How wealthy was Morris Jarecki (d. 1881)?

Horse carriages on the Grand Drive in Central Park, c. 1869. Did Morris Jarecki's family have their own carriage
and ride through the park in this manner?  Source: New York Public Library Digital Collections

In my previous post, I described how I uncovered the parents of my great great grandmother, Kate Jarecki. I also mentioned family lore saying the Jareckis were well-off and upset that Kate married an immigrant. Now that we know who Kate's family were, does this shine any light on the truth of these family stories? In particular, what was the financial situation of Morris Jarecki and his family.

To recap, two letters from Kate Jarecki's grandchildren say that her family was somewhat wealthy. In a letter from my grandfather, postmarked March 2, 1978, he said, "[The Jareckis] were wealthy but when she married an immigrant from Austria she was disowned." This leaves a lot of room for interpretation. Maybe the Jareckis had a lot of money. Or maybe they simply were better off than the first generation Austrian immigrant she married.

My great aunt Harriet (Elters) Wilkins provided more detail in a letter to her grandchildren, dated September 3, 1996. In it she said, "Grandma Kate's... family rode through Central Park NY, in their own shiny, horse-drawn carriage. Their large financial contributions supported Montifiore [sic] and Mt. Sinai Hospitals." The image of riding through Central Park in the family carriage certainly suggests a level of wealth beyond the typical working class family.

Mt. Sinai Hospital, c. 1870. Lexington Ave between 66th
and 67th streets. This was the hospital's second location.
Source: New York Public Library Digital Collections

Both Montefiore and Mt. Sinai hospitals were founded based on contributions from the New York Jewish community. So it is possible that the Jareckis supported them. Of course, that support might have been large, as my Aunt Harriet suggested, or small. In the latter case, maybe it was spoken of proudly leading children and grandchildren to think the contribution was larger than it actually was.

Mt. Sinai Hospital was founded in 1852, and Montefiore in 1884. Kate Jarecki married in 1873, and her father, Morris, died in 1881. So any contribution to Montefiore might reflect the family's later fortunes, rather than their situation during Kate's youth.

But this is just speculation.  Based on the limited sources available, here is what I know about Morris Jarecki's finances:

• In the 1860 census he was employed as a clothing "cutter" and reported having no real property and $500 of personal property. His neighbors were mostly German immigrants (like himself) and worked in a variety of trades including: leather cutter, seamstress, teacher, shoe maker, peddler, and cigar maker.
• In the 1870 census, he was still employed as a "clothing cutter." As in the prior census his neighbors were predominantly German immigrants in labor-oriented trades.  The census taker did not collect information about his real and personal property (nor for anyone else).
• In the 1880 census, one year before his death, he was employed as a tailor. Based on the jobs of his neighbors, he may have been living in a better neighborhood.  Their professions include: hatter, book sewer, lithographer, turner of wood, bookkeeper, printer, actor, grocer, dry good clerk, and banker.
• The only assets mentioned in his will is a $1,000 insurance policy and a bank account with unknown balance.
• New York city directories from 1870 through 1892 list Morris's profession variously as cutter, tailor, or musician.

Taken together, these facts don't suggest unusual wealth. But they don't entirely rule it out, either. One of the many things on my "to do" list is to track down the complete probate records for Morris Jarecki to see if it includes an estate inventory. That would provide a more definitive picture of his assets.

But if Morris Jarecki wasn't wealthy, why did my grandfather and great aunt think the family had money? One possibility is that some one else in the Jarecki family was wealthy and provided the source of these stories. Morris Jarecki's oldest son, fits the bill here. As mentioned in my last post William Jarecki was a dentist. He may have made a good living in this profession. But he also married well. His wife, Olga (Frank) Jarecki was the daughter of a successful gold trader and advertising executive. He left her a trust fund that, in 1916, was worth $140,000. Adjusting for inflation, that would be over $3 million today.

William and Olga Jarecki married in 1888. That was fifteen years after his sister, Kate, married. So regardless of how William's new wealth affected the Jarecki family, it didn't provide carriages for Kate to ride in during her youth.

Sources and Notes on William and Olga Jarecki

By 1916, William and Olga's marriage was on the rocks and she sued him for separation. He opposed the suit. A New York Sun article implied this was because he didn't want to lose access to the trust money. The same article says that the trust was worth $140,000. 

"Alimony Request a Blind, he Says," The New York Sun, March 27, 1916, p. 5.

In the 1920 and 1930 censuses, William and Olga were living at separate addresses.

When Olga died in 1933, her will made it clear that she still didn't want any association with her husband:

The Will of Mrs. Olga Jareckie, filed for probate yesterday [March 30, 1933], directed that her husband, Dr. William Jareckie, be prohibited from entering her home. Mrs. Jareckie also wrote: "I hereby direct that my executors will personally supervise all funeral arrangements at the time of my decease without permitting my husband in any way to interfere." Mrs. Jareckie left an estate of about $1,000 to be divided between two sons.

"Husband is Barred," Asbury Park Press (Asbury Park, NJ), March 31, 1933, p. 16, via newspapers.com. 

Apparently, despite the separation and animosity they never divorced. Olga's will refers to William Jareckie as her husband. In the 1920 and 1930 censuses, they both gave their marital status as "married."

Finding the parents of Kate Jarecki Rippe

Kate Jarecki Rippe was my great great grandmother, my mother's father's mother's mother.  See below for a chart showing the relationship. For a while, she was also a dead end for me, as I was unable to track her prior to her marriage to Louis Rippe. But a few months ago, I found a small clue that helped me uncover the rest of my Jarecki family.

[Note:  Throughout the following, I will spell Kate's maiden name, "Jarecki." A variety of alternate spellings appear in documents, most commonly "Jarecky" or "Jareckie." But unless I am quoting a document, I'll stick with just one spelling to avoid confusion.]

Background

Based on family lore and my initial research, here's what I knew about Kate Jarecki.

Kate Jarecki was a first generation American. She was born in New York, probably in the early 1850s. Her parents were Eastern European Jews from somewhere in present-day Germany or Poland.

Kate Jarecki married my great great-grandfather, Louis Rippe in 1873 in New York City. Louis Rippe was an immigrant from Kraków, Austria. (Today Kraków is part of Poland.) He was a widower and had one son by his previous wife.

Obituary for Kate Rippe. The Bee (Danville,
Virginia), March 26, 1923, p. 1.

According to family tradition, Kate's family was well-off. A letter from my great-aunt, Harriet Elters Wilkins says, "Grandma Kate's... family rode through Central Park, NY, in their own shiny, horse-drawn carriage. Their large financial contributions supported Montifiore [sic] and Mt. Sinai Hospitals." Similar stories say that Kate's family disapproved of her marriage to a new immigrant of lesser means.

Kate and Louis had three children, Benjamin, Hulda (my great-grandmother), and Joshua. Louis spent most of his life working as a cigar maker. The family lived at a variety of addresses throughout Manhattan, moving every few years.

Louis Rippe died in 1910. Soon afterwards, Kate moved to Danville, Virginia to live with her eldest son, Ben Rippe, who ran a successful women's clothing store. (That store, Rippe's, is still in business today and is still managed by the Rippe family.) She died there on March 25, 1923.

Looking for Kate Jarecki's Parents

Based on this initial information, the obvious first step in looking for Kate Jarecki's parents was to try to find her in the census prior to her marriage to Louis Rippe.  And here I ran into a problem, as I found two different candidates of roughly the same age living in Manhattan in the 1860 and 1870 censuses.

Here are the two candidate households from the 1860 census:

Two household from the 1860 U.S. Federal Census that could be include great-great-grandmother, Kate Jarecki

This suggests that Kate Jarecki's father was either Lewis Jarecki or Morris Jarecki.

The next step was to see if vital records would help in identifying the correct family. But municipal record searches in New York did not provide birth or marriage information. (Although birth records go back to 1847, many home births went unreported.) Kate Rippe's death certificate only lists her father's surname. Likewise an obituary from the Danville Bee did not name her parents.

At this point, the logical thing to do would be to research both families in the hopes of turning up some record that would clarify matters. And as we'll see, that would have eventually uncovered the desired information. This task had been sitting on my "to do" list for a while when an unexpected clue turned up.

A Hint from Grandpa

A few months ago, I was re-organizing some (non-genealogical) correspondence and came across an old letter from my maternal grandfather, Murray Elters. He was a grandson of Kate Jarecki.  The letter, postmarked March 2, 1978, appears to be his response to a set of questions I had sent him as part of a school assignment to learn about my family. It's not clear from the context if the assignment was simply about family or the goal was to learn about immigrant ancestors.  

Grandpa's letter included some brief information about his parents and extended family. Regarding the Jareckis he said, "They were wealthy but when she married an immigrant from Austria she was disowned. When I was in dental school I visited Dr. Jarecki a prominent dentist at that time. He was an old man who only treated the 'carriage trade.'"

This revived my interest in the question of Kate Jarecki's parentage. If I could find Dr. Jarecki, maybe I could trace him back to one of the candidate families.  Grandpa graduated from dental school in 1918. So I searched the 1910 and 1920 censuses for Jarecki's in New York and quickly turned up a dentist named William Jarecki on the upper west side of Manhattan. His age (66 in the 1920 census) was consistent with the William Jarecki who appears in the 1860 household of Morris Jarecki.

Further research on the Morris Jarecki family eventually led me to tbe copy of his will recorded at probate.  The brief document, dated August 28, 1878, includes the following distribution of his money:

From the 1,000 One Thousand dollars coming to my heirs according to the laws of Lebanon Lodge & the laws of the Freesons of Israel I hereby give to my wife Rosa Jarecky five hundred dollars and the rest of the five hundred dollars and the money which should at the time of my death be deposited at the Bleeker Street Savings Bank or any other bank or money coming to me from other societies shall be divided into equal parts among my children as follows, Marx, Sarah Jarecky, Fanny Hart, Kate Rippe, William Jarecky, Emma Jarecky, Charles Jarecky & Nelly Jarecky, to each and every one an equal portion. [Emphasis added.]

The mention of Kate Rippe as one of his daughters confirms that Morris Jarecki was the father of Kate Jarecki Rippe, and thus that he was my 3x great grandfather.

The will also belies my grandfather's account of the Jareckis disowning their daughter. Whatever ill will they may have had about her marrying Louis Rippe, she received an equal share of her father's estate.

A bit more digging turned up the name of Kate's mother on the death certificate of Kate's sister, Sarah Jarecki. It lists her parents (and thus Kate's) as Morris Jareckie and Hannah Brett, both born in Germany.

Following up on these discoveries, I researched the other children of Morris Jarecki and their descendants.  I found lots of interesting people, including a child piano prodigy, a number of other artists, a physician, an olympic biathlete, and a Denver politician. But those stories will have to wait for future posts.

This chart shows the relationships of the people discussed in this post. Kate Jarecki Rippe is marked with a heavy outline.

A slave owner in my family

An excerpt from the will of Samuel Arnold of East Haddam, Connecticut, "Imprimis, I give and bequeath unto my Beloved wife Abigal one third part of my movable Estate (excepting my negro slaves) to her, her heirs and assigns forever..."

If you had asked me a year ago whether any of my ancestors owned slaves, I would have said, "I doubt it."  Before the Civil War, all of my American ancestors lived in New England and New York. I know that slavery existed in those parts of the country as well as in the South. But there were far fewer enslaved people in the North.  So what were the odds that one of my ancestors would own slaves?

Then I found my 7th great-uncle, Samuel Arnold of East Haddam, Connecticut. Or, to be more precise, I discovered his will. In that will (excerpted above), Samuel Arnold named nine different "negro slaves," and specified which of them he was leaving to each of his children. So I certainly have at least one relative who owned slaves, or more if we count his heirs.

Samuel Arnold was my 7th grand uncle

I always find wills and probate records interesting. This one is particularly interesting since it is from a time (1739), when it is rare to find any information about a relative other than the basic vital statistics about their birth, marriage, death, and children.

Obviously, what jumped out at me about Samuel Arnold's will was the slaves. But as often happens, a little bit of information leads to even more questions. The will describes relationships among a few of the slaves, (e.g., "Prince, ye 5th son of my eldest man servant named Prince and of Cate his wife.") Were the other slaves also related to Prince and Cate? Since Prince was their fifth son, they had at least four other sons, and the will names exactly four other male slaves—Sampson, Ceaser [sic], Japhet, and Peter. Were they the older sons of Prince and Cate? The other named slaves are Lois and Rose. Were they then the daughters of Prince and Cate?

I also wonder what happened to these enslaved people after Samuel Arnold's death. His will distributes them among his seven children. But the inventory of his estate does not include the slaves! The will is dated November 3, 1738, Samuel Arnold died on March 30, 1739, and the inventory was taken April 27, 1739. Did Samuel Arnold sell his slaves between those dates? Did he free them? Or did he give the slaves to his children prior to his death? And other than Samuel Arnold's will I have found no information about Prince and Cate and their family. A few later probate records mention slaves with the same names. For example the will of John Stocking of Middletown, Connecticut, dated December 2, 1746, leaves his "negro girl Rose" to his mother. But there is no way to tell if this is the same Rose that Samuel Arnold left to his son Josiah.

I am also curious about the younger slave named Prince.  Most of the bequests in Samuel Arnold's will are quite simple. (E.g., "I give unto my son Enoch Arnold... my negro man servant called Ceaser.") But he leaves much more elaborate instructions about Prince:

"I give to my son Samuel Arnold... my negro man servant named Prince, ye 5th son of my eldest man servant named Prince and of Cate his wife, and also my will is that the aforesaid servant shall at my decease be in the hands of my executors and by them to be put in the hands of my son Samuel if they shall judge it best for him to have the sd. servant; but if my sd. executors shall judge it best to sell the sd. servant and my sd. son to have ye money, then my will is that my executors shall sell my sd. servant in the following manner, viz.: to such suitable master as will give most for my sd. servant, and to pay £10 a year annually until the payment be out; and also my will is that my sd. son shall have the money according to the foregoing proposal of payment, provided my sd. servant shall not be sold to any master living out of this town."

Why was Prince singled out to be "in the hands of" Samuel Arnold's executors at his decease? Why might those executors judge it best to sell Prince rather than leave him to the younger Samuel Arnold? Does this reflect something about Prince or the younger Samuel? The latter was not a juvenile. He graduated from Yale College in 1724 and was likely in his 30s when his father wrote this will.

Samuel Arnold was a distant uncle. I don't know if any of my direct ancestors also owned slaves. Since Samuel Arnold did, it seems possible his close relatives did as well. The likely candidates on my Arnold line would be Joseph Arnold (my 7th great-grandfather and Samuel's father), John Arnold (my 6th great-grandfather and Samuel's brother) or Gideon Arnold (my 5th great grandfather and Samuel's nephew).  They all lived in Haddam, Connecticut, across the Connecticut River from East Haddam, where Samuel settled. Joseph Arnold died intestate in 1691; the inventory of his estate does not include any slaves. I have not (yet?) found any probate records for John or Gideon Arnold. So for the time being, this question remains a mystery.

In the absence of concrete information about my direct ancestors, I decided to read up a little on slavery in early Connecticut. How typical (or not) was Samuel Arnold? Were there many enslaved people in Haddam and East Haddam? Who owned slaves in colonial Connecticut and why? Did slavery contribute to the economy?  I.e., did enslaved people increase production enough to balance out the costs of feeding and supporting them, and if so were they a less expensive source of labor than free laborers?  Or was owning slaves a novelty or status symbol? And how did Connecticut transition from allowing slavery in the mid-18th century to being a free state a century later on the eve of the Civil War?

Samuel Arnold's estate was valued at £441, making him well-off, but not among the wealthy elite of Connecticut. This makes his situation rather unusual. In a survey of estate inventories from eighteenth century Connecticut, only 3% of estates valued at less than £500 included slaves. And those estates typically included only one or two slaves. So Samuel Arnold was among that 3% and was something of a rarity in having nine slaves.

While some farmers, like Samuel Arnold, owned slaves, the use of enslaved labor was more common among craftsmen, merchants, and the wealthy.  Large-scale farmers and artisans might have had economic motives for using enslaved labor, needing a full-time worker to perform a particularly arduous or dangerous job. But it appears that many slaves were used for menial chores or as valets and maids, suggesting that a large portion of enslaved labor did not contribute to the economy.

In the early part of the eighteenth century, there was little moral objection to slavery. It was common for ministers in Connecticut to own slaves, just as it was for doctors, military officers, and other successful professionals. While this attitude was shared throughout the early colonies, it seems slavery was more popular in Connecticut than in its neighbors. As a result, Connecticut was relatively slow in eliminating the practice.

The 1790 census enumerated 2,764 slaves in Connecticut, accounting for 1.16% of the population. While this was more slaves than the combined total for the rest of the New England states, it was also quite small compared to the southern states; South Carolina had 107,094 slaves, representing 43% of its population.

By 1790, Connecticut had already started on the road to abolition. In 1784, the legislature enacted gradual emancipation, freeing all enslaved people when they reached age 25. A 1797 law lowered this age to 21. These laws meant that slavery would slowly decline in Connecticut, but they also condemned those where were enslaved and over 25 to live out their lives in servitude.

Connecticut did not officially outlaw slavery until 1848, making it the last New England state to do so.  But by that time gradual emancipation had greatly reduced the enslaved population. In 1840, there were only 54 slaves in Connecticut.


Notes on Sources

I originally found Samuel Arnold's will in Manwaring's collection of Connecticut Probate records:

Charles William Manwaring (ed.), A Digest of the Early Connecticut Probate Records, Vol III, Hartford District, 1729–1750 (R.S. Peck & Co., Hartford, Conn., 1906), pp. 219–220. 

This three volume set was my first foray into estate records, and contains probate records for many of my ancestors Hartford and Haddam Connecticut. All three volumes are available and searchable at archive.org. John Stocking's will is on pages 660–661 of the third volume.

I subsequently found the images of the original probate papers when Ancestry.com introduced their massive collection of Connecticut Wills and Probate Records. In addition to providing the text from the will pictured at the top of the page, this also provided a copy of Samuel Arnold's estate inventory.

Connecticut, Wills and Probate Records, 1609–1999, online index and images, Ancestry.com, Hartford Probate district: Probate Packets, Antrim-Ayrault, M, 1641–1880: images 529–541 of 1517; 

The dates of Samuel Arnold's will and estate inventory are from his probate records. I found the date of his death in the Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Records.

Connecticut Town Death Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection), online index and images, Ancestry.com, East Haddam Vital Records 1743–1857: image 14 of 258.

A brief biography of the younger Samuel Arnold appears in a collection of biographical sketches of early graduates of Yale College. It states that he was baptized on October 8, 1704 in East Haddam, making him at least 34 years old when his father's will was written.

Franklin Bowditch Dexter, Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of the College History, October, 1701—May, 1745 (Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1885), pp. 292–3. Available via Archive.org.

Statistics about eighteenth century slavery in Connecticut were taken from:

Jackson Turner Main, Society and Economy in Colonial Connecticut (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1985).

This book presents a fascinating picture of many aspects of colonial life in Connecticut. The author collected information from estate inventories from all parts of Connecticut. Using this information, he analyzed many aspects of economic and material life in the colony. The statistics about slavery are just a small part of this work. Given the methodology, it seemed fitting to use this book in researching a question triggered by Samuel Arnold's own will and estate inventory.

Data on the enumeration of slaves in the 1790 census was provided by the Wikipedia article on that census.

The Connecticut History web site provides an excellent overview of gradual emancipation.

A distant connection to the Battle of Gettysburg

On a recent vacation, we visited Gettysburg National Military Park. In the visitor's center, there was a computer kiosk where you could look up relatives who may have served at Gettysburg—a perfect toy for a genealogist and computer nerd! Unfortunately it wasn't of much use to me; none of my direct ancestors served in the Civil War.  A number of distant cousins served, and a couple died in the war. So far as I know, however, none of them were at Gettysburg. But Gettysburg is famous for more than the battle. It was also the site of President Lincoln's famous address at the dedication of the Soldiers' Cemetery at the battle site. And that provides a tenuous family connection to Gettysburg.

Alfred Van Dyke Arnold Obituary.

My 3rd great uncle, Charles Arnold, lived in Springfield, Illinois for many years during the mid- and late 1800s. I never really gave any thought to the fact that Abraham Lincoln also lived in Springfield for part of this time until I found the obituary for one of Charles Arnold's sons, Alfred Van Dyke Arnold. The article states that he "was taught to swim by Abraham Lincoln" and "was one of President Lincoln's pupils and was a playmate of the emancipator's son, Robert Lincoln."

I am a natural skeptic, so I immediately wondered if perhaps everybody who had lived in Springfield in the 1850s had some story about how they had known Lincoln, with most of them being fabrications.  But there is more evidence to support the idea that the Arnold and Lincoln families knew each other.

In researching Charles Arnold, I found him listed in several Springfield town directories. The oldest of these was from 1857–58. It lists "Arnold Charles, gentleman" living at the southeast corner of 8th and Jackson. Returning to that directory, I looked up Abraham Lincoln and found "Lincoln Abraham, lawyer" living at the northeast corner of 8th and Jackson.  In other words, Charles Arnold lived across the street from the future president.

Living across the street it seems more probable that the two families would have known each other, especially since they had boys of similar age.  Lincoln's son Robert was born August 1, 1843. Alfred Arnold was born in May of 1842.

So that's my connection to the Battle of Gettysburg. My first cousin, three times removed was taught to swim by Abraham Lincoln. President Lincoln visited Gettysburg several months after the battle and delivered the Gettysburg Address. It's almost as if I was there!

Charles Arnold was my 3rd great uncle. His son, Alfred Arnold, was my 1st cousin three times removed. The heavy lines in this figure show the relationship between us.

Sources

Alfred Arnold's obituary: "Arnold, Once Rural Carrier Here, Dies in California," The Illinois State Journal (Springfield, Illinois), June 13, 1919, p. 6; via GenealogyBank.com.

Springfield Directory: "Springfield City Directory, for 1857---'58" (B. Winters & Co., Springfield, Ill.,  1857); via "U.S. City Directories, 1822–1995" (Illinois > Springfield > 1857 > Springfield City Directory, 1857-58), online index and images, Ancestry.com. Charles Arnold listed on p. 34 (image 41 of 186). Abraham Lincoln listed on p. 64 (image 91 of 186).

Alfred Arnold's birthdate as listed in 1900 United States Federal Census for Springfield, Sangamon County, Illinois.

Robert Lincoln's birthdate from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Todd_Lincoln), citing Jason Emerson, Giant in the Shadows: The Life of Robert T. Lincoln, Southern Illinois University Press (2012).