Texas Road Trip Journal
Krebs, Oklahoma Special Visit
(in honor of my good friend Glen Krebs)
Glen M. Krebs
June 4, 2007: In mapping out this trip, I noticed that along the way we would be very close to a town in Oklahoma named Krebs. It so happens that I have a very close friend in Lexington named Glen Krebs. Glen is an immigration attorney for Wyatt, Tarrant and Combs and is also very active in the community, in scouting and in his church. I look up to him as a friend and a mentor (not to mention that we both are graduates of Murray High School in Murray, UT and both are fluent in Japanese. Ironically, we both married violin playing beauties that graduated from Westwood High School in Mesa, AZ and both did it on July 15th!!) Glen has served as the chairman of the Japan-America Society of Kentucky, is on the Lexington Sister Cities Commission and was recently assigned to be the Chairman of the Lexington-Fayette Commission on Immigration by the Mayor of Lexington.
Well, this page is to honor my good friend Glen Krebs. We drove about 8 miles out of our way so I could mail him a post card from the Krebs Post Office with a Krebs post mark. It was downright fun.
Glen Krebs is active all around, whether being a walkie-talkie toting cowboy, treated like royalty in Africa or just a plain old Dad (and now grandad)
And now he knows of a town named after him!! Here are scenes from the big booming town of Krebs, Oklahoma (population 2051):
As you enter town here is the sign...on the right is the plaque found on the small city hall building
If you go into the City Hall, you will see the current events. There is also a Krebs First Baptist Church...and a water tower
Of course, my goal was to find this place...which I did. And I sent the postmarked card to Glen
Solomon had to get in the act. On the left his name too was on a Masonic Lodge. Here is his first photo of his new car...
By the way, Glen Krebs was Solomon's last scoutmaster and was instrumental in helping Sol attain the rank of Eagle Scout on June 5th!!
I tried to go to the Krebs Heritage Museum in hopes of helping Glen find a link. But they were closed
I was able to find some information about the town of Krebs at the Krebs Heritage Museum website:
The name Krebs was chosen in honor of
Judge Edmond Folsom Krebs (some
genealogy here). From all information available the year was 1873.Judge
Krebs was of mixed German and Choctaw ancestry. He was born to Placide and
Rebecca Folsom Krebs on October 25, 1821 in Winston County, Mississippi. He had
eight brothers and six sisters. Edmond Krebs was a judge for the Choctaw Nation
, Indian Territory in the 1880’s. The courthouse that he presided in still
stands in North McAlester, Oklahoma, though it has been moved several times
since it was first constructed in 1876. It is probably the oldest structure
standing in the McAlester/Krebs area.
The Missouri, Kansas, & Texas Railroad ( MKT or KATY ) built it’s North-South
rail line through the area that is now known as McAlester in 1872. With the
advance of the rail line came many people and the need to tap the valuable
recourse, coal, that nature had blessed this area with. The KATY formed the
Osage Coal and Mining Company to harvest the coal that it needed to operate.
Excess coal was sold on the open market. The Choctaw Railway laid East-West
tracks that intersected at present day McAlester. The richest deposits of coal
in Indian Territory laid directly under Krebs. The coal deposits stretched from
McAlester Eastward to and beyond the Arkansas State line. Most of the small
towns along this line owe their existence to coal. By 1895, 15 coal mines had
been opened in Krebs. Krebs suffered the worse coal mining disaster in Indian
Territory / Oklahoma history in 1892 from an explosion in mine #11. This
explosion killed over 100 men and boys as young as 12 years old and many were
buried in a mass grave that is in North McAlester.
The initial workforce in the mines was made up primarily of immigrants from the
British Isles. In the 1880’s many immigrants from other areas began flowing in
to supplement the legion of workers needed to conduct the trade. The majority of
new immigrants were from Continental Europe and by far the Italian people made
up the lions share of immigrants coming in. Over the decades Italian
restaurants have been established which are known the world over.
Krebs was incorporated in 1903 and Mel D. Reed was elected first Mayor of the
town and Bob Miller was elected the first Chief of Police. The City school
system was consolidated in 1907 and that same year President Roosevelt issued a
proclamation declaring Oklahoma a state.
The Krebs Opera House was re-built as a brick structure in 1903 after the first
one was destroyed by fire the previous year and it and the St. Joseph's Catholic
Church were the first brick buildings to go up in Krebs. It was the only place
for miles around that featured stage shows. Many fine road shows played here and
moving pictures were shown in the Opera House, also. The Dreamland Theater later
became the popular movie theater in Krebs and it was owned and operated by Mr. &
Mrs. Dave Holstead.
Krebs was served by a two coach passenger train, on a Missouri, Kansas, and
Texas Railroad Branch Line. The train was called the Nellie. Krebs had her own
KATY depot in the downtown area and a depot south of town on the East-West line,
later to become the Rock Island Railway. The Nellie served 9 towns from
McAlester to Wilburton, through Krebs, Carbon, Adamson, and Patterson. Passenger
service, express and mail were transported by the Nellie. An interurban
electric streetcar line served from McAlester to Krebs, Alderson, Bache, Dow,
Haileyville, and Hartshorne. It was possible to visit any of the towns along
the route for less than a dollar.
Krebs had an Italian Band that played in a double-decker bandstand in downtown
Krebs. There were at least five bandstands between McAlester and Hartshorne that
the band played at on weekends providing entertainment for families from all
over. Lots of families rode the street car to these sites for picnics and
festivals.
Krebs had 5 different newspapers at different times: Krebs Eagle, Krebs Cyclone,
Krebs Banner, Krebs Advertiser, and The Oklahoma Miner.
The old timers in Krebs will tell you that there was a small store on nearly
every block in Krebs in the first one third of the 20th century when they were
growing up. Some were tiny one or two room shacks and others were an extra room
on the family residence. A couple of the structures are still in existence
including Mrs. Giacomo’s Store, Powell’s Grocery, and Jim DeFrange’s store,
though none have operated in decades. Joe Michael operated a dry goods store
since the teens of the last century till the late 1970’s, with the exception of
a year or two when he served in World War I. The store is still in operation by
his nephew.
Dr. Robinson was the first doctor to move to Krebs in 1894. Later Dr. George
Turner became the coal company doctor and in time formed a partnership with Dr.
Richard Pemberton. The last doctor to maintain an office in Krebs was the late
Dr. Thomas T. Norris. Dr. Norris came to Krebs from Crowder, Oklahoma after the
death of Dr. George Turner.
The Terrapin Derby originated in 1929 when Mayor J.T. Sadler visited the Miller
Brother's Shows in Ponca City, Oklahoma. Mayor Sadler brought the idea back to
Krebs as a fundraising idea. The Derby was a success and enough money was raised
to purchase a new truck for the city. Over the years the derby raised funds that
provided vehicles and equipment for one of the finest volunteer fire departments
in the region. The Terrapin Derby is still conducted by the Krebs Fire
Department on Labor Day weekend every year.
The city of Krebs maintains a city park which includes a nice baseball park, a
one kilometer walking track, picnic facilities, a two-story replica of the
gazebo that originally stood in the town square, and will soon include
playground equipment. The park stands on a portion of the old
fairground/racetrack site of a hundred years ago. The original racetrack was a
1/8 mile banked oval track where horses, sulkys, and early autos were raced. The
Krebs Italian Band played many festivals or 'festas'
at the park in bygone simpler times.
I hope that this little dedication page was fun.
Now, back to the main trip on Day 3.