CULTURE
GARDEN of DELIGHT
38
MCGLENN FAMILY COLLECTION
Devout Catholics, Moon Lueg and his family celebrate then-Rev. Michael Beerhalter’s 25th year in the priesthood in 1951. The jubilee took place at the
old St. Anastasia School on Orange Avenue. From left are: Moon Lueg, wife Ella May, children Lana, Raymond, Irene, Lena, Oakley, Marie, Audrey and
Ida. Seated second from right is the younger children’s nanny, Grandma Kohn.
Chinese-American restaurant introduced many
Fort Pierce residents to Asian taste and style
BY PATTIE DURHAM
Awarm climate, fertile soil and the possibility of yearlong
farming led a young New Jersey farmer and
family man to St. Lucie County back in the 1940s.
The family business of growing vegetables to sell
in the New York City markets prospered after Moon Lueg
and his wife, Ella May, moved to Fort Pierce with their eight
children. They purchased acres of rich farmland and also a
large piece of property that extended from U.S. 1 to Old Dixie
Highway north of Fort Pierce. A historic old plantation-style
mansion on Old Dixie Highway soon housed the Luegs.
The new family joined the parishioners at St. Anastasia
Catholic Church, and Moon Lueg became a good friend to
the Rev. Michael Beerhalter, pastor of the church and director
of St. Anastasia Catholic School, where the Lueg children
studied. They included Audrey, Ida, Irene, Lana, Lena, Oakley,
Marie and Raymond.
“Monsignor Beerhalter would come to our place in New
Jersey,” Raymond, the youngest son, remembers, “and we
would take him to the port so he could go to visit family in
Germany.
“He would come to our home for Sunday dinner when we
were down here.”
The Luegs owned a large farm of about 200 acres near Englishtown,
N.J., where vegetables were grown and sold in their
market in New York City. These vegetables were destined to
be served in Chinese restaurants in the New York area. Yet, >>