Letter-loaded bottle found in France, linked to family from Fort Scott

Editor's note: The following article contains a 1918 letter, quoted in its entirety, which contains a racial term commonly used during that era. The Fort Scott Tribune does not recommend the modern use of this term but has retained it in the quoted letter for reasons of accuracy.

Message in bottle

Earlier this month, French officials announced that in 2004, while excavating a 6th and 7th century Merovingian settlement near Messein in northeast France, archaeologists unearthed something unexpected: an early 20th century glass bottle with porcelain stopper.

Rolled up inside the green bottle -- which had originally held Champignuelles, a local beer -- was a well-preserved envelope and four-page letter.

Even more unexpected was the postmark: Oklahoma City, July 15, 1918.

The letter was written to Morres Vickers Liepman by his "Aunt Pete" whose real name was Luna (Vickers) Scott. She and Liepman's mother were sisters. Luna and her husband, Robert M. Scott, lived in Oklahoma City where he was a druggist. She wrote to her nephew on letterhead from her husband's drugstore.

At the time Liepman received the letter in France, he was a sergeant serving in Battery D, 130th Field Artillery, 35th Division, American Expeditionary Forces. For reasons that may never be known, the letter and envelope were placed in the empty beer bottle and left behind. It doesn't surprise his daughter-in-law Davena Liepman, who in a telephone interview said "Morres loved to write" and would have valued and wanted to protect a letter from home.

Though the porcelain stopper protected the contents of the bottle, a small amount of moisture was present, causing minimal damage. The group in charge of the excavation -- the French National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research, known as INRAP in France -- sent the letter to the conservation department of the French National Archives for analysis and restoration. The preservation has been completed and INRAP has posted both photos and video of the find on their Web site: www.inrap.fr

Through the U.S. Embassy in Paris, INRAP officials learned of Sgt. Liepman's military record and his connection to Kansas.

The letter

"My Dear Morres,

"Well I guess you didn't know you were sending me a birthday letter you wrote me June the 8th and I got it July 8th. Say don't ever again write on both sides of the paper for your letter was all cut up -- you see where they cut out what they didn't want poor me to know, they cut out the other side too.

I got a postal picture of Jule today. He is at Camp (unreadable). Philadelphia -- expects to sail any time. You have surely heard from some of us by now. We are wondering if you have been in any of the war yet. We see a dispatch once in a while about some of Camp Doniphan boys being in the firing line. They claim that they have a million men across now. So it must begin to look like America over there.

"Its all most impossible to get help of any kind and those you do get are likely to be called any time. There is a big bunch of darkeys going tomorrow night. They had a big parade today and are going to have a big dance tomorrow at the colored park: we lost our porter.

"I wish you could hear Louise talk French. Her teacher says she is the best in the class. Robert is still in summer school, but gets out Aug. 1st. He reads all the papers and magazines he can get about the war, and every once in a while he breaks out with 'I wish I could ask Morres so and so he would know,' and he can't understand why they cut out the names off the postal cards.

"It is so hot here that you could cook eggs in the sand, and the tires are all but off the old Jack Rabbit we ride until about eleven every night getting cooled off.

"Gee Morres I wish I could visit you now. It sure would be some trip. Robert says he would like to see it all, but he don't think he would like to get in the war.

"You should see my socks I knit, they are some gay ones. I had Rob try them on and his foot was lost. He only wears a six shoe and I make all the socks eleven or twelve inches long.

"We see as many soldiers as ever. Fort Sill is full of them. Bess said you got Captain Brady back. What is he now, Major?

"Well write me when you can. With heaps of love from the family and best wishes.

"From Aunt Pete"

The Soldier

The son of Julius and Bess (Vickers) Liepman, Morres Vickers Liepman was born Oct. 2, 1895, in Pittsburg. He was named for his grandfather, Morres Liepman.

Morres V. Liepman attended Pittsburg High School, graduating in 1914. While at PHS, he was a member of the basketball and track teams as well as the business manager of the yearbook. A gifted artist, he drew many of the illustrations in the 1911 to 1914 yearbooks.

He was admitted to Pittsburg State University, which was then known as the State Manual Training Normal School of Kansas. His transcript shows that he took three classes there: English literature, German language, and physics. For two years he attended Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, as indicated on his 1917 draft registration card.

Liepman had not yet turned 22 when he entered the Army on July 25, 1917. In June of the following year he arrived at Le Havre and participated in the battles of Argonne and Verdun. He was later stationed in the Haye Forest region, not far from where the bottle was found 86 years later.

Sgt. Liepman returned to the U.S. in 1919 and upon leaving the military, he was reunited with his family who had moved to Fort Scott the previous year.

In May of 1920, Liepman married Elva Sheffield of Arcadia. They had two children: Luna Jean (named for "Aunt Pete") and James. During the early 1920s, Morres V. worked as a salesman at M. Liepman & Bro. and lived at 902 S Horton.

After only 10 years of marriage, he and Elva divorced. By 1930, Elva and the children were living with her widowed mother in Arcadia and Morres V. was living in Chicago where he worked as an art director and attended the Art Institute of Chicago.

In May of 1939 he married another Elva -- Elva Olsen -- in Chicago.

At he beginning of the Second World War, the former sergeant was again moved by his patriotism and, although he was well above draft age, he reenlisted in the armed forces. He retired with the rank of Major and moved to Fort Worth, Texas.

Major Morres Vickers Liepman died in Fort Worth in 1980. He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery.

The Fort Scott family

Major Liepman's grandfather Morres was born in Prussia in 1841 to Moses and Veilchen Liepman.

The elder Morres Liepman immigrated to the U.S. in 1860. He arrived in New York City on July 4 to a find the city filled with flags, bands, and parades. The lifelong patriotism he developed that on that day was passed on to his grandson and namesake. After working in New York, he came west to Missouri where he worked as clerk and, eventually, store manager. In 1866 he went to Lawrence, Kansas, and from there came to Fort Scott where he and David Loewen bought out Weil Bros. and started Liepman & Loewen, a clothing store. When Loewen returned to St. Louis around 1869, the business became M. Liepman & Bro., the "and brother" referring to Joseph Liepman.

In 1868, Liepman married his partner's sister Sarah Loewen of St Louis. They had five children: Julius, Hattie, Leslie, Gustav aka Gussie (who died before his third birthday), and Frances.

Julius was born in Fort Scott in May of 1869. Although he came from an Ashkenazi (German Jewish) family, Julius married a gentile, Bess Vickers of Girard in 1894. They made their home in Pittsburg, residing at 111 E 14th St. While in Pittsburg, Julius owned and ran the J. M. Liepman & Co. clothing store at 411 S. Broadway. Julius and Bess had three children in addition to Morres V.: Julien, Frederic, and Margaret. Bess raised the children as Episcopalians.

In 1910, just two years before his death, the elder Morres Liepman deeded the M. Liepman & Bro. store to his sons Julius and Leslie. Julius remained in Pittsburg while Leslie ran the store in Fort Scott which was located at 12-14 N Main St (the building Country Cupboard currently occupies).

Julius closed the Pittsburg store in 1918. He and his family -- minus his three sons who were serving in the military --returned to Fort Scott where Julius bought the house at 742 S National Ave. (now the Lyons' Mansion) and became an active partner in M. Liepman & Bro. with his brother, Leslie.

In 1937, Julius deeded his half of M. Liepman & Bro. to Leslie. After 71 years, the clothing store was closed and by the following year, an A&P grocery store occupied the building, which Leslie still owned.

Julius sold the house at 742 S. National Ave. in 1938, and he and Bess took up residence in the Liepman apartment building at 121-123 S Main St., on the northeast corner of Second and Main streets. They had owned the building (which is no longer standing) since 1929.

Julius Liepman died in Fort Scott in November of 1950. In 1953, his widow sold the Liepman apartments. Bess Vickers Liepman died in Fort Scott in June of 1956.

Leslie died in January 1962 and five years later his daughter, Viola (Liepman) Meyer, sold the N. Main St. building.

Morres Liepman and his sons Julius and Leslie were active in fraternal and civic organizations and were among the first members of the Fort Scott Country Club. Their presence in Fort Scott spanned almost a century.

In recent years, descendants of Major Liepman came to Fort Scott to be inducted into the Scottish Rite -- the same lodge their ancestors had belonged to.

Ironically, news of the discovery of the "Aunt Pete" letter came almost exactly one year after the death of Major Liepman's son, James Morres Liepman, who died Feb. 2, 2007.

Major Liepman's family learned of the letter last week. One of his granddaughters describes it as "a Valentine in a bottle."

The family is making plans to travel to France to view the letter in person and to visit the battlefields where Sgt. Liepman fought 90 years ago.

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Note: Material for this article came from public records, the INRAP, and information provided by Liepman family descendants.