| FransH. D. Kruse |
Frans H.D. Kruse was born in East Friesland,Germany, in 1821. His father , Dierk Kruse, son of George Kruse, was bornin the same place. The father of the present subject learned the tradeof mill wright and followed it in his native land. He bought several importantmillsites erected mill and set them in successful operation and sold them.In 1835, he came to America, in Virginia, a ship sailing from Bremen, bringingwith him his sons Frans H. D. and Sunke M. and landed in New York, July4.From there he went to Albany, by way of theHudson River, thence across Schenectady, and by Erie Canal to Buffalo.Thence by lake to Cleveland and from there by land and the Ohio River toCincinnati. He afterward went West into Illinois to Beardstown, and a fewmonths afterward bought a mill on Sugar Creek, ten miles east of Rushville.Six months later he sold the mill and bought a small farm two and one halfmiles east of Rushville and turned his attention to farming. Here he residedfor eight years , when he returned to the old country. Some years afterwardhe returned to America and settled in Texas, remaining there five years.He afterward came to Illinois and bought a farm in McDonough County. Thisfarm was exchanged for a farm five miles southwest of Rushville in Woodstocktownship, where he lived until his death in 1860.
The mother of the subject of this sketchwas Hiske J. Miller. She was a native of the same country as her husbandand spent her entire life there. She had five children, all of whom grewto manhood. The present subject being the youngest, who was in his fourteenthyear when he came to Illinois with his father. The country was but sparselysettled at that time and some of the land was still owned by the government.
Frans assisted his father at the mill andafterward in cleaning out the farm. As the land was heavily timbered theywere able to build a small frame house on it. In 1843 he bought the farmof his father and has had his residence here ever since. Good, substantialbuildings have since been erected upon it, and the farm is in a high stateof cultivation.
He married, in December, 1843, ElizabethC Garrett, who was born in Georgetown, Scott county, Kentucky, in Aprilof 1824. Her father, Thomas J. Garrett, was born in Delaware and was theson of David Garrett, who lived for many years on the line between thatState and Pennsylvania and spent his last days there. The father of Mrs.Kruse went to Kentucky when a young man, and married in Lexington, SusannaWigert, who was born in Maryland and went with her parents to Kentucky,while she was an infant. After her marriage she removed to Georgetown withher husband, and some years later again removed with him to Illinois byway of the Cumberland, Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Mr. Garrett made severalremovals in Illinois and spent the last few years of his life near Browning,Schuyler county. The mother of Mrs. Kruse survived her husband for manyyears, and died at the residence of a younger daughter, who was a residentof Nebraska, at the advanced age of ninety-one years.
Biographical Review of Cass, Schuylerand Brown Counties, Illinois, Biographical Review Publishing Co., Chicago,1892.
Submitted by Carol Wolf Britton.
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