Floyd W. Kruschke (1918 - 2007)

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Biography

A paperboy comes to know his neighborhood like few people do. The Lancaster business district of Floyd's paper route in the 1930s was a prosperous area indeed. The business district was located not only on Central Avenue, but extended down the length of West Main Street and some of the surrounding streets. Trolley cars came east from Buffalo into Depew and Lancaster before heading back into the city. Those were golden days--after the Great War and before the Great Depression took its toll. Thousands of people worked in the factories along the railroad tracks in Lancaster and Depew. Small homes were being built to house the workers and large elegant homes were being built to house their supervisors. Automobiles, first introduced just thirty years before, were becoming a common sight on the streets, giving rise to whole new kind of business: car dealers, gas stations, and garages. More than 300 farms were located in Lancaster and many hundreds more in the surrounding towns.

Floyd Kruschke was born on School Street and was six years old when his father hired Mr. Adolf, a local contractor, to build a home for him on Brookfield Place. Just a year later, his mother died from complications after surgery and his father hired Anna Hahn to look after Floyd. Anna worked for Fanny Potter Eaton and lived in Mrs. Eaton's big white house on East Main Street. In time they heard of a young widow who was looking for employment so that she could support her family. Floyd remembers going with his father to meet her. An agreement was reached, and Mrs. Pfenner and her children moved into the house on Brookfield Place. Two years later Mrs. Pfenner and Mr. Kruschke decided to marry and Floyd acquired a stepmother, a stepbrother and a stepsister. He attended the School Street School through the sixth grade and graduated from the High School on Aurora Street. He delivered milk for Layer's Dairy for a time, then following in his father's footsteps, went to work for the Lancaster Machine Knife Works, where he stayed until retirement. Floyd and his wife Annette were married in 1943 and they still live in the house that her Grandfather Adolf built for his father.

A Paperboy's View Of his Village

by Floyd Kruschke

In 1930 Pleasant Avenue didn't cross Central Avenue. It ended there and Mr. Jensen's house stood on the west side of Central Avenue opposite Pleasant. He was the newspaper distributor and also ran a delivery service There was a room in the back of his house that had benches around the walls on three sides where he would stack the papers. We had to learn which was our stack, and every day the paper boys would go there to pick up their papers.

Moving south on Central Avenue we passed the Adolf home, then the Geyer's home and garage. Joe and Frank Geyer were Pontiac dealers. Next came Mr. Scherer's tailor shop. His son was a dentist. Mr. Sandel's store stood next door. He made cigars and sold tobacco. The Albert Theater showed silent movies. They changed the bill three times a week. Behind these buildings was Protective Park. It had a dance pavilion and one year they held a dance marathon down there.

Next to the movie stood the Greis Furniture Store and New York State Gas and Electric, then the Reo car agency. Neil Rohl had his garage in the back. The Jerge Ford Agency also had a repair garage in the back, run by Gordon Walters.

The Deja Photo Studio building was once an indoor miniature golf range. Miniature golf was popular then and there were two indoor ranges in downtown Lancaster. The meat market next door belonged first to Mr. Meininghaus, then Mr. Schneider, then Mr. Nuwer. Fitzgerald and Knauber's clothing store shared a building with Rose Marie's Dress Shop. A storage building for Maute's Feed Store stood next to John and Ralph May's barber shop.

The Sugar Bowl stood on the corner of Central and West Main Street. Across West Main Street was Braun's Department Store. It was a full size department store with a system of tubes to send the money from the sales floor to the office. At Christmas you could ride the elevator to the toyland on the third floor. There was a small building next to Braun's where Dettlings Jewelers stood. Later it was a Department of Health clinic. The Oriole's Club had the next building. Mr. Stutzman opened a grocery store next door to that. Happy's Barber shop stood on the corner of East Main Street and Central. It was run by Happy Bugenhagen and George Kiel.

Opposite the end of Central Avenue on East Main Street, now Broadway, was the fire house, and the Village Inn, owned by Mr. J.O. Garretsee. My stepbrother was friends with the Garretsees and they would hire him to work for them. During Old Home Week in 1928 I got to help him park cars behind the Village Inn. The whole village was decorated with flags and bunting and there were lots of people in town for the firemen's parade. When we finished parking cars, that lot was full.

On the east side of Central Avenue, the Liberty Diner stood on the corner of Central and Pleasant. Dr. Bentz had moved his house and dental office over to Pleasant Avenue to make room for the diner. Bernard Uebelhoer's home stood on Central Avenue where the Telephone Building is now. Linus Enser's IGA Grocery Store stood next to the creek. Mrs. Enser was a well known china painter. For many years she signed her fine porcelain pieces with her maiden name, Florence Beaser. Across the creek was Maute's Hardware Store. Norm Barrows worked there for many years.

Teddy Suess ran a Nash Agency in what is now the Credit Union Building, next was the Iroquois Gas office. The Moose Building and the New York Telephone office was next to Cushing's. Frank Cushing ran a drugstore in partnership with Ellis Burdick. Mr. Cushing was in the insurance business. The Keebler Shoe Store, Post Office, Thill's Confectionery, and the Bank of Lancaster took up the rest of the block up to Clark Street. After the bank failed, Parker's Gift Shop moved into the building on the corner. They sold gifts and small pieces of furniture. Behind these buildings was the Spencer sign painting shop, Brass's Blacksmith Shop, and a shoe repair shop.

Across Clark Street was the Town Hall and in those days, the Public Library was located in the big meetingroom on the first floor, just to the left of the lobby. Dr. DeFries had his dental office on the second floor. Right at the corner of Central and East Main Street stood the estate of Senator Davis. It was a big brick mansion with a brick wall all around the property. The garage had a turntable in it so you could turn the car around without backing it up.

On my street, Brookfield Place, stood the Bailey, Marquart, Enser, Albert Kruschke, and Reynders homes. Our house was the last one on our side. Across the street at one time the Varney family owned a small farm with an orchard. They had the first telephone on the street and for a time, they would take phone calls for everybody on the street. Mr. Reynders eventually came to own their property and he turned it into a private park. He put in lawns, flower beds, and a lily pond. There was a vegetable storage shed, a garage, two fireplaces for cooking, and 13 post lanterns. After he died, his wife couldn't keep it up and had to let it go wild. (1).

KRUSCHKE-Floyd W. Sr. Age 89, of Lancaster, NY, February 20, 2007, beloved husband of Annette (Monin); loving father of Karen (Charles) Demick, Floyd Jr. (Susan), Elizabeth (James) Hermanson; grandfather of the late Patricia, Stephen, Joel, Sarah, Sean, Kathryn, Alicia and Laura; great-grandfather of five; step-brother of Helen Wolko and the late Alfred Pfenner. Family will receive relatives and friends at the WENDEL & LOECHER INC. FUNERAL HOME, 27 Aurora St., Lancaster, Thursday 2-4 and 7-9. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at St. Marys R.C. Church Friday morning at 9:30, please assemble at church. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Meals On Wheels Lancaster Site.

Burial : Lancaster Rural Cemetery, Lancaster, NY K 68 4

Sources

• (1) The Lancaster Legend
• 1930 United States Census, Lancaster, Erie, New York, United States
• 1940 United States Census, Ward 1, Lancaster, Lancaster Town, Erie, New York, United States
• https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/buffalonews/name/floyd-kruschke-obituary?id=4841859