William
England (1794 Virginia -1876) served during the War of 1812, enlisting
November 13, 1814, serving in Capt. Samuel Carother's Tennessee
Militia and being discharged May 16, 1915. At the age of 22 years
he married Chloe Pike (1794 - 1870) on March 2, 1817 in Robertson Co.,
Tennessee. To this union four daughters and two sons were born in
Robertson Co., Tennessee
On
November 12, 1827, William England purchased 80 acres of "public lands"
in Morgan Co., Illinois (created in 1823) provided by the Act of
Congress, May 6, 1812 as bounty land for partial compensation of
volunteer military service during the War of 1812. He purchased
an additional 87.65 acres in Madison Co., Illinois (created in 1812) on
March 12, 1834; both records were signed by President John Quincy Adams
On
November 1, 1839, he purchased 80 acres in Marion Co., Illinois
(created January 1823), signed by President Martin Van Buren.
Another was 55.34 acres was purchased on March 10, 1843, deed
signed by President John Tyler.
William and Chloe's youngest child,
son William, was born in Illinois May 1827. Federal census for
1850 and the state census for 1855 list the England family living in
Marion Co., Illinois. William England had the first store in
Racoon township and was the first postmaster.
William England
and family were living in Whitesboro, Grayson Co., Texas where he
registered to vote in 1867, stating that he had lived in the state for
11 years and in Grayson County and Whitesboro precinct for 10 years.
Family history notes that Chloe died at Whitesboro in September
1870.
In
the the mid-1850s William and Jane Taylor family moved from Missouri to
Texas; in 1856 W.H. Taylor received a grant of 288 acres on the waters
of Denton Creek in Cooke Co.; when Montague Co. was created this land
was within the new county boundaries. On June 16, 1857 Eliza Ann,
daughter of William & Jane Taylor married Wiley Blount Savage, a
widower aged 45 years, at the age of 14. (W.R. Potter's History
of Montague County describes this as the first marriage to occur on
Denton Creek. Eliza Ann Taylor Savage is listed twice in the 1860
Montague Co. census - once in her father's household and, two houses
later, in that of her her new husband along with his five children from
his first marriage. Mr. Savage dies in 1864 and Eliza married
Benjamin Krebs, a Swiss immigrant, who was listed as a stage
driver in the 1860 census at Ft. Belknap, Young Co., Texas. Eliza
and Benjamin had three children.
On September 24, 1869, Eliza's
father, William H. Taylor, obtained a second land grant of 160 acres
near the old farm of Wiley Blount Savage.
Eliza's younger brother,
William Taylor, Jr., shot and killed their father in the home of Eliza
and Benjamin Krebs when his drunk father arrived home and attempted to
whip his son (Marvin F. London's Famous Court Trials of Montague Co.)
William Jr. and slipped out the back door of his father's home
and went to Eliza's home, where their father chased his son and
threatened him, resulting in the tragic shooting. William Taylor,
Jr. was eventually captured, tried and acquitted of his father's murder.
In
1870 Benjamin Krebs, age 36, along with his wife, Eliza, age 26,
and their four children were enumerated in Montague Co. Living in
Whitesboro, Grayson Co. at this time were:
1870 Grayson Co., pct 3, Whitesboro, Texas Census (22 November 1870, pg.52)
Family 372/ Household 381
Celina Taylor 50F
Isaiah Taylor 27 m farmer
Joseph 25 m farmer
Isaac M 23M farmer
Harvey 21M farmer
Birch 16M
Susannah 15F
Family 375/ Household 381
Marion F Tate 21M
farmer ILL
Arilda Tate 21F AR
Wm Tate 1M TX
Wm England 77M farmer
VA
On December 7, 1870, William England, aged 77, married Salena Dewitt Taylor, aged 50, in Montague County.
On
the evening of August 26, 1876 events were set in motion that would
change the lives of the Taylor and England family forever. That
night Benjamin Krebs, along with James Preston and Eliza's youngest
brother, Aaron K. Taylor, were detained, jailed and indicted on
suspicions of the murder of Methodist minister William England, his
wife, Selena, and two of her children from a prior marriage,
Isaiah D. Taylor and Susie Taylor, who was to be married a few days
after her murder.
The evening of the
murder, Mr. England, his wife, and her children were preparing for the
night's sleep in their newly built home when the three men came to the
house and slaughtered the family.
The Krebs-Preston murder case drew considerable attention because of the savage nature of the murders, even being noted in The New York Times edition of September 30, 1876.
Prior to her death, Selena England identified Ben Krebs, face-to-face, as the individual who had mortally wounded her.
The Denison Daily News
Wednesday morning, August 30, 1876
pg. 1
A FIENDISH OUTRAGE
A Family of Seven Murdered Near Montague by a Party of
Masked Men.
The Victims are Rev. W.G. England, His Wife, Step-Daughter
and Four Step-Sons.
The Family Formerly Resided in Grayson County
Special to the Dallas Herald
Decatur, August 28 - A murder most foul was perpetrated on
Denton Creek, just in the edge of Montague county. Rev. Mr. England, his step son and daughter,
were murdered in their house on Saturday night.
The former had his throat cut and the latter two were shot.
Mrs. England, wife of the murdered minister, who was formerly a Mrs.
Taylor, was also shot and will die.
Parties, whose names we could not learn, have been arrested on
suspicion.
Special to the Herald
Decatur, August 18 - There were five persons murdered 6
miles south of the town of Montague on Saturday night, by parties in
disguise. The persons murdered are Rev.
W.G. England, three step-sons and one step-daughter, all grown. The mother was shot, but still survives at
last accounts. No cause has as yet been
heard for the fiendish outrage. The family once resided in Grayson county.
LATER
Decatur,
August 28 - Particulars from the scene of the
murder are to the effect that there were seven persons in all killed,
the old
gentleman, his wife, a step-daughter, and four step-sons. Mr.
England was shot and had his throat slashed; Isaiah and Susie Taylor
were shot as well. Mrs. Taylor was shot but survived through the
night. The opinion prevails that they were murdered
for money, as the family was known to be well off, having just
completed a fine
house. Mr. England was a Methodist
preacher. The latest information
corrobates the above facts but throws no additional light on the cause
of the
murder.
The Galveston Daily News
took up the story in its September 5, 1876 edition, stating that seven
people had been killed with knives - Mr. England, his wife, her
daughter and four sons. Public opinion was that the family had
been murdered for money since the family was known to be well off.
Public excitement was so high that there was fear of the
possibility of Benjamin Krebs being lyned; however, County Attorney
Matlock put the suspects behind bars as soon as possible because "This
whole assassination exceeds anything ever known in Texas for atrocity,
excepting the acts of Indians."
The jury was out only five minutes
before returning a verdict of guilty and a sentence of death in the
first trial held in November 1876 (The Galveston Daily News,
November 23, 1876) Young Edward Taylor, who was only 17, could
not be executed under Texas law, was sentenced to life in prison, where
he died Jun 6, 1880 with dropsy and consumption.
In 1880 a change
of venue was granted to Cooke County where the Court of Appeals
reversed the original convictions of Benjamin Krebs and James Preston.
Both men bitterly denied the charges and never wavered in
claiming their innocence of such charges. The jury in the appeals
trial was out only 20 minutes before returning a verdict; Krebs
and Preston were again convicted of 1st degree murder and sentenced to
death by hanging; the men were held in the Cooke Co. jail at
Gainesville until they could be transported to the state penitentiary.
(The Galveston Daily, February 18, 1879) Edward Taylor was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. (The Galveston Daily News,
February 15, 1880) On April 30, 1880 a large crowd of people from
Montague Co. arrived in Gaineville just shortly after the train left,
assumedly to carry out justice at their own hands. However, an
agent of the state penitentiary at Huntsville arrived in Denison fron
Gainesville on the 11 o'clock train with Krebs, age 52, and Preston,
aged 55, who were housed in the Denison jail while awaiting a later
train to continue their journey. Krebs was a native of
Switzgerland and had lived on the Texas frontier for 30 years; Preston
was a native of Tennessee and had lived in Texas only a couple of years
when the England family was murdered in 1876. (The Galveston Daily News, April 30, 1880)
About
a week before the two men were taken to Huntsville, their sentence of
death was commuted by the Texas Governor Roberts to life in prison,
stating that there was conflicting evidence in the case. When
asked at the sentencing in the courtroom if they had anything to say,
Preston insisted that he was innocent and Krebs chose not to speak
because he was not fluent in English enough to make himself correctly
understood. (The Galveston Daily News, May 1, 1880)
In
June of 1880, Harvey Isaac who had survived the murder of his
step-father, mother & siblings, was living in Grayson County with
his remaining siblings.
1880 Grayson County Census, Texas, Pct 7, June 2-3 1880
15/15
W. Isaac Taylor 31m
laborer ILL
Harvey 29m ILL
R. Birch 27m TX
Martha F 18f AR
The
inconsistency in the evidence presented at the trial was between the
dying declaration of Celina Taylor England of who her family's killer
was and that of her son, the only survivor of the horrible affair.
Mrs.
England had been mortally wounded but was able to run to the home of
John Musick, over half a mile distant, and told them, "Krebs came in
and presented his pistol at Isaiah and shot him, and that she and Susie
ran but Krebs followed and shot her, and she asked him to shoot her no
more." She also stated that as she and Susie ran from the house
that Krebs followed them and Susie exclaimed, " Oh, mother, Ben Krebs
has come to kill us all!" After being shot, Susie cried, "Oh,
mother, Ben Krebs has killed me." The next day, August 27, 1876,
Krebs was identified by Mrs. England and she told him to his face that
he was her murderer as well as that of her family and that "she knew
him by his whiskers, by his Dutch talk and even that old white hat that
he was then holding in his hand." Without the dying declaration
of Mrs. England and that of her daughter, undoubtedly Krebs and the
other two suspects would probably have been released.
Harvey,
Mrs. England's son, testified that he had made his bed on a pallet on
the front gallery while the rest of the family had gone to be inside
the house. Soon after he retired, he saw three men coming up to
the front gate. The moon was shining brightly; however, Harvey
said the men were bending over as if to hide their faces. He said
that the men entered the gate and that the smallest of the three "came
up to me and presented a bright pistol," and said, "G--d--m, you, get
in the house! Harvey stated that he obeyed the orders by running
into the house upon which the man followed him and shot his brother,
Isaiah. Harvey then related how he had escaped by running out of
the house, all the time hearing his mother and sister screaming while
more shots were being fired. Harvey possibly recognized the
shooter since he was outside in the bright moonlight and was close to
the man. His opinion was that the leader of the three-men gang
was William "Bill" Taylor, an escaped convict and refugee from justice
at the time of the murder. His testimony was that he knew Krebs
well and did not recognize Krebs as the shooter, adding that the man
who followed him into the house was a young man and "wore not hat but
had a rag around his head." It is reasonable to believe that
Harvey had the best means of telling accurately whom and what he saw
while his mother and sister got their first sight of the man from
indoor darkness, and their impression by the flash of a pistol that
left Isaiah a lifeless form at their feet.
In fact, Harvey followed
his mother to the neighbor Musick's house where he found her lying on
the floor bleeding and told her that he took one of the assassins to be
"Bill Taylor" and another to be "John Musick." He also testified
that his mother told him to "hush, "that Musick was at home when she
came to the house."
There were other affidavits given that Bill
Taylor and Musick had been out hunting that fateful evening, that Bill
Taylor had skipped the country and not been seen since the murders, and
that soon after the murder Musick "wound up his affairs," quit his wife
and family and left the country. Johnny Savage and Mary Jane
Savage, Krebs' stepchildren, testified that the two defendants and A.K.
Taylor were aroused by the shooting, got out of their beds, and with
other members of the family, went into the yard barefooted to listen.
(The Galveston Daily News, November 30, 1894)
Other
facts and circumstances of evidence that was not deemed sufficient to
cast more than slight suspicion on either of the accused:
1. Krebs
and the England family were on unfriendly terms as neighbors and the
England family were prosecuting witnesses against Krebs in a
misdemeanor case that was soon to be tried.
2. John Musick,
another neighbor, was also "at outs" with the England family because he
claimed they had taken the land they occupied from his father,
depriving him of valuable property rights.
3. Preston and the
England family were good friends with Mr. England even preaching the
funeral of Preston's deceased wife a few months prior to the assault on
the family.
4. Krebs and England had fallen out over "gaps in
the fence" and "hogs in the field" shortly before the time of the
assault.
After
serving 18 years in the state penitentiary, Gov. J.S. Hogg examined the
entire case in 1894 and delivered his opinion that Krebs and Preston
were innocent of the crime committed in August 1876 against the England
family and granting them a full pardon and restoring all their rights
as citizens.
Both men were nearing their 76th birthday at the time of their pardon.
Hon.
E.G. Douglass, assistant Superintendent of the Rusk Penitentiary for
three years, wrote a letter before his retirement stating that he was
convinced both men were innocent and wrongfully convicted.
Lucas
F. Smith, part of the defense team, wrote a letter stating that Harvey
Taylor, the only survivor of the 1876 family murder had told him as
well as Judge Hurt in a Gainesville hotel room during the first trial
that he knew the defendants were innocent but had not testified to such
in court because he feared for his life.
Judge
J.P. Gibson, assistant Superintendent of Rusk Penitentiary, wrote a
letter stating that approximately 90 officers, guards and other
employees at the prison believed implicitly in the innocence of Krebs
and Preston.
Young Taylor had given a dying declaration of his as well as Krebs and Preston's innocence in the murder.
Around
the time of the trials, Eliza Krebs apparently changed her name to
"Rhoda," for reasons unknown. Family research by
descendants note that Eliza may have assumed the name of her
great-grandmother, Rhoda Campbell.
1880
Montague Co., Texas census showed Rhoda Krebbs, age 40, and her
children, M.J. (female, age 18), J.W. (male, age 16), W.B., male, age
12), Geo. A. (female, age 10) and J. Adaline (age 7) living two houses
down from Thomas Savage and family, Eliza/Rhoda's former step-son of
Wiley B. Savage. In the years following the massacre of the
England family, Eliza/Rhoda and her sons moved across the Red River
into Chickasaw Nation lands in Indian Territory where they obtained
farming lands.
Benjamin
and Rhoda Krebs were enumerated in the 1900 census in the household of
their son, Billie Krebs, in Lone Grove, Chickasaw Nation, Indian
Territory. Benjamin Krebs died February 21, 1901 at the age of 72
in Lone Grove and was buried in the Newport Cemetery (Find-A-Grave
Memorial #17097954). Eliza/Rhoda Ann Krebs died August 2, 1909 in
Duncan, Stephens County, Oklahoma, at the age of 66 years. She is
buried in the Duncan Municipal Cemetery
FELONY
Susan Hawkins
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