Gustav Krug

GUSTAV KRUG, who has lived in Stafford County thirty-five years, was primarily a homesteader and farmer, but for a number of years past has been active in business at Hudson and is president of the Stafford County Mills Company. The community regards him as one of its leading and most public spirited and patriotic citizens, and has frequently paid him distinctive honors, illustrated by the fact that for a number of years he has been mayor of his town.

Mr. Krug was born in Saxony, Germany, March 3, 1849. His father, Karl Krug, was born in the same province in 1812 and died there in 1860. He spent all his active life as a miller, served his regular time in the German army and was a Lutheran in religion. His wife, Frederica Haase, was also a native of Saxony and died there at the age of forty-four. Their children were: Otto, a brewer, who died in Germany; Richard, owner of a large hotel, who also died in his native country; Mina, who came to America and died in Hays Township of Stafford County, Kansas, wife of Ernest Raymond, a farmer also deceased; Gustav; Amelia, who died in California, wife of Mr. Schwitzer, a fruit and grape grower, also deceased.

Gustav Krug received a good education in the public schools. He learned the trade of stone cutter, and for a time was employed as a railroad switchman. On October 17, 1882, he arrived in Hays Township of Stafford County, Kansas, and was one of the early settlers there. He located on a quarter section of school land, and still owns that and a quarter section more, now handsomely developed as a profitable grain farm. Mr. Krug lived on his land and continued farming until 1900, when he moved to Hudson and built his present comfortable home there. He also engaged in business by establishing a lumber yard and building up a plant which he conducted and which he sold out in the spring of 1904. Then, with his brother-in-law, Otto Sonderregger, he built a small frame flour mill with a daily capacity of seventy-five barrels. The mill was destroyed by fire in 1913. Mr. Krug then organized a stock company known as the Stafford County Mills Company and built large new mills on the Missouri Pacific tracks. This is one of the most modern flour mills in Western Kansas, has a daily capacity of 300 barrels, and its output supplies an extensive demand in this and other states. The establishment of the business and its wise and successful management is chiefly due to the energy and abilities of Mr. Krug. His son, Wilhelm Krug, is vice president of the company, and Charles Duff is secretary and treasurer. Mr. Krug has been continuously for eight years mayor of Hudson. He is a republican voter and a member of the English Lutheran Church.

In 1872, in his native country, he married Miss Theresa Deichman. She died on the home farm in Stafford County in 1897. By this marriage Mr. Krug had six children: Paul, who was born in 1873, spent his active life on his father's farm and died in 1912; Martha, wife of Armin Friedeman, owner of a garage at Great Bend, Kansas; Richard, engineer for the Stafford County Flour Mills Company at Hudson; Lena, wife of Charles Kelley, a farmer in Kiowa County; William, vice president of the Stafford County Mills Company; and Clara, wife of Leo Meyer, their home being on the Krug farm in Hays Township. In 1900 Mr. Krug married Adele Sonderregger, of Wichita, Kansas, who died in 1915, leaving one daughter, Hedwig.

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