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Hermann KRUSI¹

Born 23 July 1858² in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA to Caroline "Carrie" DUNHAM7 and Johann Heinrich Hermann KRUSI1.  Married Ida Matilda CLAWITER 09 Feb 1886¹.  Died 14 August 1940 in Alameda, California, USA¹.  Buried in Mt. Eden Cemetery.⁸

Children with Ida Matilda Clawiter:

Hermann Edward Krusi, male born 31 December 1887 and died 15 August 1888 as an infant.^{1, 4}

Robert Krusi, male born 19 January 1889, with issue.^{1, 4}

Mary Ida "Maryly" Krusi, female born 15 February 1892, with issue.^{1, 4}

LeRoy Farnham Krusi, male born 14 April 1894, with issue.^{1, 4}

Priscilla Alden Krusi, female born 23 August 1899, with issue.  Probably given the name Alden because Caroline Dunham was a descendant of the Mayflower Pilgrims of the Alden family.^{1, 4}  Married James Warner Simonds.  Died 20 September 1987 in San Bernadino County, California.⁶

In 1930 lived in a $12,000 home with his family and a servant by the name of Juan Lido.²  This home, in Alameda, is presently a bed and breakfast called the "Krusi Mansion".⁴

Was a veteran of World War I.²

Was Chief Engineer at the San Francisco Bridge Company, with offices at 46 & 47 Review Building, San Francisco.³

"Herman Krusi: Benefactor of Philipino Labor," article by Sol H. Gwekola, The Manila Times, 27 December 1967

Photo obtained from Harriet Hume Krusi.  The back of the photo states that he had the picture done while working on a project in Spokane and a joke to the effect that all engineers look alike anyway.

Photo obtained from Harriet Hume Krusi.  No information noted.

Newspaper article about Hermann and Ida's Golden Anniversary.⁹

*Great-grandfather of the Cactus.

Picture of the family cars and also a picture of the family home.  LeRoy Krusi had written on the back:  "Maryly in her new Chalmers 30 she used to commute between Alameda and U.C.  Dad at wheel of Chalmers 40 we drove and shipped from Montclair N.J.- Mother in back seat Priscilla in front seat.  Note the 40 was a right hand drive the 30 was one of the first left hand drive. We would crank start Maryly's car each morning. She would park in on the hill in front of Bancroft Library at U.C. to enable her to start it for her return. One morning the car back fired on hand cranking and broke Dad's wrist.  When I left for U.C. Dad offered me a car if I would live at home- but I decided to live at the Beta House on Hearst Ave."

See pages from the 1910 edition of the tour book used in the attempt to drive from New Jersey to California.  The road trip was abandoned in St. Louis and the car shipped to California.  The attempt was bold- Horatio Nelson Jackson has been the first person to successfully drive across the continent only seven years earlier, and the first family trip to successfully complete the drive had happened after that.

A brief historical sketch of the life of Herman Krusi III by LeRoy F. Krusi, reprinted by Susan Dyke, re-typed here by the Cactus.

Hermann Krusi III was born in Worcester, Mass., on July 23, 1858.  An understanding of his personality is impossible without some knowledge of Prfessor Hermann Krusi I, his grandfather, and of Professor Herman Krusi II, his father.  The philosophy of love, charity and kindliness handed down by these forebears must, in its turn, be traced to the philosophical contributions of Heinrich Pestalozzi, the world famous Swiss educator and philosopher, with whom Hermann Krusi I was associated, being his earliest assistant at this school at Yverdon, Switzerland.

The Pestalozzian "method" in teaching was of great importance, as was his philosophy that man was essentially noble and that only lack of education -- moral, mental and physical -- starting in earliest infancy brought out the evil in man.

With the French Revolution followed by the Napoleonic Wars, it was hard for people to rise to the level of such a philosophy, but his able assistances, Krusi, Neiderer and others, were dedicated disciples.

When Herman Krusi I left the Pestalozzian Institute at Yverdon, having served with this school from 1800 to 1816, he founded his own school -- also located at Yverdon -- where Hermann Krusi II was born on June 24, 1817.  The school moved to Trogen in 1822, and with it moved Pestalozzi's theories which motivated the classrooms from the 6:00 a.m. starting bell to the end of the day.  Here Hermann Krusi II, who was a godson of both Heinrich Pestalozzi and Johann Neiderer, and whose baptismal name was Johann Heinrich Hermann Krusi, received his education.  Little wonder that he later traveled to Germany, England, and finally to the United States, carrying with him the teachings of Pestalozzi.

With the formation of the Oswego State Normal School, Professor E.A. Sheldon turned to Hermann Krusi II asking him to fill the post of Professor of Philosophy of Education.  He also conducted classes in Geometry and Modern Languages.

Although his only son, Hermann Krusi III (Hermann Krusi II had two daughters who died at an early age), was born in Massachusetts, the family home was in Oswego.  It was there that Hermann III lived until he went to Cornell University in 1878.  He graduated in Civil Engineering with the class of 1882.  After graduation he started to teach, but soon accepted a position with the King Bridge Co. of Cleveland, Ohio, where he met George W. Catt, a bridge and contracting engineer.  Here Hermann Krusi obtained practical design experience, but he enjoyed actual field construction most, talking to the laborers, mechanics and foremen.  I once the the story of one of the field engineers --it could have been Catt-- watching him at the drawing board and giving practical pointers on design details.  Krusi asked, "I guess you are pretty anxious to get the blue prints of this bridge," and was amazing at the foreman's rejoinder, "Hell no, that bridge is already finished.  I just wanted to see if we built it the way you are drawing it."

In 1876 John G. McMullen had changed his business sign from "John G. McMullen, the Live Carpenter" to "John G. McMullen, the Honest Contractor" to the "San Francisco Bridge Company," all in rapid succession.  Having been awarded the contracts to build several wood and steel highway bridges, he felt a graduate engineer in his organization might help business, particularly as county supervisors were awarding bridges on on the contractor's own design and bid price.  McMullen wrote the College of Civil Engineering at Cornell in 1885 and selected Hermann Krusi on the basis of a photograph and a letter submitted in applying for the position.  Hermann Krusi was not only adept at designing these bridges, figuring cots, and starting construction, but was also a master in selling supervisors (in the event his price was not the lowest) that his design was superior and worth the additional money.  I once asked the late Bill Healy of Healey Construction Company if this were true and he said, "No, not really, but Hermann Krusi could draw in the prettiest streams and rocks and his bridges always caught the supervisor's eye."

As the San Francisco Bay region abounded in shoal water it was a natural place for the development of the hydraulic dredge and for some years the Company was named the "San Francisco Bridge and Dredging Co."

In 1885 George W. Catt was also bidding on highway bridges in California and in 1886 joined McMullen and Krusi.  The triumvirate later found the "Puget Sound Bridge and Dredging Co.," the "British Columbia Bridge and Dredging Co.," the "Atlantic Gulf & Pacific Co. of New York" and the "Atlantic Gulf & Pacific Co. of Manila."  For some years these companies were joined under the name of "Atlantic Gulf & Pacific Co." but with the death of Mr. Catt in 1905 it was decided to decentralize, each unit of the merged company returning to its original name.  Krusi was already preparing for retirement (he retired in 1910) so he took a percentage in the stock of each of the four companies (British Columbia Bridge & Dredging Co. having been liquidated).  Despite the varying fortunes of these contracting companies, and the war years which precluded any earnings by the Manila Company, Krusi was assured of a reasonably uniform income.

Herman Krusi married Ida Clawiter, daughter of a 1849 (Edward Clawiter swan ashore from a sailing ship at the news gold was discovered in California.  His fiancee joined him, making the trip via sailing ship around Cape Horn) family, on Feb. 9, 1887 in Alameda, California.  Here they established what was to be their headquarters for life, at 2033 Central Avenue, and here their children Hermann (died in infancy), Robert, Maryly, LeRoy and Priscilla were born-- the latter on the day Admiral Dewey returned to San Francisco after the Battle of Manila Bay.

McMullen left immediately thereafter for Manila as there was much government work to be done, including dredging the outer harbor, building a breakwater, filling the unhealthy moat around the Walled City (Intramuros), etc.  But as the climate did not agree with him, it was Krusi who moved to Manila.  Retaining his Alameda residence, he returned to California on alternate years and his wife, Ida, with some or all of their children, visited Manila on the other years.

Hermann Krusi's work in Manila and his accomplishments with Filipino labor are perhaps his principal call to fame.  Speaking excellent Spanish, he was an instant success with the old Spanish families, many of whom regarded Americans as not far removed from barbarians.  But when they offered their advice on obtaining Chinese labor under contract, due to the laziness and undependability of Filipino labor, in order to establish a quarry on Bataan and carry on the less skilled jobs in Manila.  Krusi had other ideas.  He made a study of the temperment of the Filipino laborer, his wife, his home life, his likes and dislikes.  The Atlantic, Gulf & Pacific Co., as a result, built construction camps and employed Filipino labor.  These camps became so popular that wives would not tolerate their husbands shirking, with the possibility of dismissal and losing their new found way of life.  Krusi became known as the first person to successfully use Filipino labor.  It seems a far cry from early 1908 and the thought that Philippine labor was unusable, to the present Atlantic, Gulf & Pacific Co. with its many thousand employees, almost all Filipinos, including Filipino engineers, draftsmen, machinists, foundry men, construction superintendents, equipment operators, etc. etc.

In 1908 Hermann Krusi left Manila to make his headquarters in New York as McMullen had retired to his estate at South Norwalk.  But the commuting by steamer between New York and Manila was slow and tedious.  He tried the trans-Siberian railroad but this was little faster and much more tedious.  In 1910 McMullen returned to the New York office of Atlantic, Gulf & Pacific Co. and Krusi returned to Manila.  Soon thereafter, he left Wickam Quinan in charge, as President, and retired to his old home in Alameda.

The old family residence was completely rebuilt, the children were established in school, and later married.  Hermann and Ida spent the next 30 years in pursuit of their favorite hoppy-- doing unto others as they would have others do unto them.  And they reaped a rich reward.  They became beloved by the people of Alameda, young and old.  Hermann served as director of the Alameda Municipal Electric Light Dept. (now Bureau of Electricity).  This became a very profitable municipal investment.  With some of the profits, and with the cooperation of the Mayor and City Council, he was able to buy land on Bay Farm Island and established one of the first municipal golf courses.  The original 18 hole course has been doubled and this also has become a profitable investment.

Being an ardent golfer, he was asked to drive the first ball on the new course before a considerable group of spectators.  This ball he sliced into the bay-- not far from the scene of the dredging work which, under his direction, had made Alameda an island in 1902.

Ida M. Krusi was vitally interested in the children of Alameda and playgrounds for these children.  When the City's playground projects seemed to be lagging, she purchased three blocks for use as a park.  This was named "Krusi Park" by vote of the Council.  After the death of Ida Krusi in 1939, the park was enlarged.  In 1955 a very modern fenced in area for children under six was constructed and dedicated as the "Ida M. Krusi Tiny Tot Area."

After Ida's death, Hermann Krusi's life was half gone, so much had the two lived as one.  Herman Krusi III died in August of 1940, after a very brief illness.  His interest in life continued to the very end.  In July, 1940 he traveled to witness the dedication of the Lake Washington Floating Bridge, constructed in the shops of the Puget Sound Bridge & Dredging Co.  After this dedication he wished to continue traveling on to Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper Parks.  This trip would have been a strenuous one for a younger man, but he went anyhow, and two weeks after his return he was gone, mourned, as was Ida, by so many, many friends.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Kate Silber's "Pestalozzi, The Man and His Work" Rutledge & Kegan Paul, Ltd., London, 1960.  Herman Krusi I Pgs. 122-2-4; 144; 10-1; 172; 204; 209; 214-5; 236; 239; 242-243.  Hermann Krusi II Pgs. 301; 303; 305; 314.

2. "Life of Pestalozzi" by Hermann Krusi

"Life of Pestalozzi" by Baron Roger deGuimp

3.  "Recollections of My Life," by Hermann Krusi, Grafton Press, 1907

4. "Prominent American of Swiss Origin" James T. White & Co. 1932

5. Atlantic, Gulf & Pacific Co. "Progress" Vol. 1, No. 2

6. "60 Years of Progress" Puget Sound Bridge & Dredging Co.  Also documentary sound fild of this Company's work.

7.  "Pioneering in Hydraulic Dredging" compiled 1950 by N.C. Wilson, never published.

8. Atlantic, Gulf & Pacific Co., "Progress" Vol. 1, No. 5

9.  "History of Alameda" by Vigness, Hartur H. Cawston, 1935

10. Letters H. Krusi to William Howard Taft, Fourth Annual Report of the Philippine Commission, part 1, pgs. 54-55

11.  Atlantic, Gulf & Pacific Co, "Progress" Vol. 1, No. 4

12.  "Makers of the New Philippine Prosperity," The Cablenews-American, Jan. 29, 1911

13.  "History of Alameda" Vigness, Pg. 80

1. Mother of loafingcactus, personal knowledge and research.

2. United States Census, 1930.

3. Spokan, Washington Directories, 1893.  Publication information:

Ancestry.com Spokane, Washington Directories, 1889-93. [database online] Provo, UT: Ancestry.com, 2000. Original data: Spokane, WA, 1889: R. L. Polk & Co., 1888. Spokane, WA, 1890: R. L. Polk & Co., 1889. Spokane, WA, 1892: R. L. Polk & Co., 1891. Spokane, WA, 1893: R. L. Polk & Co., 1892.

4. Research by loafingcactus.

5. Krusi Family Bible, Krusi: February 9th, 1887

6. California Death Index

7.  More about the Dunham/Donham family can be found at "History of the Dunham/Donham Family in America" by James A. Streeter.

8. Visit to Mt. Eden Cemetery by the Cactus on 30 August 2005.

This page last updated 24DEC2005.

thecactus@loafingcactus.com