In March 1854, John (Johann) Krug and his wife Katharina bought 21 acres for $900 on the road leading to Hempstead Turnpike in the Town of Hempstead and began their farming legacy and raising their family in Fosters Meadow. 

John Krug, born 27 September 1821, had emigrated from Hochstahl, Bayern on board the “Sir Isaac Newton” arriving in New York from Bremen in September 1845.  He was 24 years old.  Two years later, in December 1847,  his parents Georg and Margaretha Brehm Krug also  immigrated to New York from Bremen port with their other children Maria (1818), Johann (1819) , Regina (1823), Philipp (1828), Hieronimus (1832) and Barbara Krug (1834).

John Krug, often called “Jakob”, married Katharina Kreischer at St. Nicolas RC Church in Manhattan in January 1849 and they settled in the Newtown area of Queens. Their first child, Stephan was born 25 January 1851.  Katharina Kreischer had immigrated to New York in 1847 on board the “Kortenauz” from Rotterdam with her widowed mother Anna Margaretha Kreischer Hack and brothers Georg Michael, Nicolaus Kreischer and Georg Philipp Hack. They left their home in Borrstadt, Rheinpfalz. Brother Nicolaus married Gertrud Becker in 1853 and they too went to help with the Krug farm in Fosters Meadow.

John and Katharina’s family of children were born from 1851 to 1862.  There were four boys and three girls.  The first two children, Stephan and Margaretha were born in Williamsburg and baptized at Most Holy Trinity RC Church.  The remaining five were born at the farm in Fosters Meadow and were baptized at St. Boniface RC Church.  The young Krug family were active parishioners, helping to start the new German Catholic church in Fosters Meadows in 1854.

Katharina died in July 1862.  It was the occasion of the birth, then shortly death, of her seventh child Katharina Rosa.  She was just 32 years old.  Her mother, Margaretha Hack, continued to live on the Krug farm and helped Jakob raise the young family of six children: Stephan (b. 1851), Margaretha (b. 1852), Elisabeth (b. 1855-d. 1870), Johann (b. 1856-d. 1867), Nicolaus (b. 1859), and Philip (b. 1860).  Later, the Krug children: Stephan, Margaretha, Nicolaus and Philip were married at St. Boniface RC Church on Elmont Road.  Stephan married Mary Eichorn in 1871; Margaretha married Joseph Ulrich in 1872; Nicolaus married Justine Reuter in 1879; Philip married Julianna Meyer in 1882. 

By 1880 John “Jakob” Krug was farming 40 acres in Fosters Meadow.  His productive acreage grew bushels of corn, oats and potatoes and 10 tons of hay as principal crops.   A smaller farm parcel was eventually sold to become the site of Sewanhaka High School in 1929.  Jakob Krug’s g-granddaughter, Alice Krug, was one of the first graduates of the new high school. This central location served the communities of Elmont, Floral Park, New Hyde Park, Stewart Manor, Franklin Square, and Bellrose.

John Krug died in 1889, age 76 years, and was buried beside his wife Katharina Kreischer Krug in the Krug family plot in the old graveyard behind St. Boniface RC Church in Elmont, NY along with Katharina’s mother, Margaretha Fattler Kreischer Hack.

It would be worthwhile to follow the family trees of the Kreischer family as they were integrally interwoven with the Johann Krug family.  The Krug children married other farmers’ children, i.e., Martin Meyer and Rosene Hoyler; John Reuter and Maria Anna Ruerker; George Eichhorn and Eva Hatt.  The legacy of John Krug and Katharine Kreischer Krug and their children lived on in their 28 grandchildren who carried on the strong family values and farming traditions of Fosters Meadow for generations to come.

Submitted by g-g-granddaughter:  Geraldine Achtem

Dated:  December 2014

Email: gmachtem@yahoo.ca