Napoleon for at least 13 years (this information is quite reliable but the exact dates are a little fuzzy).Soldiering was an honorable profession in central Europe at the time and there was nothing unusual about a young Hessian fighting in the French Army.After some time as a soldier, he was given a field promotion to Lieutenant and became an officer.My brother has Ludwig's officer's sword that came with the promotion.Someone else on this genealogy website thinks he became a colonel, but we don't think he rose that far.Sometime around the time of the promotion, Ludwig changed his name to Louis.I presume he thought it politic to have a French name in a French army.One reason Ludwig/Louis got the promotion was that he could read and write.Napoleon was a pioneer in insisting that his officers be able to read the elaborate battle plans he wrote up.Louis went with the Grande Armee to Moscow and (family tradition has it) was one of seven in a regiment of 500 to make it back to Paris.The other website contributor has Louis in the cavalry.Our family story has him in the rear guard.We don't have specifics such as the name of the army unit he served in, but we don't think he was in the cavalry.
Family tradition says that Louis missed the battle of Waterloo (1814) (although he retained great loyalty to Napoleon) because he was off getting married to Katherine Messer.He tried going home to Kassel, but found it very uncomfortable to live there because he was considered a traitor for having fought with the French.Napoleon changed the concept of a soldier from that of a professional who fought honorably for whomever paid him, to that of a patriot who fought for "Patrie".The Germans caught on to this idea as well and didn't like Ludwig/Louis much because he fought for the wrong "Patrie".
Feeling unloved in his home country, Ludwig and Katherine (and three children) left Bremerhaven in 1819 and emigrated to America.They landed in Baltimore and the family tradition has it that he taught French for a short time.Katherine Messer Krauskopf had relatives who had previously settled in Ohio near Cincinnati so the family moved there.Ludwig kept an Inn and Tavern (and the other website commentator says he may also have had a farm).Ludwig had many children (at least ten including the three who were born in Germany).He made a diary entry every time a child was born, and we have a copy of (a translation of) this diary so I could look up the exact number of children but I don't have it in my head.One of the middle sons was named Justus (for his uncle who remained in Kassel), and the younger Justus is my great-grandfather.
You seem to have some of the information about the younger Justus.He settled in nearby Cincinnati and became a professor at the theological seminary.He joined the U.S. civil war and was seriously wounded.Doctors told him that the city life in Cincinnati was dangerous to his health and he should move to the country.He bought a farm just south of Richmond, Indiana, in a community of immigrant German farmers.Because he was a semi-invalid, his three children, Charles, Frank, & Katherine, did much of the work on the farm.I have complete information on the families of Charles (my grandfather) and Frank.You are obviously some sort of a cousin of mine, but you come from Katherine's branch of the family, and we have lost any contact with her descendants.Family rumor says that she moved to Montana with her husband.Perhaps you can fill me in on her family.
I am presently in Germany and have been trying to find a little more information about the Krauskopfs in Germany.There is not much here.Ludwig had one brother, Justus the Ohio Justus' namesake, and a sister.Neither of them married or left any descendants.Records of the Krauskopfs in Kassel are pretty hopeless as Kassel was an industrial city and heavily bombed during WWII.The state records and most church records were destroyed.One of my relatives made an effort to find records about thirty-five years ago and was unsuccessful.However, I have found some interesting information about Justus (the elder).He was a professional painter, and this was a lifelong career.We have in our home a painting Justus did in 1829 of his family home in Kassel.Seated in the living room are Konrad and Sabina Krauskopf, the mother and father of Ludwig and Justus.Justus painted himself in the picture with his back to the point of view of the painting.Justus is gesturing to a map on the wall marked (in German) the Free States of North America to show the old folks where Ludwig was living.He sent the painting to Ludwig (whom he never addressed as Louis) to give him a memory of home in Germany.Ludwig and Justus wrote to each other twice a year for 25 years or more.We have translation of most of the letters from Justus to Ludwig, but none of the ones Ludwig sent to Germany.
Another branch of the family has a self-portrait that Justus did and sent to his brother in Ohio.On the internet, I found a reference to Justus Krauskopf, the noted painter.I figured that if he really was "noted", there might be a painting or two that he did that has survived and is in a museum somewhere in Germany.I have not yet found a painting, but I still have some leads to follow up.However, I find that Justus wrote at least two books on art.The Beineke Library at Yale has a copy of one he published in 1828 about how to teach painting.He wrote another book in 1823 and there is a copy of this one in the Library at the University of Erfurt here in Germany.Usually, it is possible to get an inexpensive copy of such a book from a German Library, and I am going to try.
Since the Justus who was born in Ohio had so many brothers and sisters, we must have some cousins I don't know about.This is a direction I can pursue when I return to the U.S.I'll start with all the names from Ludwig's diary that we have.I can also go through the letters from Justus the elder to Ludwig because he reports on the health and status of a number of cousins with different family names that Ludwig apparently asked about.Perhaps descendants of those families still live here in Germany.