PETER NICHOLAS KUSS

San Francisco County

Biographies

PETER NICHOLAS KUSS

PETER NICHOLAS KUSS, house and decorative painter, 409 Thirteenth Street, Oakland, was born in Schleswig-Holstein, February 10, 1849, then under Danish dominion but now under Prussian. He was a son of John George and Anna (Jorgensen) Kuss, both natives of Schleseig-Holstein, and now deceased. The mother died in 1854, comparatively young, and the father at the age of Sixty-two, about 1876; he was a mechanic in Hagerslav.

Mr. Kuss, whose name heads this notice, attended the gymnasium until the age of fifteen years, learned Danish, German, English and French, entered a navigation school, was apprenticed as a sailor before the mast three and a half years, in the Chinese coast trade, and received a diploma after six months, in his eighteenth year. Finally he made a trip as able seaman from Hamburg to San Francisco, arriving here in his nineteenth year. For a few months he followed ranching in Alameda County, and then apprenticed himself to a house and general painter, and at twenty years of age he was a journeyman in this art. For two years he worked at different points in the county; then, in 1872, he started into business at Colusa. In 1874 he came to Oakland and worked about six months as a journeyman, and in 1875 opened out on his own account, in partnership with Mr. Goetz; but in 1881 that partnership was dissolved, Mr. Goetz going upon a farm in Sonoma County. Mr. Kuss has contracts throughout the State, employing steadily some thirty –five men, most of whom are participants in the profits of the business. Last year, 1890, these participants numbered twenty-six, and they are members of the Kuss Kiawah Colony.

Having been a laboring man all his life, and seeing the heart-breaking strife between employer and employee, Mr. Kuss allows his work to be carried on under a scheme of co-operation. January 1, 1890 he drew up an agreement with his employees, giving them standard current wages, he himself to receive $150 a month salary, after the claims of all the employees have been satisfied. The employees are paid weekly. After their wages are paid, the business is to pay ten per cent upon the capital invested, and the further profits, if any, are to be divided at the end of the year, as follows: One part to be paid out in cash to all employees entitled to participation in the profits; one part to be paid to the concern itself and to the manager thereof; and one part to be paid to himself for him to invest in such concern or institution as he may deem advisable,-- the benefits accruing from such investments go to such employees in whose name such investment is made. The employer reserves the right, of course, to employ and discharge men. No workman is entitled to share the profits unless he has worked at least thirty days during the year, and is a member of some beneficiary organization, of his own choice and in good financial standing, that pays a weekly sick benefit to its members. All profits to be shared in proportion to the number of days the employee has worked during the year and the wages received. Other regulations to be according to the employer’s judgment as to what is beneficial to both parties. The system thus described attracts only good workmen, and such men say that the plan is satisfactory, being able to lay up more by the year then they could do independently. From apprentices up to the best workmen the wages are $12 to $50 a month.

Mr. Kuss owns a farm of 155 acres in Contra Costa County, near Danville, and also an interest in the Esperanza land & Improvement Company.

He was married, in 1873, in Santa Barbara, California, to Miss Carola Mueller, ho was born near t. Louis, Missouri, daughter of Ernest and Anna (Neubach) Mueller, natives of Germany, who were married in St. Louis, in 1848. Mr. Mueller is now a jeweler in Oakland, age about sixty-five years. He resided in San Francisco some time before locating in Oakland. Mr. and Mrs. Kuss have had seven children, of whom only three are now living, namely: Edward, born January 11, 1877; Amy, February 13, 1881; and Mabel Ethel, August 22, 1884.

Mr. Kuss is a member of the Oakland Lodge, No.118, I. O. O. F., and Oakland Lodge, No. 2 A. O. U. W.

Transcribed by Kim Buck.

Source: "The Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 2, Pages 531-533, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.

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