Representative George Frederic Kribbs

George Frederic Kribbs (November 8, 1846 – September 8, 1938) was an American lawyer and Democratic politician who served two terms as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania from 1891 to 1895. Over the course of a long public career in both Pennsylvania and Florida, he held a variety of local and county offices and remained active in the legal profession into the mid-1920s.

Kribbs was born on a farm in Clarion County, Pennsylvania, where he spent his early years in a rural setting. He attended the common schools of the area and continued his education at Emlenton Academy. Pursuing higher education, he enrolled at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1873. After completing his college studies, he read law and prepared for a career in the legal profession.

In 1875 Kribbs was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law in Clarion, Pennsylvania. He quickly became involved in local affairs and was elected mayor of Clarion in 1876, an early indication of his interest in public service and Democratic Party politics. In addition to his legal and municipal responsibilities, he edited the Clarion Democrat, a local newspaper, from 1877 to 1889, using that platform to participate in public discourse and party organization. He was again elected mayor of Clarion in 1889, reinforcing his standing as a leading figure in the community.

Kribbs’s prominence in Clarion and his work within the Democratic Party led to his election to the United States House of Representatives. He was elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-second and Fifty-third Congresses, serving from March 4, 1891, to March 3, 1895, as a Representative from Pennsylvania. During these two terms in Congress, he contributed to the legislative process at a time of significant economic and political change in the United States, representing the interests of his Pennsylvania constituents in the House of Representatives. A member of the Democratic Party, he participated in the democratic process at the national level until 1894, when he was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination and his congressional service concluded at the end of his second term in 1895.

Following his departure from Congress, Kribbs returned to Clarion and resumed the practice of law. He again served as mayor of Clarion, continuing his long association with municipal government. He also played a role in the advancement of education in the region, serving as president of the board of directors of the Clarion State Normal School, an institution dedicated to training teachers for the public schools of Pennsylvania.

In 1896 Kribbs moved to Osceola County, Florida, where he engaged in the cultivation of oranges, reflecting the agricultural opportunities then developing in central Florida. He later returned to active legal practice, establishing himself in Kissimmee, Florida, in 1907. His public career in Florida included service as prosecuting attorney of Osceola County in 1908 and as judge of the county court in 1909 and 1910. After resigning from the bench, he resumed the private practice of law in Kissimmee, continuing until his retirement in 1926.

George Frederic Kribbs spent his final years in Kissimmee. He died there on September 8, 1938, closing a life that spanned from the mid-nineteenth century into the era of the New Deal. He was interred in Violet Hill Cemetery, leaving a record of service that encompassed local, state, and national office in two different states over more than half a century.