Johann Jacob Friedrich Krebs

Born in Zierenberg, Hesse, Krebs was one of the Hessians who fought under the British crown during the American Revolutionary War.

It has been reported that he returned to Germany, but this is uncertain, and it seems more likely that he remained in the United States at the conclusion of the war.

In 1787 he established a business purchasing pre-printed baptismal records which he would then further embellish for sale; eventually he had forms of his own printed, many in Reading, Pennsylvania.

These include drawings of various sacred and secular subjects; broadsides of Adam and Eve, used as marriage certificates; mazes; a clock face; and handboxes.

He died in Dauphin County, in Swatara Township, leaving behind hundreds of blank forms for his executors to sell, as well as others that he had himself decorated.