Napa County Biographies

Hon. Charles Krug

Transcribed by: Bonnie Phelan

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
Any account of the wine interest and industry of California without reference to 
Hon. Charles Krug, of St. Helena, would be like describing the war of 
Independence without mentioning Washington. Not only is Mr. Krug the pioneer 
wine maker of Napa County, but the oldest now alive in the State, and upon all 
subjects connected with the history and progress of grape growing and wine 
making in California he is an authority. It should be stated further that Mr. 
Krug is the pioneer German journalist of California, having first come to this 
state in 1852, to take editorial charge of the Staats Zeitung, the first German 
newspaper published in California. But to give even the faintest idea of the 
wonderful activity and energy of this most worthy of California�s citizens, and 
the immense work he has accomplished for the good of his adopted state, we must 
be permitted to go somewhat into detail.
      Mr. Krug is a native of the city of Trendelburg, Hesse-Cassel, Germany, 
born March 1, 1825. After a thorough academic education, followed by two years 
spent at the University of Marburg,  Mr. Krug came in 1847 to America, and took 
a position as teacher in the Free-Thinkers� School of August Glaser in 
Philadelphia, and also became a reporter upon the newspaper of that city. 
Becoming thoroughly imbued with Republican principles and a desire for the 
freedom of his fatherland, returned to Europe at the outbreak of the Revolution 
in France in 1848, and, as he never does anything by halves, began at once to 
take an active part. He went to Frankfort, as the seat of the German Parliament 
and affording a central field, and began writing revolutionary articles for the 
press and agitating the republicanization of Germany. He became a participant in 
the attempt of September 1848, to overthrow the then reactionary parliament and 
create a central revolutionary government. The attempt failed, and Mr. Krug, 
with hundreds of others, was thrown into prison, only to be released after nine 
months incarceration in 1849, after a new outbreak of the revolution in Baden 
and Rheinphalz.
      In 1851 he came again to Philadelphia, and remained there engaged in 
journalistic work until 1852, when, as already stated, he was called to San 
Francisco to start the first German newspaper ever published in California. With 
this begins Mr. Krug�s life in California. He continued in charged of the Staats 
Zeitung until 1854, when he went to Crystal Springs, San Mateo County, and took 
up a Government claim. He was worth too much, however, to waste his time and 
strength attempting to make his living on a wild farm, and hence in a few months 
we find him back again in San Francisco occupying a position in a private gold 
refining establishment. In 1856 he was appointed clerk of the refining 
department of the United States Mint, a position, which he held until the 
establishment of the gold and silver refinery on Brannan Street by Colonel A. 
Haraszthy, Count Wass, and W. Molitor. In January 1858, Mr. Krug went to Sonoma 
on general business engagements with Colonel Haraszthy and others, purchased a 
tract of land and set out twenty acres of vines within the next few years. In 
the spring of 1858, however, during his residence at Sonoma, John Patchett of 
Napa City, while on a visit to Sonoma made Mr. Krug a proposition to come to 
Napa and make up his grapes into wine. He did so, thus making the first wine 
ever produced in Napa County, and in fact being preceded in the State of any 
scale only by Charles Kohler in 1855, in San Francisco, and Colonel Haraszthy in 
1857. He made up thus, in 1858, 1,200 gallons of wine for Mr. Patchett, crushing 
his grapes with a small cider press that he brought with him for the purpose. 
From this small beginning has sprung the enormous annual product of the present 
of this favored valley. In 1859 Mr. Krug made wine for Louis Bruck on the Bale 
Mill Place, now the property of W.W. Lyman, and the year later on  Mr. Yount�s 
farm, making about 5,000 gallons on shares.
      In December 1860, he was married to Miss Caroline Bale, daughter of the 
old pioneer Dr. E.T. Bale, and immediately removed to his present place and 
began its improvement. He made wine there in 1861, but from grapes procured from 
Knight�s Valley and elsewhere in the valley, as he only began to set out vines 
in that year, planting about twenty acres of rooted Mission grapes. This was the 
second vineyard ever set out in the valley for wine purposes, that of Dr. Crane 
preceding it a short time. From that time on, his business, increased  rapidly 
from year to year, until for a long time he was at the head of wine producers in 
the State, and always in the van of improvement and the march of progress. He 
began, in 1868, the magnificent stone cellar that now graces the estate, adding 
to it as required until completed in 1884, with a capacity of near 1,000,000 
gallons of wine, a capacity equaled or excelled by few cellars in the county.
      But it has not always been plain and easy sailing for Mr. Krug. A 
disastrous fire in 1874 caused him enormous loss, from which, however, he 
rapidly recovered, with the expansion of wine industry. The favorable condition 
of affairs in this industry grew wonderfully. The number of acres of vineyards 
in the Napa Valley increased rapidly, varieties of vines where changed from 
defective to good ones, quality of the  wine steadily improved, capacity of 
cellar-room and cooperage greatly enlarged, so that Napa county soon was 
acknowledged as the leading wine county in the state, with 16,000 acres of 
vineyard, which made the valley appear as a grand flourishing garden, and with 
5,000,000 gallons of wine in its cellars as a true witness for the great energy 
and activity of its viticulturists. But such grand progress in this industry 
could not be made without immense expenses; such great improvements could not be 
done without, in most cases, the contraction for heavy debts. A great deal of 
financial trouble followed, and as a consequence Mr. Krug was forced to make an 
assignment in 1885. From this, however, he is fast recovering himself, and his 
business tact and tireless energy will soon replace him in the lead of wine 
manufacturers as before.
      Mr. Krug has always been a public-spirited man, too much so far for his 
own good, always ready to put his shoulder to the wheel and help along a good 
cause. He was a moving spirit in the formation of the Viticulturist Commission 
in 1880 that has done so much good to the wine-producing interests of 
California. He represented the Napa district upon the board until 1890. He was 
Treasurer of the Commission during the whole of his connection with it, and one 
of its most useful and active workers. Considerably to his efforts will be due 
the improvement in price and the general outlook for the wine industries of 
late. We insert here a little sheet sent out by him a few years ago, proposing 
methods of aiding the cause. It must be a matter of gratification to Mr. Krug to 
see that each item of his suggestions has borne fruit and the good results are 
appearing. It is as follows:
      
                                   Suggestions To Wine Men
      
      � A number of leading wine and grape men of this county, determined to 
improve the present low condition of the market for wines in the hands of the 
producer, find a proper remedy against the existing evils leading to their ruin 
and loss of their homes by sheriffs� sales, in the following plan and 
proposition to the wine-producers of this state, which plan also serves as an 
appeal to fair-minded men of means.
      �1st. The producer must be enabled to sell in future no more new wine, 
having for new wine only one purchaser, the San Francisco wine merchant. 
Wine-makers as a class have not sufficient means to house two vintages in their 
small cellars. Therefore men of means should assist and give facilities for 
storage of wine in the city and in prominent wine districts in the country. Such 
warehouses would pay their proprietors a handsome interest. In a solid warehouse 
wine will be considered a good security. Large quantities of wine under one roof 
can be extensively advertised cheaply and successfully, and be put under proper 
treatment for a small amount of expense. The market will never be overstocked 
with good, sound old wine.
      �2nd.  The producer must be induced to make and sell no more inferior 
wine, such as made from Mission and Malvoisie. Nothing ruins the prices and 
reputation of good California wines more then the sale of inferior wines at low 
prices. The grape man must sell his inferior grapes and the wine man his 
inferior wines to the distiller. Large co-operative distilleries should be 
erected, and all must help in agitating the establishment of United States 
bonded brandy warehouses, not only in New York, but also in Chicago, St. Louis, 
Cincinnati, New Orleans, etc.
      � 3rd.   The producer must assist in the establishment of �Condensed Must 
Plants.�
     � 4th.   The producer must use his influence at the time of election to 
send only such men as representatives of our golden wine State to Congress, who 
are known as honest friends of a proper national pure wine law, and will with 
all this power and influence work for passing the much needed law to protect us 
against shameless adulteration.� 
      Mr. Krug has probably the loveliest place in the valley, the buildings 
surrounded by a park-like grove of native and exotic trees, shrubs, and flowers, 
watered by fountains and adorned by works of art. The view of the mountains and 
valley on every side is magnificent and grand, and the convenience to St. Helena 
makes it the most charming of suburban homes. In person Mr. Krug is one of the 
most whole-souled and genial men that it is possible to find. Indeed it is 
impossible to meet him without liking him. Clear-sighted in his views, 
energetic, affable and able in all he undertakes, he possesses host of friends, 
his enemies being only those he has helped to thwart in their personal and 
selfish aims. We predict a brighter and more prosperous future yet for Mr. Krug 
than any experience of fortune he has known in the past.
 
Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California The Lewis Publishing Co., 
1891, Pages 820-822