Bee.
PART THREE
HALF-TONE
PAGES 1 TO 4.
UNDAY
roR all the Nrvrs THE
OMAHA BEE
BEST IN THE WEST
-1 HE UMAriA
VOL. XXXVIII NO. 51.
OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, JUNE 6, 1909.
SINGLE COPY FIVE CENlS.
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FRED KRUG BREWERY
' Fred Krug, Founder and eaa of Fred Krug Brewing Company, Celebrates This Week, His Fiftieth- Year, as an Omaha Builder. Interesting Reminiscences and Facts Connected with His Long Career.
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KRCO BREWING COMPANY OFFICE AND BALES FORCE.
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WORKING STAFF OF KRITO BREWERY.
.IFTY years ago this iainmer Frederick Krag wu Belling the
Brt brews from his brewery, which he built and opened In
Omaha early In 1859, and after half a century of successful
business Is celebrating its golden jubilee, with the old
brewer still at the helm.
n9t thing which Mr. Krug. a hearty German with four years'
.residence In America, could scarcely have anticipated when he crossed
jth river to enter Omaha fifty years ago, was that In the year of
i 199 he would still be living, surrounded by his wife and children;
!tl the boy of a few months, who crossed the Missouri river with
him, would be the actual head of a brewing company, capitalised at
SI, 000, 000, which has stamped the name "Krug" on the history of
the brewery business of the world.
It Is scarcely possible that Mr. Krug looked Into the if
and believed, from seeing things which were not, that the lnstltt
tlon which he started In such an humble way would be one of two
'big enterprises In Omaha which would outlive halt a century In'
the hands of the same master.
Yet this is the case, and when February and March of the.
present year were passed, the Fred Krug Brewing company bad a
right to celebrate a birthday with the man who laid its foundation
till active in lta interests. More than a generation of business
(lien have passed away since Mr. Krug began his career. Most of
the bfg business enterprises which had their beginning back in the
old steamboat days before the war now rest on the shoulders of
the new generation Some have fallen by the wayside when the
band which guided them was pulled from the. wheel. Almost all
have had an injection now and then of new blood ln-the shape of
eastern capital; few have remained In the hands of one family, as
an old estate In a foreign land. But the brewery of Fred Krug
remains In the Krug family, with the founder present and the man
whose advent Into Omaha as a baby of nineteen months, who worked
with his father during all the years of his boyhood, young manhood,
and Is with him In his prime, is manager of the business William
Krug.
Came With the Kings
The remarkable career of Fred King may be reallred when It
la known that he came to Omaha in the same year with the late
William Paxton, with David H. Moffat, later banker and railroad
builder of Denver; in the year that Edward and John Crelghton
selected Omaha as. their future home; In 1859, when a string of
vrna began careers here such as have been lived by Andrew t. Simp
son (still jn business at the old stand), Charles J. Karbach, Andrew
poppleton, George B. Lake, Joseph Millard, Peter Frenzer, J. W.
Van Nostrand, Thomas Swift, A. J. Hansoom, Albert Naet, Elijah
Allen, John B. Kuony, Eleaxar Wakeley, William Doll and others
who have since departed this life or may yet be In the land of the
living, with an Omaha advent. In either case, probably antedating
that of Frederick Krug.
These men and a full hundred more whose names are weU
known in the history of the city were the men with whom Mr. Krug
cast his lot when he established the brewery on Faxnam street, be
tween Tenth and Eleventh streets, and selected Rudolph Selser, a
shoemaker, as a partner.
The brewing business was a success from the start, undergoing
the usual difficulties of frontier life, operating under the disadvan
tage of a small capacity with grain not too easy to secure, and some
of the materials necessary to the brewer's art positively hard to
secure.
The Mormons were making a temporary "Zion" near Florence;
the prairie schooners made a continuous line across the great plains;
the steamboats snorted and raved behind the "red squaw's birch
canoe" and thrifty young men were staking city lots for sale J 'over
old Indian graves."
The very first years of Mr. Krug's career in Omaha were the
golden era of steamboatlng on the Missouri river, from the breakup
in 1859 to the freeze up of 1860. It was the period just before the
advent of the railroads. No other period before it nor after ap
proached it in the splendor of its boats. It was an era well calcu
lated to give encouragement to an enterprise such Fred Krug
launched in Omaha something which offered to the comfort and
luxury of the passengers who traveled on the boats in the heyday of
that most important personage th Missouri river pilot. The
American Fur Trading company was conducting an extensive busi
ness through well paid agents. Such men as Captain LeBarge were
Tunning boats, twenty to thirty landing at Omaha during the season,
and their well paid men made business brisk.
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FREDERICK KRUO.
Known Through Wide Region
As strange as it may seem, the first brewery opened in Ne
braska, which was that of Mr. Krug, was known from Fort Benton
to the sea, from Pittsburg to Last Chance gulch, long before some
breweries with a national reputation gained since had grown to pro
portions worthy t rwmsnJUon.
Fred Krug was bora nun Ousel, Germany, in 18SS. When he
was but 19 ycfcrs of age he sailed for America. New York was hla
first stopping place, but cannot be said to have been his first home.
It was not a city to his likln and the "far interior" was held out to
all young emigrants as a far more invltl&g land than that along the
Atlantic eoae.
St. Louis was selected by Mr. Krug as a plaoe in which a young
man would have an opportunity to move around and get into busi
ness. It proved a good move, for though he did not remain in the
city a great length of time as a brewery worker, he was there long
enough to make the acquaintance of Miss Anna Wlttig, who after
ward becaii.e hs wife, and with him celebrated In Omaha September
1. i06, a golden wedding anniversary, surrounded byselght chll
ov4. and hundreds of friends.
From BL Louis Mr. Krug went to western Missouri, where he
became superintendent of a small brewery, and later came to Council
Bluffs, where he accepted the position of superintendent of the
brewery ot Hagg Bros.
After a short term In the employ of the Council Bluffs company
Mr. Krug became convinced that Nebraska needed a brewery as
badly aa a neglected garden needs hoes. Omaha was on the path to
success and he put his foot across the river in 1869 the books say '
February 18, never to retreat. The brewery which he erected was
"completed In six weeks" and was a one-stoy frame affair 22x40 feet,
on the tract which would now be the lots with numbers 1018 and
1015 Farnam street.
Rudolph Selser, the shoemaker partner, conducted a retail es
tablishment in the front part of the brewery, while by bard work
Mr. Krug managed to make from twelve to eighteen barrels each
week to supply the trade, which increased rapidly.
"Fred Krug used to wheel beer around the city in a wheelbar
row," is a remark frequently heard by business associates who have
a vague remembrance of the early life of the young brewer.
Why He Delivered It.
It was a part of Mr. Krug's business, however, to deliver the
beer which he made. Omaha had four saloons. Someone had to
do the delivering, and if Mr. Krug wheeled his brew around in a
wheelbarrow his friends explain that it was because "it was so good
he could not trust any of the boys ot those wild days to deliver it for
him."
After the first few years Mr. Krug bought the interest of Mr.
Selser, the latter going to Sioux City, where he made as great a suc
cess in his various lines as Mr. Krug continued to make of the brew
ery. It is a coincidence that Mr. Selser never returned to making
shoes. His brief acquaintance with Mr. Krug convinced him of the
future of the brewery business and In Sioux City be built up an es
tate which has left his sons In possession ot large business interests.
Including stock in a brewery of that city.
Little by little the business of Fred Krug developed and In
18CS the malt house and plant at Tenth and Jackson streets was
erected. This served for a number of years and thousands of bar
rels of the Krug brew were manufactured in the plant near w hich
the company still maintains an uptown office, the old malt house in
the rear being used by a refrigerating company and the Omaha Bot
tling works.
Thirty years after the little brew house opened at Tenth and
Farnam streets the business demanded i larger home and Mr. Krug
boufht the present site ot the brewery in the early '90s. The tract
consists of eighteen acres on South Twenty-sixth street, near Vinton,
the, South Omaha line. While the big buildings have been erected
on one end of the grounds, the balance is retained as a big lawn,
which shows Mr. Krug's appreciation ot open places and natural
landscapes. Areund the brewery are the homes ot many workmen
who have shared the prosperity of the business with the founder and
become opulent in service.
The plant cost originally 1780,000. About 100 men are em
ployed in all of Its department! and It originally made some 65,000
barrels annually.
After the reorganisation of the company In 1902, when Mr.
Krug's sons, William and Albert, entered
the business as incorporators of the
"Fred Krug Brewing company," with an
authorized capital of $1,000,000, the bus
iness, as well as the brewery, has been
enlarged. The capacity of the plant of
today is over 200,000 barrels annually.
This Is a remarkable contrast to the ca
pacity of the first brewery which Mr.
Krug elected In Omaha, which might be
said to have a capacity ot 750 barrels an
nually, provided the grain could be se
cured and boats bringing hops from Bo
hemia were not destroyed enroute or the
river did not freeze before the cargo
could be brought to Omaha on Missouri
river boats.
Besides the brewery, which has been
an influence In the commercial history of
Omaha, as well as encouraging in early
days the growing of malt-making grains,
Mr. Krug has been a builder of other
things and a heavy investor In Omaha
property.
Many substantial brick business
buildings scattered all over Omaha and
South Omaha were erected by the Omaha
brewtr. Some were built before the va
cant blocks had another building on them
and their presence caused other buildings
to go up, generally of a better type than '
would have been erected had not the
Krug buildings made an appearance
which subsequent builders took Into con
sideration. Some ot the buildings were
sold not long after they were erected and
later a corporation buying Omaha prop
erty for Investment bought the last of the
Krug buildings, except the theater, which
bad developed from a building erected at
Fourteenth and Harney streets.
The theater Is only one of numerous
enterprises which Mr. Krug launched in
Omaha. It is an evolution of Transmis
Blesipp! exposition days. When this ex
position enterprise was proposed to mark
the beginning of a new epoch in Omaha's
history and the close of a period dark
with Industrial depression, Mr. Krug was
one of Its enthusiastic supporters.
A modern music hall and summer garden was built at Four
teenth and Howard streets, and after entertaining exposition visitors
for two years, It becoming evident that the public would support a
theater In the same location, the Krug theater was built. Its archi
tecture adds to the variety In a city like Omaha. Its German style
is quaint and it is one of the attractive buildings of the city.
Building of Krug Park
Again turning to the old country for Ideas, Mr. Krug conceived
the idea that an American city with such a cosmopolitan population
as Omaha possesses would enjoy a beautiful park with entertain
ment, high-class musical and refreshment features.
A tract beautifully located on high ground far above the city
was bought. It consists of eighteen or twenty acres. One ot the
best landscape gardeners of Germany was secured and the grounds
were laid out for the "Krug Park." This was In 1901, and for eight
years the park has been one of the most popular places in Omaha.
Some of the best bands in the world have been brought to Omaha by
Mr. Krug's amusement manager and they have played engagements
lasting for a week to several months, furnishing concerts seldom
beard outside of the largest cities in the United States.
While some of the park tract was developed In Its highest possU
blllties with flowers, shrubbery and gravel walks, a part of It was
left "wild," as it were, just as it was formed In the beginning and as
it was when Mr. Krug first looked out over the "Great Plains" when
he came to Omaha In 1859. It has been a recreation ground for
thousands and a cool breathing place for untold hundreds who dur
ing the day suffer with heat.
When, In September, three years ago, Mr. and Mrs. Krug ar
rived at the anniversary of their golden wedding, almost all of their
fifty years of married life having been spent in Omaha, one ot the
most remarkable of celebrations was held. In response to the de
mands of friends a reception was held from 2 to 6 o'clock, when Mr.
and Mrs. Krug received their old friends snd acquaintances. The
public took advantage of the opportunity to visit the home and for
three hours a stream of people passed in and out of the beautiful
home. Telegrams were received by Mr. snd Mrs. Krug from all
parts of the country and many cablegrams came from the old world,
congratulating the man and woman who had succeeded so well in
America.
Now comes the golden anniversary of the business institution
which Mr. Krug founded In Omaha. It's something like another
golden wedding anniversary and celebiation to Mr.' Krug and his
business associates. It started In an era when the country was pros
perous; when government exploration was being pushed with vigor
in all directions Into the country beyond the Missouri; when a stream
of people across the plains had continued practically unchecked for a
decade; when more steamboats left St. Louis for points on the Mis
souri river than for both the upper and lower Mississippi.
Half a Century of Effort
In 1909 the Krug interests art celebrating the golden jubilee of
the founding of te institution amid similar conditions. The coun-
try has been developed, but the lands beyond the Missouri are re
ceiving another line of emigrants and the country is entering a sec
ond period ot intense and complex development. Fifty years have
passed. There have been hard times between the two eras, the one
in which the Fred Krug brewery was founded and the one In which It
celebrates its fiftieth anniversary. Long Indian wars of the Missouri
valley were the first clouds on its horizon. Since then the north and
south fought out their differences and have become one In spirit aa
well as In name; financial crashes have shaken the very foundation
of the republic; drouths in the summer gave the country west of the
Missouri the reputation of a sun-baked desert; storms of winter
which picked the snow from the earth and drove it across the plains
in a death-dealing cloud gave the west the name of a blizzard-cursed
waste, but the men of the west have conquered and brought their
business institutions through into another prosperous era. But not
many of them, like Frederick Krug, founded them in the golden era
of 1859 and remained wjth them to see the bright days of 1909.
The firm of Fred Krug Brewing company Is, if anything at all,
aggressive. Its business ramifications extend from the Mississippi
to the Pacific coast. Branch offices and agencies have been estab
lished and maintained in such cities as Des Moines, Lead, S. D.; Den
ver, Salt Lake City and San Francisco. Their advertising expendi
tures per annum are enormous, exceeding at times even that spent
in a year by an average Omaha department store. Their employes
were Invariably happy In their employment, because the Fred Krug
Brewing company are generous employers.
On their sales staff they have men whose length of service runs
from eight to twenty years. At the brewery there are at least three
men whose continuous employment averages twenty-eight years, and
there are many others averaging ten yean of service and over.
As a result of deliberate, painstaking and vigorous effort, hav
ing quality and fair dealing as watch words and principles, this old
established firm, but one of two founded fifty years ago, with the
founder still at the head, has to its credit many gold medals and
diplomas for high grade quality and purity of products, one product
having carried off at the Transmlsslssippl exposition (the one and
only successfully financed exposition ever held in America), two cov
eted gold medals offered by the exposition authorities.
One of the remarkable characteristics of conduct to the credit
of Mr. Fred Krug Is thst he never mingled in politics personally, and
all through his long business career he has always vigorously op
posed his employes doing so.
Importance of State Insurance in Germany
M
UCH is heard In this country from
time to time about the compul
sory insurance and pension laws
of Germany applying to the in
dustrial classes, but probably
comparatively few Americans are awar "'
the great extent of tne system a triple sys
tem embracing insurance on lives and
against accidents and sickness and the pay
ment of old-age or incapacity pensions. For
the year 1906 tho number of persons Insured
against sickness throughout the German em
pire waa 12,408,706; against accidents,
19,227,213. and against old age and inval
idity, 14,142,700. The entire receipts of
the sickness and insurance fund during the
same year were 314,461,801 ti arks or, say.
approximately $80,000,000; the receipts of
the accident fund were 189,708,567 marks,
and those of the old age and invalidity fund,
263,340,791. The expenditures for the same
year were 282,487,163 marks paid in 6lrk
rellef, 16,596,4 21 marks paid In compensa
tion for accidents and 182,353,360 marks
paid in old age and Invalidity pensions. The
accumulated funds exceeded two mlllards of
marks. These figures are a trifle staggering.
and especially when one considers that the
vast cost of these Indemnities and pensions
is not borne alone by the beneficiaries of
them, but lu large part by their employers.
For Instance, the law requires that all per
sons who are regularly employed tor wages
and do not earn more than 2,000 marks
yearly must be Insured against sickness, the
employer paying one-third of the amount of
the premiums and the employe the other
two-thirds; the accident insurance laws em
brace the same classes of wage earners and
the same terms; but here managing officials
and overseers are liable to insurance. So,
during the year 1906 German employers of
labor were compelled by the law of the em
pire to pay out of their own pockets about
$21,000,000 for the Insurance of their em
ployes against sickness alone. On the face
of the thing it looku to us Americans some-'
thing like an Imposition, for we are not ac
customed to paternalism and governmental
"regulation" such as mark the Industrial life
of some European countries.
Being added to the cost of production,
the insurance and pension taxes paid by Ger
uan employers are in reality and in the last
analysis paid in largest part by the consum
ers of German products and, inasmuch as
German wage-earners are themselves enor
mous consumers of these products, they pay
a large measure ot the employers' tax as
well as tho direct premiums collected from
them by law. So the system cannot prop-,
erly be charged with imposing undue bur
dens on the German employers of labor
the cost being very generally distributed and
the beneficiaries of the funds contributing
much the larger portion of it.
Some interesting suggestions are pro
voked by the system, however. For exam
ple, the Krupp steel works spent no lees
than 3.000.000 marks for this purpose in
1606-'07 that is. say, $750,000 for insur
ance and pensior payments in behalf of the
company's employes. The product of the
works is largely guns and other instruments
of warfare. German employes cannot "con
sume" these products, of course, and the en
hanced cost ot them due to the compulsory
aystem of industrial Insurance is borne by
every purchaser of a Krupp gun or other
warfare instrument. New York OeatKer-clal
