My LUGER Family

Our LUGER family originates in Dornbirn, Austria, where others have traced the family as far back as the late 1500s with the birth of Johannes Luger. Fourteen generations separate me from Johannes Luger. Amazingly, more than 1,200 Lugers are in our family tree.
My great-grandmother was Celia Luger, daughter of Luger Furniture Company co-owner John N. Luger, Jr. Celia married my great-grandfather John A. Bender, a prominent man in the history of North St. Paul. John N. Luger married Wilhelmina Paul, and they had eleven children.
John N. Luger was one of twelve children born to Johann N. Luger and Katherina Rhomberg, who were married May 23, 1856 in Dubuque, Iowa. Johann was born in Dornbirn, Austria, as was Katherine. Both come from very distinguished Dornbirn families, and the family names continue to be well known there even today. When I was in Dornbirn in 1990, I snapped photos of the Johann Luger building in the Marktplatz district of Dornbirn, as well as a photo of the nearby Rhomberg Haus.
Johann Luger also came from a large family. His father was Franz Josef Luger, who married twice and between both wives had twelve children. Johann's mother was Elisabetha Wohlgenannt, Franz' first wife. Franz and Elisabetha married on July 18, 1825 and they had six children. Of these six, Johann, Ferdinand and Josef Anton immigrated to America between 1854 and 1857. Johann and Ferdinand were later joined by half-brother Johann Georg in 1867 and together formed the Luger Furniture Company. In order of their birth, Franz Josef and Elisabetha's children are as follows:

1. Johann Jakob Luger April 28, 1826

2. Franz Josef Luger October 01, 1827

3. Franz Martin Luger March 16, 1829

4. Ferdinand Luger January 02, 1831

5. Johann Nepomuk Luger October 14, 1832 (My grt grt grt grandfather!)

6.

Josef Anton Luger

July 03, 1835

Franz Josef Luger's second wife was Anna Maria Fussenegger. They married in Dornbirn on August 21, 1837 and another six children were born:

7. Josef Andreas Luger June 13, 1838

8. Benedikt Luger November 18, 1839

9. Johann Georg Luger January 26, 1841

10. Maria Agatha Luger April 01, 1842

11. Anna Maria Luger September 09, 1843

12. Maria Franziska Luger March 31, 1845

Johann Nepomuk Luger, my great great great grandfather, was born October 14, 1832 in Dornbirn, Austria. John married Katharina Rhomberg on May 23, 1856 in Dubuque, Iowa. John and Katharine had twelve children, who are as follows:

1. FRANK J. LUGER November 17, 1857

2. JOHN N. LUGER April 07, 1859 (Did not survive infancy.)

3. JOHN NEPOMUK LUGER March 07, 1860 (My great great grandfather)

4. LOUIS A. LUGER March 10, 1862

5. ALBERT CHARLES LUGER May 11, 1864

6. JOSEPH A. LUGER August 18, 1865 (Died before reaching first birthday.)

7. JOSEPH A. LUGER September 30, 1866

8. WILLIAM E. LUGER February 15, 1868 (Died before reaching first birthday.)

9. PHILOMENA LUGER October 04, 1869

10. WILLIAM N. LUGER September 12, 1872

11. EDWARD E. LUGER September 30, 1874

12. EMILE N. LUGER March 22, 1876 (Died before reaching first birthday.)

John Nepomuk Luger, my great great grandfather, was born March 7, 1860 in Dubuque, Iowa. John married my great great grandmother Wilhelmina (Minnie) Paul on July 02, 1883 in Wabasha, Minnesota John and Minnie had eleven children, who are as follows:

1. ALBERT LOUIS LUGER June 11, 1884

2. EMIL JOSEPH LUGER September 02, 1885

3. CECILIA EDNA LUGER May 26, 1887 (My great grandmother!)

4. JOHN EDWIN LUGER February 25, 1889

5. ARTHUR JOSEPH LUGER April 22, 1891 (Died before reaching first birthday.)

6. OLIVIA MARY LUGER August 10, 1893

7. ARTHUR EDWIN LUGER November 24, 1894

8. ANGELINE HELEN LUGER December 16, 1895

9. ROWLAND LUGER March 06, 1897

10. ELMER ROBERT LUGER March 24, 1900

11. VINCENT EUGENE LUGER January 29, 1902

This photo was taken at John and Minnie Luger's 50th wedding anniversery, in 1933. Most of their family was present, which at that time already numbered about 50 descendants. (My grandfather, George Bender, is the young man standing in the back row directly behind John Luger, who is seated. (Click on the photo for a larger image. Caution: 138k file size.)

(The folowing information can be found in the book, A Century of Good Living: North St. Paul, by Rosemary Palmer.)

The Lugers, led by patriarch John Luger, became the first factory owners to capitalize on the opportunities that North St. Paul offered. In the spring of 1887, John Luger entered into an agreement with the [North St. Paul] Land Company to move his entire furniture factory from Wabasha, Minnesota to North St. Paul. Construction commenced in June and by September the Lugers had transferred 13 carloads of machinery from Wabasha to North St. Paul. On a fall day in September, John Luger arrived from Wabasha to inspect construction progress of his factory complex. In the following weeks he transferred the remaining equipment and employees from Wabasha to North St. Paul. Luger's advertised sale of all of his factory buildings in Wabasha at first was misinterpreted by some St. Paulites as the sale of all of his buildings in North St. Paul. This rumor and its implied disruptive influence on North St. Paul's development quickly was put to rest by the [North St. Paul] Sentinel.
By the end of October, 1887, the Wabasha factory was closed and all machinery and employees had been relocated. The Sentinel described the Luger Furniture factory as "a town by itself." A smoke stack rose 86 feet above numerous yellow brick buildings that sprawled across the five-acre site, which was located on the east side of Helen Street, between seventh Avenue and the Soo Line Railroad tracks. The Lugers had invested over sixty-five thousand dollars in machinery and buildings to create an industrial complex that included the factory, dry kiln, warehouse, varnish room, lumber shed and many other buildings. In November, Luger Furniture commenced production. The company's work force consisted of thirty-three Lugers, approximately 60 factory workers, and six traveling agents who sold their furniture from Minnesota to California.
For the Lugers everything did not proceed as smoothly as had been anticipated. At first well drillers were unable to locate water on the factory site. But in September continuous drilling eventually produced a working well at an unexpected depth of 174 feet. Then in November, the 69-foot long main drive belt in the factory ripped from end to end during testing. A month later an industrial accident severed an employee's fingertips. At the same time employees, for unreported reasons, walked out on strike. The strike lasted two weeks, but apparently did not seriously affect Luger's business. By the end of December the company was shipping a carload of furniture each day, supplying local and regional needs, and turning down orders that they could not fill. In 1894 they installed a 50-thousand gallon cistern at the furniture factory to supply water for the sprinklering system. The following year, they linked the furniture and table factories with telephone lines. That same year, in 1895, the company won first prize for excellent quality furniture at the Northwestern Furniture Exposition in Minneapolis.
For a number of years the furniture company operated at full capacity, even as the economy and the financial well being of the town took turns for the worst. The North St. Paul Bank failed, and the North St. Paul Land Company, the North St. Paul Cottage Company and the Casket Company were foreclosed upon. As the factories and businesses failed, residents lost jobs and could not pay debts, causing further foreclosures. During this time, The Luger Company maintained full employment, a "silver lining" of sorts for those fortunate to be in their employ. The Lugers not only kept the furniture and table factories open, they also expanded their businesses during this depression. Branch sales offices were opened in Boston and Kansas City and opened a large showroom in Minneapolis. The Lugers also organized their own mutual benefit association to assist employees and their families during slack periods.

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Jim Ericson 3541 Benjamin Street NE, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55418 (ph) 612.781.8254