Lou’s View – June 19, 2014
The Man Who Was Our Government
by Lou Bernard
It’s our anniversary! Clinton County is 175 years old. We’ve come a long way from the early days, when all county business was done out of a tavern, and Jerry Church roamed the streets, contributing to the community by being charming. When we were founded in 1839, Jerry was the town founder. (And over a century and a half later, he still is. Impressive.) Anthony Kleckner, Robert Bridgens, and Hugh White were the first county commissioners, and James W. Quiggle was the district attorney. John Miller, utilizing his hat as a filing cabinet, was the earliest sheriff.
And chances are, you’ve heard a lot about all these guys already. I know I’ve written about most of them before. But there’s someone else who was instrumental in county government in those days, someone you may not know.
Philip Krebs.
When the county was founded in 1839, they needed a place to work in. They chose Barker’s Tavern at 310 East Water Street, and declared a section of the canal for county parking only. (I’m kidding about that, but can’t you just see it?) The courts were held in a wing of the tavern, and the commissioners met in one room upstairs. The Register and Recorder, Clerk of Courts, and Prothonotary were all in the other room, and they decided to cut down on crowding problems by giving all of those positions to Philip Krebs.
Krebs, who was apparently an especially competent guy, accepted the jobs. I can only assume he was also offered the position of coroner, but turned it down because he didn’t much want to look at dead people.
Krebs was born in Montgomery County on December 7, 1789. As an adult, he married his wife Margaret and moved to Lock Haven in the very early days. When the county was founded on June 21, 1839, he was given the position, essentially, of half the government.
He spent the majority of his life that way, doing something vital to the community. In 1844, Krebs ran for Justice of the Peace, because he apparently felt his resume wasn’t full enough yet. He won, taking that office on February 24. He also served as Deputy Register and Recorder in 1849. Then he ran for Register and Recorder once again in 1852, under the slogan,”Elect Whigs to office and you give them a chance to mock you.” It’s not exactly “Four more years,” but it worked—He won back the office, taking over for Thomas McGhee.
Later in life, he retired from public office and settled down, sitting on his porch. Oh, wait, no, he didn’t—There was going to be nothing quite so boring and sedentary for a busy guy like Philip Krebs. He retired from public office and went into banking, taking a position as cashier of the Lock Haven Bank. He held that job for almost the rest of his life.
His health began to fail in the fall of 1860, and he finally stepped down from banking, as well. He spent some time with his wife and his son, and finally died the next year, on June 25, 1861—Krebs lived long enough to see his new county into its twenty-second anniversary.
His obituary was printed in the Clinton Democrat on June 27, 1861. It called him “One of the most respectable citizens of Clinton County,” and said that “He discharged the duties of all these positions with marked ability and fidelity, and at all times enjoyed the confidence and respect of those who knew him.”
The obituary didn’t list every single position Krebs had held, presumably because there wasn’t enough room in the newspaper for it.
To the best of my knowledge, there’s nothing named after Philips Krebs to keep his memory alive—No monument, no park, no “Krebs Street.” There is a gravestone. He’s buried up in Highland Cemetery, along with his wife, son, and daughter-in-law.
I may take a walk up there sometime, and look at it. Philip Krebs. He had an impressive track record, and besides, it’s not often you get to see fifty percent of the county government buried in one single grave.
