Hans Juria Krieger (abt. 1710 - 1785)

Husband of Margaret (Schumacher) Krieger — married 9 Feb 1742 in Albany, Albany, New York Colony

Descendants

Died 6 Aug 1785 at about age 75 in Williamstown, Berkshire, Massachusetts, United States

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Biography

Hans Juria was born about 1710.^[1] He settled in East Manner Rensselaerwyck on the Hoosick River in what is now known as North Pownal, Vermont, near "Kreiger's Rock," probably around 1730, and built a mill.^[2]

On February 9, 1742, "Johann George Kruger" married "Margaretha Shoemaker" at the Albany Reformed Church.^[3]

The Kreiger family and their neighbors suffered greatly during King George's War and again during the French and Indian War. In 1747, neighbor Nicholas Novie was scalped and left for dead, and "...every house was set on fire and numbers of domestic animals of all sorts were killed…Wherever [they] went [they] made the same havoc, laid waste both sides of the river, through twelve leagues of fertile country, burned houses, barns stables and even a meeting-house, in all above two hundred establishments, killed all the cattle and ruined all the crops.’"^[4] In 1754, the community was attacked again, with the Brimmer family ambushed while working in their fields. The families fled to Fort Massachusetts, and "on August 28, 1754, the final massacre of Dutch Hooesac took place and every vestige of settlement was burned.”^[5] The "Kreiger's Rocks Neighborhood" rebuilt their farms for a third time.

When the town of Pownal was established in 1761, the proprietors provided Hans Juria with a single grant "on account of mill improvements."^[6] The Kreigers, along with their neighbors, had built their community on land they believed to have been granted by the New York colony under the Hoosick Patent. However, the colony of New Hampshire also believed they had jurisdiction over the land, and sold rights to the same property at small cost to an Englishman, who quickly moved to evict the Dutch settlers. “The first conflict of authority over lands in what is now Vermont occurred in Pownal in August 1764, probably before any knowledge had reached the settlers of the royal order, establishing the authority of New York in this region. …he received news on the Friday proceeding that date [17 Aug 1764] that the New Hampshire people had ejected one Hans Creiger, hold tide under the Hoosick patent, a New York grant, taking possession of this lands and tenements; that they had driven off his cattle and compelled him to pay forty-five dollars for their redemption, and that they had taken a parcel of Indian corn. It was intimated that Peter Voss [Vosburgh] and Bastiane Deale expected to be ejected the following day, and the claim was made that these possessions had been held by the three men mentioned upward of thirty years, with the exception of the periods when they were driven off by the Indians during the last two wars.”^[7] The eviction was eventually overturned by the New York jurisdiction. In November of 1766, Hans Kriger and his brother Volrath were among one hundred eighty-one Hoosick Valley settlers who signed a petition to the Governor Benning Wentworth of New Hampshire asking that their original claims be validated and that they be held harmless from superseding claims known as the "New Hampshire grants."^[8]

Soon after, the Kreiger family resettled about ten miles south, in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Sons William, John and Peter were granted rights in 1769 to set up a grist mill on the "West Branch" (Green River). Months later, they were also granted the right to set up a saw mill.^[9]

Hans Juria (also known as John George) passed away in 1785, aged 75 years. He was buried in Westlawn cemetery in Williamstown, Massachusetts.^[10] In his will, John George Krieger left all his personal estate to wife Margaret, along with one third of the improvements of his Williamstown real estate for her natural life. He left "unto the heirs of my won WIlliam Kriger late deceased the sum of ten pounds lawful money equally to be divided between them and paid by my son Hans Kriger as soon as they shall arrive at lawful age." The remainder of the real estate in Williamstown to son Hans. The total of this estate was valued at over 760 pounds.^[11]

Sources

1. ↑ Date of birth is estimated from his year of death and age, as seen on his headstone.
2. ↑ Bernhard C. Young, Loyalism in the Hoosick Valley (Orleans, Ontario, Canada: Jim Keller, 2008).
3. ↑ Henry Z. Jones, Even More Palatine Families [Picton Press : Rockport, Maine, 2002], vol. 1, page 380; images online, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 24 Jul 2023). The manuscript indicates only that "Albany Reformed Chbk" means "Records of the Dutch Reformed Church of Albany, Albany Co., N.Y. 1683-1833".
4. ↑ Bernhard C. Young, Loyalism in the Hoosick Valley (Orleans, Ontario, Canada: Jim Keller, 2008), p. 12.
5. ↑ Grace Greylock Niles, The Hoosac Valley, Its Legends and Its History (New York G.P. Putnam’s sons, 1912), p. 168; digital images online, Internet Archive (http://archive.org/details/hoosacvalleyitsl00nileuoft : accessed 11 Nov 2023).
6. ↑ Grace Greylock Niles, The Hoosac Valley, Its Legends and Its History (New York G.P. Putnam’s sons, 1912), p. 210; digital images online, Internet Archive (http://archive.org/details/hoosacvalleyitsl00nileuoft : accessed 11 Nov 2023).
7. ↑ W. H. Crockett, History of Vermont (New York : 1921), as quoted in Bernhard C. Young, Loyalism in the Hoosick Valley (Orleans, Ontario, Canada: Jim Keller, 2008).
8. ↑ "Sketches of Pownal, Part 1", Vermont Rootsweb; website, (https://sites.rootsweb.com/~vermont/LorePownal.html : accessed 12 Nov 2023).
9. ↑ Rollin Hillyer Cooke, "Williamstown Massachusetts Proprietor's Book, 1754-1878," typed transcript, page 86; images online, Family Search (http://familysearch.org : accessed 11 Aug 2023), identifier no. 2211212.
10. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/67772948/john-george-kriger: accessed 05 November 2023), memorial page for John George Kriger (1710–6 Aug 1785), Find a Grave Memorial ID 67772948, citing Westlawn Cemetery, Williamstown, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, USA; Maintained by Frederick Porter (contributor 48254596).
11. ↑ Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Probate Records, vol 5, page 232, will of John George Kreiger; images online, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9YY-R4MK?i=341&cat=34875).