In today's episode we'll take a look at three distinguished and unique ancestors: 

Johannes Sobotker (August 8, 1777 - March 23, 1854) was the son of a rich plantation owner and the grandson of the Government Secretary Johannes Sobotker.

 

Abraham Markoe (July 2, 1727 - August 28, 1806) was a Danish businessman living in Pennsylvania who actively supported American independence.

 

Adolph "Ding" Sixto, (February 17, 1858 - July 5, 1930) was born of VI parents on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico. "A man with a dream" is probably the best phrase to his character.

“Four of Johannes Sobotker's Children” in the slideshow below, courtesy of I Am a Child: Children in Art History

(https://iamachild.wordpress.com/2011/12/09/christoffer-wilhelm-eckersberg-1783-1853-danish/) 

The portrait of Abraham Markoe, courtesy of the University of the Virgin Islands Libraries and the Virgin Islands Division of Libraries, Archives, and Museums (http://webpac.uvi.edu/imls/pi_uvi/profiles1992/Patriots/Markoe_A/index.shtml)

The portrait of Adolph Sixto, courtesy of the University of the Virgin Islands Libraries and the Virgin Islands Division of Libraries, Archives, and Museums (http://webpac.uvi.edu/imls/pi_uvi/profiles1992/Entrepreneurs/Sixto_A/index.shtml)

Born July 5,1893 in Colon, Panama, as 1st-born to Emma Blake & John Brouwer, Mrs. Maud Virginia Brouwer Proudfoot came to the Virgin Islands as a very young child.

Married March 3, 1918 to Leslie Proudfoot, Mrs. Proudfoot started her career of public service in the 1920's with the American Red Cross, where she began her life of social work.

Appointed by Gov. Paul M. Pearson July 1, 1933 as the first and only social worker in the newly established Dept. of Social Welfare, where she served in various capacities until she retired in 1963.

For more than 60 years and for as long as she was able, Mrs. Proudfoot devoted her personal and professional life to those in need. Even though she considered herself a humble servant of the needy, her untiring commitment to the betterment of her fellow man resulted in an outstanding life's work.

Most important to her were the times she could spend encouraging and supporting the elderly and the shut-ins; arranging a dignified burial for those who died without family or loved ones; reading and writing letters for the illiterate; accompanying patients to the Cancer Clinic in Puerto Rico; and lending an empathetic ear to those in need of counseling.

Her life has been a testimony to her personal credo:

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.

And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy

and to walk humbly with your God.”

~ Micah 6:8 (The New International Version)

Judah Philip Benjamin was born August 6, 1811 on St. Croix in the Danish West Indies (DWI, now the US Virgin Islands) to Jewish parents. At the time of his birth, his family was in transit from England to America. However, due to the War of 1812, they were forced to settle in the DWI until the war ended. They finally arrived in America in 1814, settling in Charleston, South Carolina.

An exemplary student, young Judah, at the age of 14, entered Yale University. Two years later he was expelled for “ungentlemanly conduct” of an unspecified nature. Rumors that the tempest in New Haven involved gambling, carousing, or kleptomania that dogged him the rest of his life, particularly during the Civil War when the Northern press rehashed the scandal to tar the man they called the South’s “evil genius.” 

In 1852, he was elected United States Senator, a post he retained until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 when he resigned to serve the Confederacy. He was the first Confederate Attorney General who later served as Secretary of War and Secretary of State, ultimately running the Confederate Secret Service on behalf of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Eventually, he moved to New Orleans where he apprenticed at a law firm. He began to study for the bar, a complicated course of action because, to become a lawyer in Louisiana, the state’s use of the Napoleonic Code required fluency in both English and French. In order to fulfill this requirement, he took a job teaching English to the daughter of a prominent Creole family, Natalie St. Martin, so that he could learn French.

We’re referring to the celebration of Memorial Day and the visit of Queen Margrethe of Denmark, the first sitting Royal to visit the Virgin Islands 40 years ago on May 28, 1976.

 She is also the supreme authority of the Church of Denmark and Commander-in-Chief of the Danish Defense Forces. A constitutional monarch, Margrethe takes no part in political decisions aside from ceremonial state functions, such as appointing the Prime Minister, and does not express political opinions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margrethe_II_of_Denmark

Not to be confused with Veterans Day, Memorial Day is a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving. Veterans Day celebrates the service of all United States military veterans.

Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering the people who died while serving in the country's armed forces. The holiday, which is observed every year on the last Monday of May, originated as Decoration Day after the American Civil War in 1868, when the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union veterans founded in Decatur, Illinois, established it as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers.

Many people visit cemeteries and memorials, particularly to honor those who have died in military service. Many volunteers place an American flag on each grave in national cemeteries.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Day

Louis Richard Sosthenes Behn (Jan 30, 1882 – June 6, 1957) was an American businessman who held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel (Lt Col) at the time of his death as a veteran of the US Army.

Sosthenes was born in the island of St. Thomas, then part of the Danish West Indies. His ancestry was German on his paternal side, and French on his maternal side. He served in the United States Army and was commissioned a Captain June 19, 1917 while serving in the Signal Corp. He served with distinction during World War I. (History does not indicate that he bypassed the rank of Major.)

Behn served with the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in France until February 1919. He was given command of the 232nd Field Signal Battalion, Chateau-Thierry, St. Mihiel, Argonne. In recognition of his meritorious service during the WWI, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal (DSM).

He was a telephone executive, president, and founder of the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (ITT), one of the largest communications companies in the world.

After his return from military service, along with his brother, Hernando, Lt Colonel Behn co-founded the Puerto Rico Telephone Company which eventually spawned IT&T. Under his guidance, IT&T was granted the monopoly of telephone service in Spain (Compañía Telefónica Nacional de España) in 1924 and purchased the international division of Western Electric.

Margaret Dunlap Behn, his wife, born Sept 2, 1891, died January 26, 1977, is buried with her husband and son, Edward John Behn, in Section 3 of Arlington National Cemetery.

Next week’s (28th May) topic: Mr. William Leidesdorff

Cherrie Raphaelia Creque was the only one as Miss Virgin Islands who placed as the Top 15 of Miss Universe 1971 while the very first queen of Virgin Islands was Priscila Bonilla who competed at the Miss Universe 1961 in the United States.

Born on October 11, 1950 to James and Lavida (nee Blyden) Creque, Cherrie was raised on St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. She started school at the age of 3. During her sophomore year at Sts. Peter and Paul High School, Cherri became a member of the National Honor Society. Upon graduation from high school, Cherrie attended Mercyhurst College In Pennsylvania but transferred to the University of the Virgin Islands. Sadly, her mother passed in the year of 2011.

She was given a career opportunity as a beauty queen and won the titles of Miss Virgin Islands, Miss Universe, and Miss Caribe. During her reign as Miss Virgin Islands, Cherrie represented the USVI on promotional tours and appearances home and abroad. Her traveling experiences encouraged her to pursue a career as a travel agent. 

Cherrie Creque is not just beautiful but articulate as well. The MC, Mr. Bob Barker, had fun during her interview segment. To date, no other woman from the US Virgin Islands has come close to duplicating Cherrie’s feat.

Ms Enid Maria Baa, for whom the Public Library in Downtown Charlotte Amalie is named, played a huge role as a pioneer in establishing and managing the libraries of the US Virgin Islands.

Ms Baa took part in establishing the very first High School library and went on to matriculate at Howard University. She moved on to Hampton Institute in the midst of her undergraduate career, graduating from Hampton's Library Science Program in 1933 Upon her return to the U.S. Virgin Islands, she became the first woman to occupy a cabinet position as she led the Dept. of Public Libraries. .Under her leadership, the territory's libraries flourished.

She was an exchange librarian for the University of Puerto Rico and worked to encourage youngsters and adults to take advantage of the wonders to be found within books. Not content to rest upon her accomplishments, Enid M. Baa returned to scholarly pursuits (at Columbia University), finishing undergraduate work in English Literature and the Humanities. She honed her skills as a librarian at the university's library.

Ms Enid M. Baa retired from government service in 1974; by now the fledgling Dept of Public Libraries had blossomed into the Dept of Libraries, Archives, and Museums! The St. Thomas Public Library was dedicated to her on March 30, 1978. She died on the island of her birth, St. Thomas, on July 25, 1992.

*******

Courtesy of Friends of the St. Thomas Public Libraries who are also advocating strongly for the creation of a new library in the center of St, Thomas that would be accessible to the larger community. You can help. Visit them at: http://www.fostpl.org/

Mr. Alton Augustus Adams, Sr, born in 1889 on the island of St. Thomas in the Danish West Indies, is remembered as the first black bandmaster in the United States Navy, when he was appointed as such in 1917.

“Although naval policy at the time restricted blacks to menial jobs, Adams and his all-black ensemble provided a bridge between the local population and their all-white naval administrators. His memoirs, edited by Mark Clague, with a foreword by Samuel Floyd, Jr., reveal an inspired activist who believed music could change the world, mitigate racism, and bring prosperity to his island home.” [The Memoirs of Alton Augustus Adams, Sr., First Black Bandmaster of the US Navy]

His music was performed by the bands of John Philip Sousa and Edwin Franko Goldman and his march "The Governor's Own" (1921) appears as the first selection on the bicentennial album Pride of America.

Bandmaster Adams' story and his music underwent a renaissance in recent years with the United States Navy Band rediscovering his compositions and his memoirs being included in a book published in 2007. We know him best here in the territory as the composer of our Virgin Islands March.

On another topic: Queen Elizabeth of England has two birthdays every year (lucky her). Her actual birthday was April 21 but she will celebrate her 90th with the nation officially on June 10, 2016. The Queen’s official birthday date does change each year but is generally held on a Saturday in June.

The Queen visited our neighbors in the British Virgin Islands in 1977. To bring that story to life is Valerie Sims of www.VintageVirginIslands.com .

Ralph Moses Paiewonsky (Nov. 9, 1907, St Thomas, Danish West Indies – Nov. 9, 1991, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands) was a businessman and politician who served as the 9th civilian governor of the US Virgin Islands from 1961-1969.

The son of Jewish Lithuanian immigrants to the Danish West Indies, Ralph Paiewonsky graduated from New York University in 1930nwith a degree in chemistry. His father owned A.H. Riise & Co. Ltd., an apothecary, general store, and a bay rum distillery in St. Thomas. After he returned to the Virgin Islands, his father bought the government-owned beverage rum distillery on St. Croix.

After Ralph found out that the shortage of water limited expansion, he proceeded to develop yeast strains which could ferment a mixture of molasses and seawater. After expansion, he sold the distillery and turned to converting the general store to a gift boutique. He managed various family businesses and was a founder of the West Indies Bank and Trust Company in 1954. In 1961, he was appointed Governor by President John F. Kennedy.

Gov. Paiewonsky's administration established the Dept. of Housing & Community Renewal in 1962, and began a program of land acquisition and home construction. Approximately 8,000 new homes were built under this program during his term. He also supported public education reforms and the establishment of the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) in 1962. Paiewonsky served as chairman of UVI's board of directors until his death; UVI's library on St. Thomas is named for Paiewonsky.

We're honored to have Valerie Sims of Vintage Virgin Islands blog drop by to share a tidbit or two. Welcome, Valerie!

Visit Vintage Virgin Islands at www.VintageVirginIslands.com/

There are Many Ways to Learn from Our Ancestors:

Full genealogy

an account of the descent of a person, family, or group from an ancestor or from older forms

regular descent of a person, family, or group of organisms from a progenitor or older form:  pedigree

the study of family pedigrees

an account of the origin and historical development of something

The Caribbean Genealogy Library, website and FacebookThird-Party Oral Results

Family member

Non-family member, for example, The Friends of Denmark

 Library Collection

 University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) Libraries, 2000 Digitalization Award Project.

The Caribbean Genealogy Library, website and Facebook

The Virgin Islands Public Library System

 The Importance of Knowing Our HeritagePoor Richard's Almanack as an example of a historical document

 

The Importance of Cultural Heritage 

 

Why Your Heritage Is Important