Krugerdorf (and Tarzwell)

Just west of Krugerdorf on Highway 11 is Tarzwell, a small community on the shores of a lake. In Tarzwell, there are some homes, a bison farm, and some wildnerness cottages that you can rent out in the summer.

Krugerdorf was founded as a farming homestead in Chamberlain Township in the early 1900s, about 25 kilometres south of Kirkland Lake. Not officially named Krugerdorf until 1949, the area was largely settled by a number of German families. The town was given the name "The German Settlement" until it became to be called Krugerdorf.

Krugerdorf     Former industry: Jewish farming settlement Google map: Click here Town links: Englehart Public Library - Old Photos "The Last Jewish Family in Ansonville" Kirkland Lake Jewish Cemetery Photo - Krugerdorf countryside Photo - Country road near Krugerdorf Photo - Tarzwell Lake

One of the first settlers was August Kruger, a farmer and blacksmith from Germany. Having migrated to Renfrew County in 1879 (northwest of Ottawa), August and his son Frank left for the Krugerdorf area in 1905, where he was given deed to 800 acres of land. Kruger established a farm, and a blacksmith shop, and helped provide ties and spikes to the railway. Word of his success attracted other German-speaking families from Renfrew County in 1910, along with English and Scottish settlers. Later a sawmill and threshing mill were established on the Blanche River.

The area also had a noticeable Jewish homesteading community. With the help of the Baron de Hirsch Institute of Montreal, an organization that helped Jewish immigrants to move to Canada, a small Jewish farming community was set up in the area. Free land was offered to settlers along the railroad between 1905 and 1915, atttracting Jewish settlers from Russia and Romania, where they couldn't legally own land. According the the Canada virtual museum website, among the colony were such names as Henerofsky, Gurevitch, Feldman, Levy, Goldstein, Abraham, Frumpkin, Verlieb and others. There were about fifty families in all. Eventually, the town developed, with a school, a Lutheran church, and a synoguge.

The Northern Chevra Kadesha Cemetery was established in 1906 when some Jewish pioneers died in a canoeing accident. Morris Perkus and his son Ben were returning from Englehart station with three new immigrants from Europe when their boat was caught in a surprise current and took them over the fall. A small, hockey-rink sized piece of land on the land of local farmer Simon Henerofsky was devoted to bury the dead pioneers and deeded to the Jewish community in nearby Englehart. The Krugerdorf cemetery would eventually serve the Jewish populations of Temiskaming, mainly centered in Kirkland Lake, Englehart, and Cobalt. Today, Krugerdorf cemetery is maintained by Jewish communities in northeastern Ontario and northwestern Quebec.

The community began to decline in the late 1920s. Despite high quality soil, frosts killed crops and markets for beef and grain were distant. After the Second World War, the farming community really began to wind down as children left the farm for work in local towns. All that is left today is the cemetery, a testament to the settlers of a bygone era.

If you'd like to know more about Krugerdorf and the history of Chamberlain Township, you can read A Place Called Krugerdorf, by Herb Kruger in the Englehart Library. If you can add to this page, or provide some photos, please let me know by emailing info (at) highway11 (dot) ca.

(The headstone photo is copyright of the Canada Virtual Museum - the Kirkland Lake Jewish Cemetery Link.)

 

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VISITOR COMMENTS — Lorne Fleece from North Bay.,ON on 2010-02-15 20:22:55 My memories of Krugerdorf is living in the boarding cars of the Ontario Northland Comminications Department during the months of February to March in 1950. The weather was 20 t0 30 below F. some mornings The water in barrell for washing would be frozen over in the car beside the stove. The bull-cook Alex French would come along and get a roaring fire going in the stove situated in the middle of the car to warm it up. The purpose of our job was to string control wires that were to be used on the new block signals for the railway on the bottom crossarms of the telephone lines.Also at the top of the cedar poles brackets were being installed to carry a 500 Volt power line . There was no hydro at Krugerdorf at this time. While putting up wires the younger linemen would race to see who could come down the poles the quickest. I remember one time missing my footing and dropping on my back from about ten feet cushioned by the heavy snow. I was shaken up but more cautious thereafter. At Krugerdorf Donat Chaylt was the section foreman for the railway. It was treat for us young men to see his daughters Theresa and Jean. I remeber one of the four boys was named Harry. A Stutynski family lived in the area and I seem to remember the name Julia as one of the girls. One of the linemmen took a shine to her and he would visit her place. The Blackburn family lived behind the Krugerdorf station. They kept a store and post office. The young linemen were always thinking up pranks. One was to make up a chaps bed so he couldn't get his legs all the way down to end. I believe it was called a "French Bed" Another time someone had shot an OWL and put it at the end of another lineman's bed When he went to get into the top bunk bed ; he felt the feathers on his feet. He leaped into the air with a big yelp and landed on floor about five feet away. One lineman who was lonesome for his girlfriend in Kapukasing would collect birch bark from the trees along the pole line and make them into note paper and envelopes. He wrote many letters.The couple got married and in 2009 are still living in Kapuskasing. When the boarding cars were moved up the line to the next siding we noticed that the Ontario Hydro crews were installing power line poles along farm roads to provide hydro to the farms. The men that were in the boarding cars were Lorne Fleece, Lloyd and Jim Newton Jack Haskins, Paul Picard(Gang Foreman) Red Carroll, Don Simpson, Isadore Rivard (The Cook) Jack Haskins, and Jack Jarvis There were three others but their names are lost in the midst of time A good reference book for the area is "A Place Called KRUGERDORF" by Herb Kruger Published by Baarie Press (1994) Inc. — jim atkinson from Sauble Beach Ontario on 2010-09-01 15:00:40 My great grandfather David Forrester and his wife and family came to Canada in 1908 from Scotland. The family included 3 boys aged 19,15, and 11. two girls aged 10 and 8. My great grangparents were 50 years of age. What brought them to Krugerdorf was either work on the railway or the free land. Their stay in Krugerdorf was ended in around 1916 as the 3 boys joined the army and fought in WW1. My great grandparents would not have been able to continue farming without their help as they were 55 years of age by then.They moved to North Bay where he worked for the railway. I have several photos of them taken at Krugerdorf outside their home which I will scan and try to post here.

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