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Johann Heinrich Hermann KRÜSI^{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8}

Born 24 June 1817¹ in Yverdon, Switzerland to Catherine EGGAR and Herman KRÜSI.  Married Caroline "Carrie" DUNHAM 26 November 1856 in Somerville, Massachusetts, USA¹.  Died 28 January 1903 in Alameda, California, USA.¹

Children with Caroline Dunham:

Hermann Krusi, male born 23 July 1858 in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Minna C. Krusi, female born 01 January 1860.  Died 05 June 1865 at the age of 5.  Originally buried in Minot, Maine and, following the death of her sister, re-interred in Riverside Cemetary, Oswego County, New York.^{2 (p. 250, 285, 309-310)}

Gertrude M. Krusi, female born 16 September 1867 in New York State.  Died 12 November 1881 of tuberculosis.  Buried in Riverside Cemetary, Oswago County, New York.^{2 (p. 285)}

Photographs from Recollections of My Life:

*Great-great-grandfather of the Cactus.

Professor Hermann Krusi, connected with the Oswego State Normal and Training school from 1862 until 1887, died at his home, Alameda, Cal., Wednesday, January 28th. The notice of the death was received here in a letter by Dr. I.B. Poucher this morning and a meeting of the faculty of the Normal was called and the following committee of teachers who knew Professor Krusi during his life, was appointed to draft resolutions on his death: Dr. I.B. Poucher, A.W. Farnham, W.G. Rappleye, H.J. Smith, Miss Caroline Scales, Mrs. Mary H. McElroy, Miss Amanda P. Funnelle, Miss Harriet E. Stevens, Miss Mary L. O'Geran, Mr. Charles A. Sheldon.

The letter stated that Professor Krusi's remains would be cremated and the ashes sent to this city, along with the ashes of Mrs. Krusi, who died in California last Fall. The aged couple were much attached to each other. When Mrs. Krusi died her remains were cremated and the ashes kept by her husband. When received here the ashes of both will be buried in the lot in Riverside cemetery, where their children are interred. The one child, a son, Hermann Krusi, Jr., is connected with the American Bridge Company and is now in charge of the construction of a $1,000,000 bridge a Manila, P.I.

The last time Professor Krusi was in Oswego was in 1897, when he celebrated his eightieth birthday at the Normal school and was presented a solid silver loving cup valued at one hundred dollars.

Professor Krusi was one of the leading educators of the world and his dead has caused a deep sorrow at the Normal school, where he was so well known, loved and respected.

Professor Krusi was born in 1817 at Yverdon, Switzerland, and his father was a teacher in the school of Pestalozzi, then at the height of its popularity. He later moved to the Canton of Appenzel, where he established a normal school at Gais and it was in this school that Hermann Krusi received his early education. From 1835 to 1838 he pursued academical studies in Dresden and Berlin and visited and studied the workings of the Prussian normal schools, which were the best in Europe, and were chiefly conducted by men who had been students under Pestalozzi. He returned to Gais and assisted his father until his death in 1846, when the school was given up and Professor Krusi was obliged to see employment elsewhere. He went to England and entered Dr. Mayo's private school at Cheam, fifteen miles from London, which was patronized by the wealthy classes and the nobility. But at the end of the year he resigned, the old routine method teaching being distasteful to him.

He then entered the Home and Colonial school in London, the work there being based on the principles of Pestalozzi, and became a teacher in arithmetic and drawing and also aided in working out methods of instruction in other branches. He arranged the course of inventive drawing, which was introduced in Massachusetts by Mr. Whitaker, who was his pupil in London. He was the originator of this method of teaching.

In 1852 he returned to Switzerland, intending to teach the youth of his native land, but through Dr. Lowell Mason and others who had seen his work in London, he accepted an offer made him by Professor William Russell, who established a private normal institute at Lancaster, Mass., and it gave him an opportunity to realize one of his cherished ideas to visit America. He stayed in this school three years and wrote his first perspective, which was published in 1857. For several years he was engaged as a regular lecturer before the Massachusetts State Institutes. This work brought him into intimate association with his countrymen, Agassiz and Guyot, and also with Mason, Russell, Emerson, Northrop, Tenney and other well-known educators, and it was through these friends that in 1871 Yale College bestowed upon him the honorary degree Master of Arts.

In 1857 he became a teacher in the State Normal School at Trenton, N.J., retaining, however, for the first year his connection with the institutes of Massachusetts. He also did institute work in New Hampshire and in 1860 and 1861 he did the same work in Ohio.

In 1862 Professor Krusi came to this city at the request of Dr. E.A. Sheldon, who had just established a training school for teachers, founded upon Pestalozzian principles. He stayed here until 1887. He was first employed to elaborate methods in number, form and drawing, the latter subject he taught and superintended in the Normal school as well as in the schools of the city. The inventive principle, which induced the pupils to find designs for themselves was also applied to geometry, and this work was very successful. He also taught philosophy of education, including mental and moral philosophy without a book, by appealing to the experience and to the reflective powers of the pupils themselves.

Professor Krusi wrote several publications, among them being "Pestalozzi, His Life and Work." Krusi's drawing course has been taught in thousands of schools in this country. The department of modern languages, French and German, were also under is charge while at the Normal School.

On his retirement from the Oswego Normal school, Professor Krusi, who had spent half a century in teaching, went to California to spend his remaining days. Death was due to old age.

1. Mother of loafingcactus, personal knowledge and research.

2. Herman Krusi, ed. Elizabeth Sheldon Alling, Recollections of My Life, The Granfton Press: New York, 1907

3. MyFamily.com, Biography & Genealogy Master Index, Ancestory.com. Gale Research Company. Detroit: Gale Research Co., 2003.

"2359133

Krusi, Johann Heinrich Hermann 1817-1903

Biographical Dictionary of American Educators. Three volumes. Edited by John F. Ohles. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1978. (BiDAmED)

Dictionary of American Biography. Volumes 1-20. New York: CHarles Scribner's Sons, 1928. (DcAmB)

A Dictionary of North American Authors Deceased before 1950. Compiled by W. Stewart Wallace. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1951. (DcNAA)."

4. Brian LaValley, SUNYCO's Heritage in Technology Education.

5. The Autobiography of Woodbridge N. Ferris

6. Oswego, New York Directories, 1888, 1890-93, Ancestory.com

"year: 1888

142 W. Eighth"

7. United States Census, 1860

8. United States Census, 1870

This page last updated 25DEC2005.

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