Krebs Coffee offered coffee, teas and extracts at its location on Main Street in Bloomington. From this photo it appears they also offered some decorative items. In November of 1920 it was the sale of extracts that put more than coffee into hot water!
One of the items sold in Krebs was Jamaican ginger. This was an extract he said he sold to farmers -- they put it in water for reasons that were not elucidated in the Pantagraph. The ginger was purchased from suppliers like Campbell Holton (another Bloomington business). Under the pharmacopeia rules, this substance had to be mixed with alcohol and then be labelled as 90% alcohol. 1920 was of course during Prohibition, but Mr. Krebs had not considered the fact that desperate people would drink the alcohol! He was arrested for selling intoxicating liquors. Mr. Krebs pointed out that the problem would exist with vanilla or orange flavoring, all are mixed with alcohol to dilute and disperse a costly substance used in cooking.
On November 25 1920, a jury found Mr. Williams Krebs not guilty of violating any anti alcohol laws -- because the substance was not a beverage. Although Mr. Krebs claimed to have no idea that his customers intended to drink the Jamaica ginger, in 1938 he wrote a letter to the Pantagraph editor, disputing another letter which stated that Abraham Lincoln was definitely a supporter of Prohibition. He countered with the history of Lincoln tabling a law which would have fined people for selling alcohol. While his letter may not have proved the historical facts, the tone of his letter indicates Krebs was NOT a supporter of Prohibition.