Paul Kruse Notes
Notes for PAUL KRUSE:
Compiled by H. J. Kruse, Cable, Wisconsin,
54821
Property of Leroy G. D. Kruse, Route 1, Bryant, Iowa 32727
At this picnic last year, it was suggested that inasmuch as this year, 1951, is the centennial year of this Kruse family in this country, that it would be entirely fitting and proper that some sort of a summary or study of this first century be made and presented, and to particularly record some of the interesting things that are still remembered.
Of all the immigrants in this first Kruse family, none now survive, and but few of the first generation remain. In the Grandfather Louis Kruse stem, just two sisters remain, Aunt Emma Jessen and Aunt Flora Paarman. The only remaining children of Heinrich and Catherine Kruse, the first immigrant of this Kruse family to this country, one hundred years ago about now.
Heinrich Kruse was the oldest able bodied male in the family of Paul and Margaretha Kruse of Bendfeld, Holstein, known as a duchy. It seems that the Duchy of Schleswig and Holstein for many years had tried to be independent and free from domination from Austria, Prussia or Denmark, but being located as they were, there was constant pressure exerted against these little duchies from one side or another, and for that reason they became subjugated to one or another larger country to a greater or lesser extent at different times. However, they tried to maintain their independence and neutrality at all times.
It was in the year 1848 that something bordering on war took place here. It has been stated that even Grandfather Heinrich Kruse was prepared to and did at the time bear arms to defend the independence and neutrality of Schleswig and Holstein.
The people from these two duchies did not regard themselves as Germans but rather as Schleswig Holsteiners for many years, but following the trouble in 1848, the net result seemed to be that they became subject to Denmark and Denmark immediately imposed military training upon the able bodied young men and it seems that this was an important reason for the first Kruse to seek a place where continued freedom might be found and enjoyed. He ventured into the then unknown, via sailboat, spending thirteen weeks on the water, suffering shortages of food, water and extreme heat. At long last they landed at New Orleans, where he spent the first winter. The following spring he continued his seeking journey and landed at Davenport, Iowa, where it seems they were for a year or a few years.
The following year his brother Hans Kruse and his sister Abel, who had been married to Peter Lamp in 1851, and his sweetheart Catharine Wiese, and her brother Hans Wiese, came to this country. They spent 12 weeks on the water, and they landed at New York, From New York to Buffalo they traveled by train, from Buffalo to Detroit by boat, from Detroit to Racine, Wisconsin by railroad, and from Racine, Wisconsin to Galena, Illinois by wagon or stage coach, and from Galena, Illinois to Davenport again by boat. It is not recorded how long it took them to come from New York to Davenport, but with these new arrivals, there was a substantial boost to the Kruse family in this country.
These must have also liked it here, as in the next year, 1853, another brother, Jochin Kruse, arrived. He was known as Uncle Joe, and with continued satisfaction here, in 1854 Great Grandfather Paul Kruse and the remainder of the family, Anna, Catherine, Claus, Peter and Margaretha followed. One older son, Paul, who was married and more or less crippled, and for that reason not eligible for military service, remained in the old country until 1865, when he too followed over here. Thus, this entire family came to this country at a rather early date and they continued a spirit of independence and they prospered. They were at all times thoughtful of the future and the future of coming generations. They practiced conservation from the start, and they were no small factor in the development of a substantial community.
It must have taken courage and determination one hundred years ago to break ties with friends and neighbors and to leave one's country with a feeling of dissatisfaction with things as they were, and the hope to find, in a foreign and but little known country, something better. With no backing and not knowing what could be found, it took adventure, aggressiveness and a stern determination to make it go. I have often wondered what have happened, and what would I be today, had Grandfather Heinrich Kruse submitted to things and conditions as they developed in Schleswig one hundred years ago. There was but little opportunity for a working man ever to be anything but a working man the rest of his life, working long hours at hard work and getting but very little pay. I have heard my Grandmother Schroeder tell me with her own mouth, that when she was a young girl, she worked for eight dollars ($8.00) per year. Of course, she had her lodging and her meals included, and besides this she was allowed a certain amount of flax straw that she was allowed to process into thread and weave into cloth for her clothing. I, too, have seen a skirt that she said she had made from the straw on up. There was a piece of goods that that would endure wear.
Her day's work, oh yes, that was nothing to sneeze at. She would get up at four o'clock in the morning, walk three miles to milk the cows, carry the milk home, and have this done before breakfast. She would help with the meals and work all day in the field at harvest time, clean the barn in the winter time, mow away grain and hay in harvest time, thresh with the flail until all the grain was threshed. This would take most of the winter. In the evening she would seldom be done with her work before ten o'clock, so there was not much interest or time left for recreation or amusement. Of course, such drudgery might not be too hard to leave. Milking and keeping the barn clean was the work of the hired girl and the milking was always done before breakfast and again after supper.
Would not Grandfather and Grandmother Heinrich Kruse and Great Grandfather Paul Kruse be astonished and amazed if they could drop around for a visit about now? They would not recognize the old homesteads although the roads have not been changed much, and no doubt the hills are still very much the same. But the buildings are all different and and they never knew a telephone, tractor or radio. They never saw an automobile or airplane, not to mention a combine or sewing machine. Some of these items have almost already gone out of use or style. It seems the sewing machine is not used like it used to be. The Goose Lake Railroad has already been abandoned as has the once popular cream separator and churn. Even the old setting hen is no longer looked upon as a useful being, even though she no doubt does sneak off at times and bring forth a flock of little chicks that she has been able to take care of all by herself.
So pleased and satisfied was this Kruse family in this new country, that they even brought Great, Great Grandmother Anna(Giese) Stoltenberg along over. She was born in the year 1770 and she died in 1866 and is the oldest born person that is buried in the Ingwersen Cemetery in Center Township, Clinton County, Iowa.
When Great Grandfather Paul Kruse located in this country, legend has it that he carried his first stove home on his back from Davenport, a distance of about forty miles. He was a strong man, but even so, who would today think of walking such a distance, let alone carry a stove, even if the stove was not as heavy as they may be made now, I recall my father, Louis Kruse, mentioning that his father, Grandfather Heinrich Kruse, did on several occasions, walk to Davenport since he could remember. This was a distance of nearly eighty miles for the round trip. He would make it in a day, without spending a night out. He would start real early in the morning. Grandmother would pack a lunch, most likely just a sandwich of some good home baked bread and butter, and in that way after ten to twelve hours he would be in Davenport in the middle of the day to do his business, after which he would start right back for home and get back home late the next night. He had no flash light those days to help him see the road.
Grandfather and Grandmother Heinrich Kruse were married on May 3, 1853 and at first lived in Centre Township about a mile east from the Ingwersen Cemetery. In 1865 they bought the place on which they built their homestead. It was virgin land with no improvements at that time, prairie, brush and timber. Grandfather Louis Kruse could recall much land in the immediate vicinity since before it had even been cultivated. He was two years old when his folks started this farm. Some years after they had lived on the place, and after they had made substantial improvements on it and put a portion of it into crops, Grandmother Kruse was surprised one day when a man who apparently was just driving by, stopped in and asked her if she knew on whose land they were living. They were shocked, as they thought they lived on the land they had bought from the government. Upon investigation they found that the land to which they had a title was located exactly six miles south from where they lived. To them this land appeared like swamp land and unfit to build on, so they just left that land go by default for taxes.
They found the owner of the land on which they had made improvements, he lived in Kentucky and they had no trouble in buying it for the price of $10.00 per acre. They had originally paid around $2.00 per acre. They stayed right on it and kept on improving it and putting more of it under cultivation.
All of the original immigrant Kruses settled within a relatively close community with the exception of Anna, who married Paul Wiese, a brother to Grandmother Kruse. They located in western Iowa, around Atlantic. Grandfather Louis Kruse, being one of the older children in the first generation born here, after getting to school so he could speak and understand English, went along as interpreter for his parents and uncles when they were making real estate deals or consulting about legal matters, although he had but little opportunity for school. Only in the winter months was there time for school, and even then grain hauling and bringing up wood for fuel or building came first often.
Grandfather Heinrich Kruse had a wood lot along the Maquoketa River nearly 20 miles away and when Louis was a small boy, he would drive a team and his father would drive a team. With the two teams they would start early in the morning, carry their lunch and feed for the horses and Grandfather would cut two loads of wood and they would bring them home, one day after the next. Our father Louis mentioned that his father must have been a good man with the ax as not infrequently the trees would be so big in diameter that they would have to notch the trunk so as to get the sleigh stake into the bolster, and the bolster stakes were 38 inches apart. He would chop the tree down and then chop the log into such lengths as the team could handle them on a sleigh. Father would make a fire so they could have a warm drink and to thaw out the sandwiches. There were no thermos bottles those days.
When Uncle Paul Kruse came to this county in 1865, Grandfather Heinrich Kruse gave to him the use of two acres of land so long as he lived. They had no children, and, as has already been stated, he was not able bodied. He always walked with a cane and was very stiff in his knees and hips, although very strong in his shoulders and arms. He built himself a house, barn and summer kitchen on these two acres and made his home there as long as he lived. At first they used to keep two cows and raise a litter of pigs and keep a flock of chickens besides each year having a beautiful garden. They would raise all of their potatoes and vegetables, strawberries, currants and gooseberries besides having many beautiful flowers. They had a cistern for rainwater that they used for washing. Uncle Paul would lead the cows to our watering trough and the water for their table use, the pigs and chickens, he would carry from our hydrant. Later they got down to one cow and a pig or two. He would usually pick up and odd pig or a runt for little or nothing and in that way raise himself a nice hog that they would butcher for their own use. He would also buy a quarter of beef in the winter when it was butchering season and salt much of it and some of it was pickled while others was fried down in porcelain crocks.
It was the custom those days that butter be shipped in tubs and on certain days the train would carry a refrigerated car for such, so it was the policy to keep the butter cool at home as best it would be and get it to the depot as near train time as possible so that the butter would not soften too much before it got on the train. This was the occasion to also take the eggs to the store or ship them to a wholesale commission merchant in Chicago and to bring home groceries. This trip was usually once each week, and Uncle Paul would like to go along with his little tub of butter and his box of eggs. In his crippled condition there was always fear and dread to see him climb on and off the high wheeled half spring wagon. Often the horses got impatient while waiting for him to climb on, but never a mishap took place.
Grandfather Heinrich Kruse, being the first of this Kruse family to venture and locate in this country, 19 short years later was called to his reward, again the first one in the family, and in a very unfortunate and unexpected manner. They were making a well close to the house so that it would not be so much work to everlastingly carry all the water needed in the house. They were around 20 feet deep and working in rock. They set a blast and it seems the blast did not go off as expected. It being in the middle of the afternoon, they went in for lunch. After lunch they all came back to the well, Grandfather with his three oldest sons and a couple of neighbor boys. Grandfather went down into the well and after looking around a little asked to be brought up. They used a bucket to stand in and a windlass to bring it up. As he neared the top it was noticed that he either was not well or losing consciousness, and just before reaching the top, he fell back down into the well. One of the neighbor boys jumped into the bucket and went down after Grandfather Kruse. He asked to be brought up, but he did not get into the bucket. Then his brother jumped into the bucket and went down after the two, and after reporting that he thought his brother was all right, but that Mr. Kruse was dead, asked that he be brought up. He locked his grip to the rope and was brought up, but he lay unconscious for hours after he was back up. The brother and Grandfather Kruse both died that afternoon, although the neighbor boy was still breathing when he was brought out of the well. It is believed that carbon monoxide was formed by the blast that did not properly discharge and that was the cause of the deaths.
This sudden demise of Grandfather Heinrich Kruse on July 8,1872, created a vacuum in the family. There were nine children in age from six months to 18 years. Grandfather Louis being the oldest, and feeling for his mother he took over as head of the family under his mother's help and guidance. He had great respect for his mother's business qualifications and judgment. He had hoped that he might continue to get more schooling, but the need for his help at home changed all such thought or idea. He had a keen interest in becoming a civil engineer. He had worked with the surveying crew, measuring and chaining the land, and that intrigued him. He loved the outdoors and had a keen mind for for mathematics. He and his mother worked out a satisfactory working arrangement, while his brother Henry, being about eighteen months younger went to learn the blacksmith trade.
About five years later when Grandfather Louis Kruse got married, and addition was added to the house, and a deal was developed for Grandfather Louis Kruse to rent and work the farm and the two families lived in the one house, each in their own apartment. This took place on October 12, 1877. This setup continued until Grandmother Catharine Kruse passed to her reward in December, 1882 and the estate was to be settled. When the mother died, the younger children were still small, but our mother took over the care of them. Some of the younger aunts were not much older than our older sisters.
Amelia Carstensen is the only one remaining now who can recall this setup in our relationship.
Of this immigrant family of Kruses, Louis Kruse was the oldest first generation born in this country to continue the name Kruse. There were nine sisters and brothers in order as follows: Louis born June 6, 1854 and married to Catharine Schroeder on October 12, 1872: Henry born October 30, 1855, married to Bertha Cheek on and lived at Woodward, Iowa; Frederick, born October 23, 1858, married ; Marguerite, born October 17, 1860, married Fred Boetger; Josephine, born March 14, 1864, married Carl Mohr; Ogunato, born April 11, 1866, married Johannes Luth; Otto, born March 3, 1868, married Tellie Jacobs; Emma, born February 21, 1870 was married twice, first to Bert Purington and later to William Jessen; and Flora, born January 1, 1872, married Herman P. Paarman. These are now all deceased excepting the two younger sisters.
To the Louis Kruse family ten children were born, namely: Catherine E. S., born December 27, 1878, who married Herman Arp; Amelia C. A., born December 5, 1879, who married Fred Carstensen; Leona A. M., born January 8, 1882, married Louis Betle; Brudena born 1883, died in infancy; Henry J., born May 22, 1885, married Evalena T. Williams on September 17, 1913, after her demise in 1931 he married Sophia B. Duell on September 7, 1934; Johannes L. A., born March 5, 1887, married Marie Schluetter in 1915, and after her demise in 1916, married her sister, Alvina Schluetter in 1920; Adelgunda C. L.; born December 18, 1889, who married Harry Wieck; Carl F. O. born May 6, 1891, who married Clara Griebel and after her demise in 1926, married Hattie Reese on May 6, 1931; Lorena A. O., born April 25, 1893, married Adolph Wieck; and Leroy G. D. born February 13, 1899, married Hanna Hanson and they are now on the original Kruse homestead, the third generation away from the Indians.
Some interesting side lights of bygone days: Grandfather Louis Kruse has often mentioned going to Lyons with oxen to get a doctor. In hot weather the oxen would take the wagon into the water when they were crossing a creek, wagon and all. There was Mill Creek to cross and during the first years there were no bridges and hills and approaches were steep. Later years they had horses and mules. Grandfather Louis Kruse never liked the mules too well. They were hard to manage. When it was noon time, they would just simply turn around in whatever place in the field they happened to be, and make for home. On the road they would refuse to pull at times or refuse to go in a certain direction.
Of the wild land, it seems that our father had a preference for such land as had blackberries and hazel brush on it, rather than land that was covered with prairie grass or heavy timber. Such land would produce the best crops. Putting the wild land under cultivation was a major task during the early years. Oxen and a breaking plow was about all the equipment they had to work with. They made a harrow and that helped. The seeding was all done by hand with a sack hanging on the shoulder and the harvesting at first was done with a cradle. Later a reaper was available that did the cutting and a man rode on it to rake off a bunch of grain when there was enough for a bundle. Later the reaper did the raking off by mechanical power but it was not until the old McCormick binder came that there was real relief to Some of the drudgery a harvest time. Binding the grain into bundles after the reaper had cut it and dropped it in bunches all over the field, when the weather often was hot and the straw dry so it was hard to make a bundle, and often times there were wild roses among the grain putting thorns into the fingers of the binders as they picked up the bundles for binding. Depending on how heavy the grain was, usually four or more binders would follow a reaper and do the binding as fast as it was mown. They called that station binding and women as well as men would get out to bind. Younger boys would often take two to make a station.
After the grain was all cut and shocked, it would be stacked and the threshing with horse power would last until way late into the fall and winter at times. It was all hand fed into the threshing machine and the grain was carried in sacks to the granary, often times to the second floor. There were no tight grain boxes and there were no convenient bins to haul grain to. Growing corn had not yet become popular. That did not come to be until the wheat failed to produce the usual abundant crop, and along with the lowering yield in bushels of wheat per acre, came an ever lowering quality of the wheat. It became smaller in kernel and of ever lower protein content and therefore would bring a lower price on the market. It seems that wheat grain grown on new ground always commanded the top price.
After the wheat faded out, the dairy cow came into popularity, the hog and along with that an ever deepening interest in corn. The dairy cow also helped introduce the alfalfa, which in the end was found to also be good for the hog and the chicken.
While the wheat farming was at its highest, there was much wagon traffic to Lyons, the then most important trading post, from early fall when threshing was well under way until later into the winter when the last of the wheat had been delivered and sold. From our place it would be a long day's trip. Often there were long waits to get unloaded and after the load was unloaded, the horses fed and rested, the trip homeward. That was when the road houses sprung up along the highway, to stop and rest the horses or the drivers to warm up. The good road houses had good shelter for horses and places to feed and water them as well as to drive the load under shelter in case of a rain storm. When home in the evening, more grain had to be put into sacks so as to be ready to load and start again early the next morning. There seems to have been much rivalry among the drivers those days, more or less in line what we now refer to as road hogs. There would be races and wrecks at times. For some of these haulers it would be a two day and even a three day trip to go all the way with horses with a load and back home.
One fall when Grandfather Louis Kruse was 12 years old, he was on the horse power while they were threshing. It was late in the fall and the day was cold and windy. He wore a heavy coat to keep warm. While trying to drive down a clevis pin to an evenor, that was working up, he lost his balance and fell off, getting caught on the tumbeling rod and he suffered severe injury. However, there was complete recovery from that. Later, after his father had died, he had another more serious accident while running the reaper or binder. Due to a sudden turn on a rather steep side hill, he again lost his balance on the seat and fell in front of the sickle. This time a sickle-guard punctured his hip and the sickle did extensive injury. This laid him up for weeks, in hot weather, and it is to be wondered that he recovered from this.
Grandmother Catharine (Schroeder) Kruse was born April 4, 1855, in Old Benebeck, Holstein, near Rensburg. Their church and cemetery were at Krupp. The first of this family to come to this country was the oldest son or brother John. His father, Johannes H., was a cabinet maker in the home country and the oldest son was working as an apprentice with his father, when at the age of 17 years he received his summons for military service. He had resolved before that he would choose to go to America rather than to do his hitch in the service for his country, so he had carefully arranged for passage and in the small hours of the night he left his home. His parents had a small pasture for cows and since it was raining the night that he left, his mother loaned him her rain umbrella. He crossed their cow pasture on his way from home and at the far side of the pasture he had left the umbrella, as he felt that his mother would miss it.
He came directly to Goose Lake, Iowa, and it was many months before his folks had any word from him that he had arrived in this country. His mother related that she felt that surely Uncle John had been lost at sea since no word was coming from him, but at long last a letter arrived and in it he questioned, "Why did they never write in answer to his letters?". There had been a disloyal mail carrier in their village, and they presumed that this mail carrier had been opening mail, which at times contained cash being sent so that passage might be bought. Money for passage was readily available in America, while in the home country it took many months and perhaps years to save or accumulate enough for passage to America, even by the most frugal means of living and saving, so they decided that some of Uncle John's letters must have been so opened and destroyed.
After a few years Grandmother Kruse and Aunt Anna Schroeder, his two oldest sisters, followed him, when they too were yet very young, 17 and 18 years of age. They got work around Goose Lake, arriving here early in the year 1873. Late in the year 1882, the parents ventured into the new world with the remainder of the family, Elizabeth, who married Morris Petersen; Marie, who married Herman Fleming; Christena, who married John Meyer; Frederick C. C., who married Alma Muhl; Peter, who married Lena Naeve; and Maragaret, who married Nick Wilslef. They settled in Goose Lake where they bought a small piece of land and make a home.
Grandfather John H. Schroeder did not have the opportunity to enjoy this country for long as he was called to his reward in the fall of 1889, while Grandmother Schroeder continued to make her home in Goose Lake for many years. She kept her cow or cows, made a big garden each year and did washing for working men, who would bring their bundles of soiled clothes once each week. She would wash and do the mending. It was always a treat when we grew up to do things for Grandmother, be it putting up some hay for her or to help her husk corn. There were no telephones those days, and it was three miles to go to Goose Lake, but somehow there always seemed to be a way to get word back and forth.
On various occasions, Grandmother Schroeder would hike out to our place afoot without us knowing of her coming. It was the rule that in the evening after supper and yet in time for her to tend to the cow or cows, some excuse would be invented to go to Goose Lake, so that Grandmother would not need to walk back home. Her visit was always pleasant and interesting. As was a visit to her house when us youngsters were fortunate enough to go along to Goose Lake. She would always have a lunch and her solid thin sliced course rye bread, with butter and jam, always tasted so good. She also would have a cookie jar that never seemed to be empty when we were there.
It would be most interesting to record annually the surviving descendents of these two families as well as to record some of the developments in which they took substantial parts. It goes without saying that the teachings that these families brought over here and put into practice under free enterprise, resulted in no small measure the progress that is so manifest to any who but take the time to reflect and observe them.
There seems to run different traits in the Schroeder Family from those of the Kruse Family, the Kruses sticking to farming, being all farmers, while Grandfather Schroeder being a cabinet maker, his son serving some time as an apprentice with him and later in this country taking up carpentry, which both of his brothers also learned and practiced for a while, even though they all worked on farms at times.
After many years doing carpenter work, Uncle John H. Schroeder bought into a hardware store which he owned at the time of his death. Uncle F.C.S., as you all know, also got into business after many years doing carpentry and only very recently has stepped away from the daily duty at the lumber yard. Uncle Peter, after working the carpenter trade for a number of years, started a lumber yard in Charlotte, and while still running the lumber yard also became interested in selling and handling automobiles, later selling both the lumber yard and the automobile business, migrated to Arkansas and developed extensive operations as a rice farmer. Margaret, the youngest daughter, was for many years a seamstress, going from place to place doing sewing for people besides doing much sewing at home while she was still living with her mother. Her husband, Nick Wilslef, was a blacksmith, which he later discontinued and became a farmer. Aunt Lizzie, as we called her, married Uncle Morris Peterson. He too was a carpenter and they had a hardware store in Charlotte, which the family members are still continuing. The only ones that really became and adhered to farming consistently were our mother and her oldest sister, Aunt Emma Schroeder. They both devoted their entire married lives to farming.
