“…he never spoke of the relationship in a negative way or acted like some family secret needed to be protected. ” Lest We Forget: Henry B. Sonneborn: Correcting the Recordby Jim Kalafus Schwabacher seems to have possessed considerable property. The substantial provision made by his will for his friend, Sonneborn, suggests a possible source of income to the latter, supplementing that from his own slender estate and enabling him, in middle age, to embark on the cultivation of his voice in Paris.
So spoke Umpire Edwin B. Parker, of the U.S. Mixed Claims Commission, on January 7, 1925. With these words, he posthumously doomed Lusitania victim Henry B. Sonneborn, of Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. to an eternity of being an “inside reference,” for want of a better term, among researchers who have read through the Mixed Claims Commission Lusitania Case Summaries. Two men traveling together, who were “fast friends” enough to have named one another sole beneficiaries in their respective wills, who arranged to be buried together in the same mausoleum, and one of whom the court stopped just short of calling a “kept man” in its final judgment of the case seems, on the surface, to be one of the more scandalous affairs exposed by the disaster. Henry Becker Sonneborn was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Philip and Wilhelmina Becker Sonneborn, on October 14, 1872. The Sonneborn family ran a tavern on Light Street in downtown Baltimore and lived in rooms above it. He was a graduate of Baltimore City College, and along with his brother, Louis, half owner of a successful coal distributing company.
Leo 'Lee' Schwabacher was the son of Henry and Virginia Schwabacher, born on January 14, 1873, in Peoria, Illinois. The Schwabacher family made their fortune as liquor merchants, and were more than comfortably well off. The details of how Lee moved from the multi-servant family estate on Perry Avenue, Peoria, to Baltimore have not survived, but as of 1900 he was working as Louis and Henry Sonneborn's bookkeeper, and boarding in a room over Philip and Wilhemina's tavern.
After the death of Philip Sonneborn, in 1903, Wilhelmina and her family moved from Light Street to a larger and far more elegant house at 896 Battery Avenue, and bookkeeper Lee Schwabacher moved with them, still being referred to as their 'boarder'. Simultaneous to the Sonneborn family's move, Henry Schwabacher died, leaving each of his children a share of his estate large enough to generate $10,000.00 per year income, through interest. Beginning in 1906, Henry B. Sonneborn and Lee Schwabacher commenced traveling together, and after 1910 Henry sold his share of the coal business. The two men moved to Paris, France, with one another in 1911 allegedly to allow Henry to pursue a singing career. In October 1914, they returned to Baltimore for an extended visit prompted, in part, by unease over the escalating war in Europe. By 1914, Wilhemina Sonneborn was living in a Queen Anne style row house at 2209 Brookfliedl Avenue, where the two men stayed for the duration of their visit. Before their return to Paris in May 1915, Lee Schwabacher purchased a mausoleum in which they would one day be entombed together, and both men altered their wills naming the other sole beneficiary. Wilhemina Sonneborn traveled to New York City and boarded the Lusitania to make a last minute effort to persuade her son to cancel his passage. His response, along the lines of "A submarine? Don't worry- we'll send a telegram when we arrive safely" was quoted on both May 2nd, after the ship had sailed with Mr. Sonneborn and Mr. Schwabacher aboard, and again on May 8th after they died together. I can remember my grandfather, Herman Praetorius, talking about, "Uncle Henry and Leo" and their frequent travels between the United States and Europe. The family was devastated by the loss of a loved family member and his friend at such a young age. The fact that Henry and Leo were of German ancestry and then to be killed by Germans was very upsetting to the family. Henry's mother was Wilhelmina Becker Sonneborn(my great-great grandmother) and his father was Louis Sonneborn. I think that Wilhelmina was originally from Hanover, Germany. The Sonneborns had moved from Washington DC to Baltimore. They owned a Cafe' on Light Street. It was always my understanding that Leo Schwabacher had moved to Baltimore from Peoria, Illinois and that he was considered family by the Sonneborns. As far as I know, Henry Sonneborn was never married. I had the impression that the family was comfortable with their relationship. I guess folks did not question things like they do today. TRAVELLING COMPANIONS Henry and Lee’s first known trip together was a European jaunt during the first half of 1906. They boarded the Kaiserin Auguste Victoria at Dover, England, and were processed through Ellis Island on July 14th. They disembarked with one another, and were listed sequentially on the manifest. Both men gave the age of 35 years, and each listed his occupation as “merchant.” Lee Schwabacher described himself as single, Henry Sonneborn answered “married.” In 1908 they traveled to Europe again aboard the Kronprinz Wilhelm, and returned via Cherbourg on the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, arriving in New York on September 15th. In 1911, after a time apparently spent in Paris, they returned to the United States aboard the Lusitania. When they, figuratively, passed through Ellis Island on October 13th, both men declared themselves as being married, and their destination Wilhelmina Sonneborn’s new Queen Anne style row house on Brookfield Avenue, Baltimore. A November 1913 visit, commencing with a voyage aboard the France, saw both men describing themselves as single. Their final arrival, on October 9, 1914, was aboard the Lusitania and, again, both men declared themselves unmarried. These are the known voyages the men made together, and it is interesting to note the several occasions on which one, or both, of the men claimed to be married when entering the country ~ perhaps to divert suspicion about the nature of their relationship. “LOVE UNCLE HENRY AND LEE” With the exception of the family photographs, the single greatest surviving link to Henry Sonneborn and Lee Schwabacher is a collection of 29 postcards they mailed from various points in Europe, and from New York City, to Henry Sonneborn’s nephew Herman Praetorius. Through the generosity of Mark Praetorius, we present the collection in its entirety. Did Herman Praetorius ever speak of the impact of the disaster? Only that it was a very sad and difficult time for the family, especially for his grandmother, Wilhelmina. Honestly though, Grandfather Herman talked more about the years of Uncle Henry's travels more than the tragedy of his untimely death. Herman was close to his mother's side of the family as he lived with them and he was an only child. I have a feeling that Herman was sort of a surrogate son for Henry. German families did tend to be very tight the first and second generation in this country. It is not like that today. Did he ever talk about the impact on him? What he was doing when he heard the news? I know he was only 20 years old at the time. That is probably about the same time he joined the Navy. I was 18 when grandfather Herman died and not as interested in family history as I am today. I certainly would ask more questions if Herman was sitting in front of me. Notice that at least one of the cards, postmarked August 30th 1908, and September 8th 1908, showing Interlaken and the Jungfrau, was written by Leo Schwabacher. “KEPT MAN” The most damaging part of Parker’s summary was the declaration that Henry Sonneborn was a man of slender estate, unemployed, and seemingly being supported by Leo Schwabacher. “The inferences from the meager statements contained in the record are that the resources of decedent were slender and his income small. The property of his estate, both real and personal, inventoried only $13,107.653.” One wonders what criteria Umpire Parker was using to judge “slender.” Sonneborn’s yearly income, prior to the sale of his share of the coal business was listed as $8,400.00, a more than adequate amount upon which to survive ca 1910, and only $1600.00 per year less than Mr. Schwabacher was earning in interest on his inheritance. $13,100.00 was one of the larger estates left by any of the American victims. Mr. Sonneborn’s lost personal effects were valued at $2,230.50. It may be noted that Allan Loney, socially well connected Lusitania victim and father of noted survivor Virginia Bruce Loney, was described in the record as having the earning potential of $10,000.00 per year as a broker and bond salesman, of having lost $1235.00 worth of personal property in the disaster and “…died intestate…his daughter inherited his entire estate which does not appear to have been large.” without any additional editorial comment being made by the commission. Likewise, the fact that Charles Williamson not only died broke but also owed a large sum of money to some of the most socially correct residents of New York City was allowed to pass unnoted, as was the fact that he was traveling with a woman to whom he was not married. It would seem that Mr. Parker was basing his evident disapproval of Mr. Sonneborn on something other than dollar figures, because by 1925 standards, no less than those of 1915, Henry was far from poor. From the financial data presented in the case summaries, it is apparent that the two friends were more or less on equal footing, and ‘though there is no known surviving evidence of who paid for what, other than Mr. Schwabacher buying their shared mausoleum, it is obvious that this was not a case of an opportunistic poor man bleeding a well off friend. “SINGING CAREER” Jim wrote: I'm intrigued by the singing career Perhaps Henry sang semi-professionally around Baltimore? Did he sing "pop" or "classic" material? Were there any reviews and, if so, were they positive? Surviving evidence that Lee Schwabacher was bankrolling vocal training towards a Parisian singing career for Henry Sonneborn is slender. A post war newspaper capsule biography alluded to it, and the Schwabacher family apparently introduced that claim in court, but aside from that there is not a known shred of evidence to back the story up. Here is a theory we have tossed around as one possible explanation; The Schwabacher family were, evidently, not close to Lee. They swore in court, for instance, that he had moved to Baltimore in 1911 when, in fact, he had resided with the Sonneborn family since at least 1900. Henry Sonneborn’s younger brother, Philip, was an aspiring actor who lived in New York City. Henry and Lee visited with him several times and, in fact, were staying with him in the days leading up to their final departure. It is possible, if not likely, that one or both men might have given financial aid to the struggling artist, and that by 1925 word of that had gotten to the Schwabacher family in mutated form. A second, but less likely explanation, is that the newspaper capsule bio confused 40-ish Baltimore bachelor Sonneborn with 40-ish Baltimore bachelor Charles Harwood Knight, who also resided in Paris and did ambitiously pursue a career as a classical pianist, and that the Schwabachers were unknowingly relating details of Mr. Knight’s life rather than Mr. Sonneborn’s. THE “WERE THEY OR WEREN’T THEY?” ISSUE
As with Mr. Sonneborn’s singing career, there is no direct, iron clad, evidence that the men were anything other than friends. Mark Praetorius regrets that none of the men’s letters or personal writings that might have settled the question once and for all are now known to exist. That is hardly surprising~ in 1914/1915, even in the most tolerant cities, discretion was necessary and when the men closed up their Parisian flat in preparation for their planned 6 month visit to Maryland, anything of an “incriminating” nature would have been taken with them. Then, as now, servants were not above supplementing their income through blackmail, and to leave letters or diaries untended in a place where someone with ulterior motives could have searched them out at leisure and removed them, would have been almost suicidally negligent. Our guess is that if there ever was a paper trail, it now lays at the bottom of the Irish Sea in the ruins of the liner. The best that can be said is that the men were exceptionally close, had lived with one another for at least 15 years and traveled with one another for at least nine. Each named the other as his principal beneficiary and, had their bodies been recovered, they would have been entombed with one another by pre-arrangement. Family viewpoint: I cannot say that grandfather Herman ever stated that he thought Uncle Henry was a homosexual and that Leo was his life partner, but he never spoke of the relationship in a negative way or acted like some family secret needed to be protected. After all, he saved all of the postcard that Uncle Henry and Leo had sent to him during their many trips abroad. I also got the impression that his mother, Mary S. Praetorius and his grandmother, Wilhelmina Sonneborn were very fond of Henry, and that his lifestyle would not have changed that. MARRIED MEN One of the hazy areas of the story of Mr. Sonneborn and Mr. Schwabacher, is the question of whether or not either man was ever married. Both, at various times, claimed to have been and yet, at the Mixed Claims Commission Hearings, their families testified that neither had ever been wed. According to Mark Praetorius, no mention was made within the Sonneborn family of Henry being anything other than a bachelor. However, rather intriguing to note, in 1900, a Leo Schwabacher born in 1872 in Peoria, Illinois, was listed as living in Brooklyn with his wife, Silene. The Leo Schwabacher appears in the 1900 census as being a border at the Sonneborn’s Light Street residence in Baltimore, so either his marriage dissolved and he moved south at some point in 1900, or there were two men with the same name, of about the same age, and from the same home town living on the East Coast at that point: perhaps cousins? THE SONNEBORN FAMILY AND THE DISASTER
A previoulsy unpublished view of the Lusitania's maiden arrival in New York City, September 1907.
Jim Kalafus Collection When the Lusitania sailed on May 1, 1915, Henry and Lee vanished from the record . Their bodies were never recovered, and as of yet no account by anyone who knew them has surfaced to fill out the details of their final days. George Kessler later wrote of two men, rumored to be “German spies” who kept to themselves: one can make the case that this was Mr. Sonneborn and Mr. Schwabacher and, if so, that their final week might have been less than pleasant. Mark Praetorius has speculated on what his ancestors’ reaction, short term and long term, to the loss of both men must have been. The family was proudly German and to lose loved ones in an act widely condemned by anti-German forces everywhere must have led to a number of conflicting emotions. A 1915 news clipping from the Praetorius collection is an interesting “window” to how the Sonneborns may have felt:
Perhaps the article offers true insight into Mrs. Sonneborn’s mindset two days after the death of her son and a man she reportedly viewed as a “second son,” but one wonders how, if she was being kept in seclusion and denied news of the disaster, she managed to form so definite an opinion and how she managed to articulate it to a reporter. One also wonders if, in the first stages of shock at losing their family member and friend, any Sonneborn family member, no matter how proudly German, would voice a “blame the victim” sentiment to the press. Another odd detail is that Mrs. Sonneborn, described as being “in decline” had managed to travel to NYC on May 1st to plead with her son not to board the ship, as reported on May 2nd. Neither Mrs. Sonneborn nor her son were anything approaching celebrities, which vouches for the veracity of that particular story: the press would have had no reason to report it before the disaster had it not actually occurred. My interpretation is that no matter how pro-German Wilhelmina was, she was also afraid of what Germany might do, and made a last minute attempt to keep the two men off the ship. Would an ailing woman, who made a long train trip in an unsuccessful attempt to save the life of her son and his traveling companion be inclined to let the world know that they had brought their own deaths upon themselves, just 9 days later?
Another telling factor is that Herman Praetorius, Henry’s beloved nephew, joined the US Navy, and Philip Praetorius, draftsman, spent World War One working on dazzle paint schemes for US Ships, a position he most certainly would not have been given had he been as pro-German as the clipping makes him appear to be. Baltimore had a large German population in 1915, and one suspects that the article may have been ‘sweetened’ by a pro-German editor or reporter prior to publication.
A SECOND TRAVEL DISASTER  Mary Praetorius, Two years after the Lusitania disaster, Wilhelmina Sonneborn lost her daughter, Mary Sonneborn Praetorius, in what was described at the time as New England’s worst-ever trolley accident. Mary was summering in Connecticut, and was returning to her home in Madison aboard a local car, when it was rammed by a speeding express car , the conductor of which had fallen asleep at the throttle after a 16 hour work day. He missed a turn off signal, and crashed into the “local” coming up the single track. 19 people died at the scene, crushed to death when the cars telescoped, and several others died of injuries in the days immediately following the accident. Mary Praetorius was paralyzed from the chest down, and taken to the hospital at Guilford, Connecticut, where she endured for four months before dying of sepsis in December 1917.
AFTER THE FACT: Wilhelmina Sonneborn died in the early 1920s, as stated in the Mixed Claims Commission summary. As of 1930, Philip and Louis Sonneborn, her surviving sons, were running boarding house for unmarried gentlemen in Baltimore. Philip had never married, while Louis~ Henry Sonneborn’s former business partner~ was living apart from his wife. Philip listed himself as an “actor” and, oddly, both men were passing themselves off as being ten or so years younger than their actual ages, with Philip claiming 45 and Louis claiming 47. That year saw Philip Praetorius an inmate in a hospital where he had been sent following a massive stroke. Herman Praetorius, Henry’s beloved surrogate son, died in August 1972, and his son, Franklin, a year old when the court decision was handed down, died in 1991. Franklin’s son, Mark, remains as the family historian and , along with his sister, may be the final living descendents of the Sonneborn family.
From Lest We Forget part 3, coming to Encyclopedia-Titanica in early 2007.
Thanks as well to Tim, and Mike, and Marty, who’ve listened to me discussing this project since last January, and to Harald Advokaat and Brian Hawley for a lot of good advise. And, I’d be remiss if I did not give a special nod and dedication to Lesley Veile, my “gal” at the office of Gare Maritime US. In addition to typing out the archival material for this article and the Vestris piece, she has been a great sounding board for ideas ~ some successful, others which died a-bornin.’ She also makes sure that the office is kept spotless (on her own time, not mine, of course) the coffee fresh, snacks on hand, and the Men’s Room sanitary. She does not object when I tell her to go out and ‘buy something attractive’ for my special someone who ‘is just about your size~ so use your own judgment’ and is always willing to be flirtatious~ but never cheap ~with my male clients. Having now covered all 6 “Thou Shall Nots” on the list of things recommended one never say to one’s data entry expert, I’ll wrap it up by giving a sincere “thank you.” COMPLETE LIMITATION OF LIABILITY TRANSCRIPT
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The 896 Battery Avenue residence was within an easy 3 block walking distance to 629 Light St. The Tavern was on the east side of the street. The block was razed to make room for the Maryland Science Center and grounds that now fill the entire east side of the block. I remember grandfather Herman talking about going to the tavern as a boy. I do not know how long the Sonneborn Cafe was in operation or if Henry ever worked there at any time in his life.
DEDICATIONS: This article would not have been possible without the generosity and input of Mark Praetorius, to whom it is gratefully dedicated. Thanks, Mark, for enabling me to “do a 180” from my original rather sensationalistic view of the story, and turn it into something quite respectful!