My Grandmother Riecke (your Great-Grandmother) was Elizabeth Marie von der Lippe, she was born in Delmanhorst, Westphalia, Germany, Oct. 4, 1809. When a young woman she, and two sisters (one became Adele Sigwald's grandmother) came to America and settled in Charleston, S.C. Elizabeth Marie met and married George Riecke who was also born in Gemany.
I was always anxious to know something of the von der Lippe family (my grandmother died when I was under two years of age.)
I had never learned of anyone in this country by that name until I saw the picture of the young man who is on the staff of the Newark Museaum (Edward von der Lippe). I saw his picture in the paper here and wrote to him. His letter and his father's letter are attached.
Edward J. von der Lippe
17 Park Avenue
North Arlington, New Jersey
Jan. 15, 1961
Mrs. Mattie Riecke Townsend
417 Tremont Avenue
Orange, New Jersey
Dear Madam:
I received your very interesting letter of Jan 10th. The family history is my father's department. He has been working on the family history for about 25 years. I turned your letter over to Dad and he said that he will answer it.
If at any time I can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to call on me.
By the way, my father has an oil painting that was on exhibition in Orange about 15 years ago. It is painted by Ethel H. Townsend and was purchased by W.T. Vanderlippe, and given to my father. Do you have any family relations with the artist?
Truly yours,
Edward von der Lippe
Jan.22, 1961
Dear Mrs. Townsend:
I have received your letter from Edward and it is a pleasure, I assure you, to answer your question concerning the name von der Lippe.
The records and traditions of the family Lippe, that later on became known as von der Lippe, goes back to the beginnings of North European history.
When Julius Cæsar conquered Gaul the Lippes were a celtic clan living in Westphalia, the western plains of Germany. The rule of the Romans came right to their door step, and we are soon to find the Romans taking notice of this family.
It seems that the Lippes cooperated with the Romans until the year 9 A.D. when a member of their family named Armin incited the tribe to revolt. This Armin did, against the wishes and advice of other members of his family. He did however defeat the Roman army under Varus. This history comes from the Roman historian Tactus.
After the defeat of the Roman army in the woods near the present city of Detmold, in the state of Lippe, we have very little knowledge of the family until the ninth century, and from then on their history is quite well covered.
The name Lippe was already applied to the river when the Roman armies arrived there. In the language that was used by this celtic clan in those days, the word lippe meant cabbage. If the word had any other meaning it is not known. How the name came to be applied to the river, or to the family is not known.
Now we shall consider the prefix von "of", and der "the". In the olden days von was not a sign of nobility. Anyone could use the prefix "von" which means of or from. So if a man named John lived in Bamburg, he had a right to call himself von Bamburg, etc. The prefix "der" is quite different. This is a matter of nobility even in the olden days, and der is written Di in later.
In the twelfth century when the Greman emperor Barbarosa made his second trip to Rome, two members of the Lippe family accompanied him. Herman and Bernhard Di Lippia. Their descendants applied von, or of, to the Di Lippia, or as it is written in German von der Lippe.
It is very likely that other Lippe knights also Latinized their names, in which case their descendants would also be von der Lippe.
There are two very large and wide spread von der Lippe families. One has a Red Rose in a silver field in their coat of arms. The other has a black turnierkragen (tournament collar) which looks something like this(_|T|_|T|_|T|_) on a white field in their coat of arms. Both families were Saxon Vassals in the olden days. There are still other von der Lippe families, and it is most likely that they are all somehow related one to the other. All of the Counts and Princes of Lippe, including the present Prince of Holland are all von der Lippes. One of their ancestors dropped the prefix von der and added the prefix zur to the name. The purpose being to distinguish the nobility from the ministerial branches of the family.
The history of the family is contained in more than a dozen volumes, most of which I do not have. All are witten in the German language, and some day I would like to record the most important events for those von der Lippes living in the United States, who do not know anything of their very interesting family history.
I have answered your questions to the best of my present knowledge. If I can be of any further help to you, please feel free to let me hear from you.
Sincerely,
John Clifford von der Lippe