The Carlson Family

Leah floats around the world enjoying serving as a volunteer in refugee camps, low-income neighborhoods in the US and many times in the jungles of Brazil. Since she does not have to work to live, she works to serve and learn. Truly enjoying the world that has been laid at her feet by her wealthy family. Her grandfather a poor immigrant born in Russia about 1800 came to America from a small farming community located just outside of Moscow. His birth name was Vladimir Kara. He later changed his last name to Carlson to fit in after his arrival in America.

At the time America was in turmoil due to the issue of slavery. Although practiced in the north and south of the US many people in the north found a distaste of the practice. The south with its wealthy planters who owned hundreds of acres of land and a multitude of slaves were insisting on being represented in congress by counting the slaves along with everyone else. This would give them a huge advantage over the north in representation in congress. The north balked at the idea of counting the slaves who owned no land and had no rights as equals. Not caring at all about the political state of the country Mr. Carlson stayed clear of all politics and kept a keen eye on manufacturing, investing and business.

He learned English as quickly as he could upon arriving on these shores and worked diligently on smoothing out his harsh accent. Mr. Carlson’s work ethic was phenomenal and staying employed was not a problem. His first job was as a butcher in the meat packing district in lower Manhattan he met a variety of people and made friends easily. A friend introduced him to a girl named Katrina who had migrated from Russia like him and who would become his wife five years later. Within two years of being married they welcomed a baby girl Greta into the world. He wanted his children to benefit from this new freedom and opportunity he had obtained by coming to America. “My children will be educated,” he often said out loud and to as many people who would listen. Sometimes he was laughed at especially at first because of his harsh and thick accent. As time progressed his accent softened, and people began to take him more seriously. Once he conquered English, he went to night school to get his high school diploma and then his college degree. By now people called him Val instead of Vladimir. His natural ability with numbers made it easy for him to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in math. With this degree he accepted an internship with a local college as a tutor earning just a few dollars above the wage of street sweepers. His students mostly immigrants like himself felt at ease with him. He always reminded them of how fortunate they all were for being in America. He stressed besides learning the course work that they work on their speech and learn English well so that they would sound more like natural born Americans.

His wife Katrina was an excellent seamstress and repaired ripped seams, hems and on occasion would sew dresses for the ladies in the tenement house where they lived. Seven families resided in the 8th street two story walk up. This made it easy for Greta to deliver orders as well as provided her with a captive customer base. Vladimir (now called Val) and Katrina lived happily with their darling daughter and saved their money to rent a house just outside of the city. They knew their family would eventually grow and the small three room flat would not be suitable for a family.

Five years later Val was working as an accountant making five times what he was earning as an intern at the college. Katrina had gone to business school and taken some management courses. She now had a full room in their home to sew and manage her tailoring business. The small close-knit community of primarily eastern European immigrants was her primary customer base.

The Carlson’s attended church services regularly at the Orthodox Russian Church. This hamlet of immigrants from various countries in eastern Europe and Russia busied themselves with improving their lot. Val had a co-worker who invested in steel and talked Val into putting a small amount from his weekly paycheck into investing. This would soon become the foundation for the Carlson’s family fortune. By now Val and Katrina had four children two boys and two girls.

Val strongly encouraged his sons to follow him in the accounting field and one of them Roman his oldest invented a machine part used in cash registers. His other son Justin invented a part for steam engines for trains. They made improvements on their inventions and applied for and were granted patents. Both brothers made a lot of money from their inventions which added to the family fortune.

His daughters attended a school for girls where they were taught to be proper ladies and followed their mom becoming seamstresses and dress makers. One of them Daisy (Leah’s mom) learned how to make women’s hats. Her natural talent and an eye for fashion has brought the family lots of money. Leah a 3rd generation Carlson is the beneficiary both her parents and grandparent’s dedication and hard work. She is now able to be a free spirit and travels as much as a young woman was allowed to travel at that time. Her work for charities, recruiting volunteers for summer educational excursions to visit archeological digs and writing about her travels for a ladies’ magazine were activities that high society found appropriate for young women who came from wealthy families to engage.

Leah is now engaged to get married to a wonderful young man from a prominent family. This is all papa Val wanted from the time he stepped off the ship back in 1856 for his children to be well educated Americans and rich. Her soon to be husband Landry is an archeologist and travels around the world. His family is one of the most respected in the city. Once married Leah can continue to travel and assist him.

Daisy is so proud of Leah and all of her children. She has benefitted from her father’s wealth and with the children not needing her as much she can go to Paris to study at a design house. This experience will give her the name she needs to impress the rich ladies and open her own hat shop in the business district of midtown Manhattan.

Papa Val as he is called by his grandchildren is now enjoying retirement. Most of his time is spent spoiling his grandchildren and serving as an advisor to the Small Business Association founded by him and several other immigrants who own successful businesses.