Krebs, Walter Edmund (1837-1928)

Walter Krebs was born in Littlestown, PA on January 1, 1837. His father was Isaac Krebs and his mother was Esther Topper Krebs. They moved to Gettysburg in 1841 and then to Winchester, VA in 1847. Walter attended public school in Winchester and then the Angerona Seminary. He attended Marshall college in Mercersburg before it merged with Franklin college in 1853. He graduated from Franklin and Marshall college in 1856 with first honors and in 1858 from Mercersburg Theological Seminary. In October of 1858, during the annual sessions of the Synod in Frederick Maryland, he and J. M. Titzel were licensed together on one day and ordained on the next day. His first charge in Emmitsburg, MD, consisted of two congregations; the Church of the Incarnation in Emmitsburg and the congregation at Fairfield, Millerstown, PA. He served them from 1859-1862. It was during this period he met and married Miss Isabella LeFevre. They had two children, Ada and Stanley. Mrs. Krebs died in December of 1895. After the Emmitsburg Charge, he served the Waynesboro PA charge, consisting of the Trinity, Waynesboro and Salem congregations. From 1868 until 1870 he was pastor of the All Souls Church in Allegheny City, and from 1870 until 1872 he served the Irwin PA Charge. In 1872 Walter became a member and secretary of the faculty at Franklin and Marshall College, teaching Mathematics and History. In 1878 he resigned the professorship to become pastor of the Bloomsburg, PA Charge. He became president of the Allentown Female college in 1883 and served there until 1885. Mr. Krebs then returned to Littlestown to establish and conduct the Edge Hill Institute, also called the Edgevale Home School, which flourished from 1885 until 1900. In that year he closed the school and entered into retirement, residing at Littlestown until 1909. He moved to Lancaster, PA with his nephew, Rev. A. T. G. Apple. When Professor apple died in 1918, he moved to New York to live with his son, Rev. Stanley Krebs. In 1921 he returned to Lancaster and resided in the Diffenbach Home for the Aged during the remainder of his life. Mr. Krebs died after an illness of four days with pneumonia, on April 26, 1928, at the age of ninety-one.