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 stepson 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 28 - 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.  They were murdered with knives.  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 corroborates the above facts, but throws no additional light on the cause of the murder.



Galveston Daily News
September 5, 1876

The particulars of the fiendish murder of a whole family in Montague county were printed in The News last week. Mrs. England has since died, but stated before her death that Ben Cribs, a neighbor, was one of the murderers.  He has been arrested, but bitterly denies the charge.The excitement is high, and it is thought Cribs will be lynched.



Galveston Daily News
October 6, 1876

The good people of Montague county deserve credit for not lynching the murderers of the England family. . . County Attorney Matlock, as soon as he heard of the murder, repaired to the scene and was not long in taking in the whole situation, had the guilty parties arrested and used his official and personal influence to prevent violence.
This wholesale assassination exceeds anything ever known in Texas for are city, excepting the acts of the Indians.



Galveston Daily News
February 15, 1880

A change of venue was granted to Cooke County.  The court of appeals yesterday affirmed the judgment in the James Preston and Ben Krebs cases, for the murder of the England family in Montague county on the 26th day of August 1876.  Edward Taylor's conviction and sentence to life in prison was upheld.  But in the case of Preston and Krebs it was reversed and remanded.  A new trial was held and they were again convicted of murder in the 1st degree and the death penalty assessed, which will be carried out unless the governor interferes.



Galveston Daily News
April 30, 1880
Special Telegram to the News
Krebs and Preston En Route to Huntsville

An agent of the state penitentiary arrived in this city on the 11 o'clock train from Gainesville with Krebs and Preston; they were placed in the city jail until 8 p.m. when Calhoun boarded them on the Houston & Texas Central and left for Houston.  A large number of persons from Montague Co. arrived in Gainesville a few minutes after the train left, and it is supposed that their intentions were to lynch the two men.
Your correspondent interviewed the prisoners while they were housed in the Denison jail.
Krebs is 52, native of Switzerland and has lived on the frontier for more than 30 years. 
Preston is 55, native of Tennessee and had been in Texas only a few years when the murders were committed.



Galveston Daily News
May 1, 1880

The death penalty in the case of Krebs and Preston was commuted on the 24th instant by the governor to a life term in the penitentiary.
At sentencing the courtroom was crowded with spectators.  The three prisoners were led into court, heavily ironed and seated in front of the judge. The Court addressed James Preston, asking if he had anything to say as to why the extreme penalty of the law should not be pronounced against him.  Rising from his seat, Mr. Preston acknowledged that nothing he had to say would change matters but wanted to take the opportunity to insist again that he was innocent.  Krebs, asked the same question, rose and stated that he had been legally convicted and had much to say but was unable to, being unfamiliar with the language so as to make himself correctly understood.
That night Mr. England and his wife and her 3 children by a former marriage, Isaiah D. Taylor, a young man, and Miss Susie Taylor, a young lady, and Harvey Taylor, also a young man, were at the England home and were about going or had just gone to bed when 3 men came and began the savage slaughter.  Mr. England was shot and had his throat cut. Isaiah and Susie were shot to death.  Mrs. England was shot and mortally wounded, but survived until the second day thereafter, when she died.  Young Harvey Taylor was the only survivor of the massacre. 
Mrs. England, after being shot, ran to the home of Mr. John Musick, over half a mile distant and said, "Krebs came in and presented his pistol at Isaiah D. Taylor and shot him, and that she and Susie ran and Krebs followed and shot her, and she asked him to shoot her no more."  She also stated that as she and Susie ran out of the house. Krebs followed them and Susie exclaimed, "Oh, mother, Ben Krebs has come to kill us all!"
And on being shot Susie further exclaimed, "Oh, mother, Ben Krebs has killed me!"
The next day Krebs was carried before her and she told him to his face that he was her murderer, "that she knew him by his whiskers, by his Dutch talk and ????ing, and even by that old white hat that he then held in his hand."  Krebs denied the charge and said to Mrs. England, "It must be your imagination."
Without the identification of Mrs. England and the dying declarations of her dying daughter,  undoubtedly Ben Krebs and the other two defendants would probably have been released.  The other 2 men became involved by
reason of being at Krebs' home that night; Preston denied the accusations made against Krebs by Susie England, stating that he knew Krebs was innocent because they had all stayed together that night at Krebs' house.
Other facts or circumstances that bits of evidence not deemed sufficient to cast more than 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 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 before the assault on the family.
4.  Krebs and the England family had shortly before the time of the assault fallen out over "gaps in the fence" and "hogs in the field."
5.  Mrs. England's identification of the man who entered the house and shot Isaiah was contradicted by her surviving son, Harvey, at trial.  Harvey testified that he had made his bed on the front gallery on a pallet and the other 4 members of the household had gone to bed within the house.  Soon after they retired, he noticed 3 men coming up to the front gate.  Although the moon was shining brightly, the men were bending over as if to hide their faces.  They entered the gate and the smallest of the 3, who was in front, "came up to me and presented a bright pistol" and said: "G-d d-m, you, get into the house!"
He stated that he obeyed the man's orders by running into the house upon which the man followed him and shot his brother, Isaiah.  Harvey then related how he escaped by running out of the house, all the time hearing the women screaming and more shots being fired.
Harvey possibly recognized the shooter since he had seen him outside in the bright moonlight, and close to the man.  His opinion was that the leader of the gang was William "Bill" Taylor, an escaped convict and a refugee from justice at the time of the murder.  His testimony was that he knew Krebs well and did not recognize the Krebs as the shooter, adding that the man who followed him in to the house was a young man and "wore no 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 indoors darkness, and their impression by the flash of a pistol that left Isaiah a lifeless form at the feet?
In fact, just after the tragedy he followed his mother to the Musick place 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 testified that his mother told him to hush, "that Music was at home when she came to the house."
Other affidavits stated that Musick and Bill Taylor were out hunting together 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, stepson of Krebs, testified that the 2 defendants and A.K. Taylor were aroused by the shooting, got out of bed, and with other members of the family went into the yard barefooted to listen.  This alibi was affirmed by Mary Jane Savage, Krebs' stepdaughter, Mrs. Rhoda Krebs, wife of Krebs. (Galveston Daily News, November 30, 1894)



The Galveston Daily News
Thursday, November 23, 1876
pg. 2

STATE NEWS
Montague County
Ben Kribbs, the principal in the terrible murder of the England family in Montague county, has been tried and sentenced to death.  The jury were out only five minutes. He appealed.



The Galveston Daily News
Thursday, November 30, 1876
pg. 2

STATE NEWS
Montague County
Ben Kribbs, charged with being the principal in the murder of the England family, an account of which appeared a few months ago, was put upon trial at the recent session of the District Court of Montague County and found guilty of murder in the first degree and his punishment assessed at death.  Preston and Taylor, also indicted with Kribbs
for the same foul murder, succeeded in having their cases continued to the next term of the district court, when it is confidently expected they will meet the same fate of their dastardly leader.  The defendants were represented by Griggsby & Willis, and the State by F.E. Piner, of Denton and Mr. Matlock, County Attorney of Montague county.



The Galveston Daily
Tuesday, February 18, 1879
pg. 1

SHERMAN
One Capital Conviction and One Acquittal
[Special Telegram to the News]

Sherman, February 17 - Kribbs, who murdered the England family, of husband, wife, son and daughter, in Montague county, Texas, in 1876, has just been convicted of murder in the first degree in Cook county district court, where the case was taken on change of venue, and will swing in a short time.  The jury were out only 20 minutes.  The criminal is described as a small, sunken-eyed, shallow-pated and hardened-looking wretch.



Galveston Daily News
November 30, 1894

KREBS AND PRESTON
Fully Pardoned and Restored to All Their Rights and Citizenship
BOTH ARE NOW OLD MEN
Been Imprisoned for over 18 years

Austin, Texas, November 28 - The state of Texas vs. Ben Krebs and James Preston, life sentence in the penitentiary under conviction of murder.  Application for pardon. Both men are near the age of 76.  Krebs, of German descent, is incapable of writing in English. Preston, American, was fairly intelligent.  Both were farmers up until the night of November 28, 1876 were respected and above reproach.
In the night of August 26, 1876, William England and his wife, and her son and daughter by a former marriage, were assassinated at their home several miles from the county seat in Montague county.  The 2 applicants and a youth named A.K. Taylor, a stepson of Ben Krebs, were arrested, put in jail, tried and convicted.  Krebs and Preston were sentenced to be hanged; however, Gov. Roberts commuted their penalty to a life term in the penitentiary,
stating in his argument that there was conflicting evidence in the case, especially concerning the identification of one of the murderers.
Hon. E.G.Douglass, assistant Superintendent of the Rusk Penitentiary for 3 years, voluntarily wrote a letter before his retirement stated that he had added the trials and had been convinced both Preston and Krebs were innocent.
Lucas F. Smith, part of the defense team, wrote a letter that Harvey Taylor had told himself and Judge Hurt in a Gainesville hotel room during the trial that he knew the defendants were innocent but had not testified so in court because he feared for his life.
In addition a large number of officers, ex-officials and citizens of Montague county wrote asserting the innocence
of James Preston as well.
Judge J.P. Gibson, assistant Superintendent of Rusk Penitentiary, wrote that there were approximately 90 officers, guards and other employees at the prison, not one of whom believed implicitly in Krebs and Preston's innocence.
Young Taylor, because he was less than 17 years of age, could not be executed under the law and consequently was sentenced to life in prison.  The young man died June 6, 1880 with dropsy and consumption.
Krebs conviction was appealed and reversed by the court of appeals.  The venue of all the cases was then changed to adjoining Cooke county.
A.K. Taylor gave a dying declaration of his as well as Krebs and Preston's innocence.
Krebs wrote a letter from the Rusk prison, pleading his case of innocence and asking for leniency after years of imprisonment. 
After reviewing the report and examining the entire case, Gov. J.S. Hogg delivered the opinion that both Krebs and Preston were innocent men and fully pardoned and restore to all their rights and citizenship in November 1894.