KREMPKAU: William B., Nov 9, 1863, Oct 11, 1953, Pioneer Freighter Assn of Texas, Old Time Trail Drivers Assn member; Emma S., Jan 8, 1858, May 23, 1941

Source:http://www.cemeteries-of-tx.com/Etx/Bexar/Cemetery/City1/Sec%20D.htm
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KREMPKAU, WILLIAM B.
When only seven years of age William B. Krempkau worked for others for wages; at the age of twelve he was timekeeper and issued rations for what was known as the "Prairie Schooner Train" and when but sixteen he made a trip over the trail with cattle to Kansas. A busy life from early boyhood has made him a substantial citizen and his record is proof of the fact that success may be gained through unremitting effort.
His birth occurred on Salinas'street, San Antonio, November 9, 1863, his parents being Charles Gustav and Carolina (Dreyer) Krempkau.
At the usual age William B. Krempkau began his education, which he pursued in the old German-English school and at St. Mary's College, but from his earliest boyhood he began to work and save his money and in this way he assisted in providing for his education. He is indeed a self-made man in the best sense of that oft-misused term. He was not more than seven years of age when he did his first work for wages, at Jackson's ranch, eight miles west of San Antonio. He next worked on a farm on the Salado creek east of town, and when twelve years of age he was timekeeper and also issued rations for what was known as the "Prairie Schooner Train," which carried freight from San Antonio to Saltillo and San Luis Potosi, Mexico. He afterward began learning the trade of blacksmithing and carriage making, but the remuneration being too small and the work too slow for one of his ambitious nature, he decided to take up something else and became connected with Captain Smith of the well-known old cattle firm of Smith & Elliott, of Springfield, Illinois, having large cattle interests in Texas. For them he herded cattle and made one trip over the trail to Kansas. He was then only sixteen years of age and the work entrusted to him involved much responsibility as well as hard labor.
Mr. Krempkau also did track work in the original building of the old I. & G. N. Railroad, then being constructed to Mexico. He afterward obtained experience in mercantile lines as an employee in the store of Herman Spieler in San Antonio and later for Mr. Zinsmeyer in the same capacity. In 1884 he conducted a skating rink at Pearsall in Frio County, and subsequently went to Cotulla, in LaSalle County, where he engaged in merchandising. Later he returned to San Antonio and embarked in merchandising with his brother, the late A. W. Krempkau, but after some time again took up railroad construction work on the old Bastrop, Taylor & Houston Railroad, now part of the main line of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad system. Following this he conducted a mercantile enterprise at Bastrop, and subsequently engaged in merchandising and the hotel business at La Grange in 1887. In the fall of that year, he made his way to Los Angeles and to San Francisco, California, and in the summer of 1888 returned to San Antonio, where he entered the sheriff's office in the capacity of deputy under Captain Thomas P. McCall. On resigning from that position, he again engaged in merchandising in a store on West Commerce and Frio streets, in the spring of 1890. He removed his business from there to the corner of Houston and Medina streets, where he continued to conduct the business until 1896, when he withdrew from the field of mercantile activity, in which he had met with a gratifying measure of success and won for himself an honorable place in the trade circles of the city. In the year 1898 he bought a ranch twenty miles northwest of San Antonio, at the headquarters of Helotes creek and there made a start in the raising of cattle and horses. This ranch, which he has developed into a fine property, is now one of his principal financial resources, and comprises about four hundred acres of valuable land, the income from which supplies him with many of the comforts and some of the luxuries of life.
Mr. Krempkau was married at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, April 9, 1892, to Miss Emma Sams, a native of Wayne County, Illinois, and they are now pleasantly located in a comfortable home in his native city.
In 1899 Mr. Krempkau was made road supervisor of precinct No. 2, under Captain McCall, who was then county commissioner. In 1900, entirely without his solicitation, he was nominated and duly elected public weigher by the board of county commissioners, but he refused to qualify for the office on account of other business interests. In 1903 he was appointed to and accepted the position of city license inspector under Mayor John P. Campbell, serving for fifteen months with credit to himself and satisfaction to all concerned and retiring under protest from the city authorities, who were particularly pleased with his services in that office. In 1904 he was a candidate for the office of hide and animal inspector and was defeated by a very small majority by Captain Hart Mussey, the well-known old Confederate soldier who had the regular organization supporting him.
At various times Mr. Krempkau has served as an officer in the federal courts in San Antonio and is a well-known citizen of public-spirited devotion to the general welfare and upbuilding of the city. His broad and varied experience has been of much value to him, and he has never met with failure in any branch of his business life but on the contrary has increased his resources gradually and in a conservative way from year to year, until he today enjoys high standing and credit in the financial world. He devotes most of his attention to his cattle and horse raising interests in connection with his ranch, but makes his home in San Antonio, at the corner of Morales and Medina streets, and he owns considerable other city real estate. (A Twentieth Century History of Southwest Texas Vol 2, Lewis Publishing Company, 1907