Charles Kraitsir

Charles Kraitsir (born Károly Krajtsir, Polish: Karol Kraitsir; 28 January 1804 in Szomolnok, Hungary – 7 May 1860 in Morrisania, New York) was a Hungarian doctor, Polish independence fighter and émigré activist, and Hungarian-American and Polish-American philologist.

Biography

He graduated at Pest with a degree in medicine in 1828. Afterwards he worked as a doctor in Eperjes.^[1]

In January 1831 he went to the Russian Partition of Poland and took an active part in the November Uprising.^[1] He was a doctor in the Polish insurgent army, assigned to 9th Infantry Regiment.^[1] He spent the entire 1831 campaign with the regiment, and for his contribution was awarded the Order of Virtuti Militari, the highest Polish military decoration.^[2] He did not take advantage of an amnesty announced by Emperor Nicholas I of Russia on November 1, 1831, and did not return to Hungary.^[2] Instead, he joined the Polish Great Emigration and went to Paris in November 1831.^[2] He was a founding member of the Polish National Committee, established in December 1831, and was viewed by committee leader Joachim Lelewel as a link between the committee and the Hungarian people.^[3] Kraitsir issued and printed at his own cost a proclamation to the Hungarian people, calling for help for the Polish emigration in Western Europe, which was then smuggled into Hungary.^[4] While in France, he maintained contacts with several people in Eperjes, Hungary, and was suspected by the Austrian police of intending to conspire in Hungary.^[4] In 1832 he became one of the first members of the Polish Democratic Society, an organization which was formed as a result of a split from the Polish National Committee.^[5] He remained its member until he left France for the United States in May 1833.^[5]

He emigrated to the United States with the intention of founding a Polish colony, and in 1837/8 he established an academy at Ellicott's Mills, Maryland. Subsequently, he resided in Washington, D.C., and in 1841/2 was principal of the state academy of Maryland, Charlotte's Hall. From 1842 until 1844, he delivered lectures in Boston on philology, and established a school there. Kraitsir maintained contact with Lelewel, as evidenced by letters and notes from 1836, 1838 and 1848.^[6]

In 1848 he went to Europe in an attempt to join the Hungarian Revolution of 1848.^[6] While in Europe he met up with Lelewel again,^[6] but afterward returned to Boston, and in 1851 came to New York State and passed his last years in Morrisania, engaged in literary pursuits.

Literary works

• The Poles in the United States (Philadelphia, 1836/7)
• First Book of English
• Significance of the Alphabet (Boston, 1846)
• Glossology, being a Treatise on the Nature of Language and on the Language of Nature (New York, 1852)

Notes

References

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1892). "Kraitsir, Charles" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.