Background
Charles Joseph Vopicka was the son of Joseph and Barbara (Lacinova) Vopicka, and was born on November 3, 1857, in Dolni Hbity, Bohemia.
(Originally published in 1921. This volume from the Cornel...)
Originally published in 1921. This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies. All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume.
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(The story of the Balkan nations, from the earliest times,...)
The story of the Balkan nations, from the earliest times, dealing briefly with the many centuries of invasion, oppression and continual fighting for liberty, and dwelling in detail on the struggle in World War I, when their lands were again coveted as spoils of war. The author was U. S. envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Roumania, Serbia, and Bulgaria from 1913 through 1920.
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Charles Joseph Vopicka was the son of Joseph and Barbara (Lacinova) Vopicka, and was born on November 3, 1857, in Dolni Hbity, Bohemia.
Vopicka attended the public school at Pribam and high school and business college at Prague, where he helped to meet his expenses by singing in the choirs of the St. Benedict, St. Vitus, and Strakhovsky churches.
After finishing business college, Vopicka worked for a short time as an accountant for a brewery, and then spent four years with the Jan Prokopek firm, manufacturers of milling machinery. Emigrating to America in 1880, he found work as a bookkeeper in a Racine, Wisconsin, truck factory.
In 1881, he moved to Chicago, where, after a year in a dry-goods concern, he organized a real-estate and banking business in partnership with Otto Kubin, whose sister he afterward married. In 1891, with Kubin and John Kravolek, he established the Bohemian Brewing Company, the name of which was changed five years later to the Atlas Brewing Company. He remained president of this firm up to the time of his death.
A prominent member of the large Bohemian community in Chicago, he took an active part in its political and civic life. Appointed by Gov. John P. Altgeld, he served from 1894 to 1897, as Democratic member of the Chicago West Park Commission, and is credited with having secured the erection of a gymnasium and natatorium in Douglas Park. In 1901 and 1902, and again from 1927 to 1930, he served on the Chicago board of education.
From 1902 to 1904, he was a member of the board of local improvements, and in 1906 of the Chicago charter convention. In his one venture at running for public office, as Democratic candidate for Congress from the 5th district in Illinois in 1904, he was unsuccessful. On September 11, 1913, President Wilson appointed him envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Rumania, Serbia, and Bulgaria.
On his way to his post, he stopped at Prague, where he was given an enthusiastic welcome. Established at Bucharest, he undertook the work of representing American interests with immense zest, proud of his Slavic origins and eager to invoke American energy and democracy to help solve the perpetual problems of the Balkans. Soon after he arrived he helped Queen Eleanora of Bulgaria organize a charitable society for which $75, 000 was raised in America.
When the First World War broke out, he found his post in a small neutral country surrounded by belligerents a difficult one, and after Rumania entered the war in 1916 his difficulties increased. In the interval before America's entry he represented the interests not only of the United States but also of Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Serbia, Turkey, Germany, France, and Belgium. He was particularly active in looking after the welfare of war prisoners, and was chairman of an international commission to investigate Serbian treatment of prisoners of war.
Forcibly expelled from Bucharest by the Germans in 1917, he spent the next three months in the United States, where he actively urged America's entry into the war. After the outbreak of the Bolshevik revolution, he visited the front and attempted to persuade the Russian soldiers to continue fighting for the Allies.
After the war, he was decorated with the Grand Cordon of the Order of the White Eagle, First Class, by Yugoslavia, and the Grand Cross of the Star of Rumania by Rumania. He retired as minister to Rumania in December 1920. He died in Chicago at the age of seventy-seven of a heart attack.
(The story of the Balkan nations, from the earliest times,...)
(Originally published in 1921. This volume from the Cornel...)
On February 3, 1883, Vopicka married Victoria Kubin of Chicago; six daughters were born to them.
