William Kribs was born around 1817 in Ontario, Canada. He married Phoebe Cramer, and they had at least five children: William, born around 1841; Mary, born around 1844; Charles, born around December 1847; Paul, born around 1852; and Martha, born around 1854. They immigrated to America in the 1840s and settled in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. Kribs worked as a carpenter, and by 1850, he owned $1,100 of real estate. The family moved to Trempealeau, Wisconsin, in the 1850s, and by 1870, he owned $800 of real estate and $300 of personal property. His wife died in the 1870s. By 1880, he was living in his son Paul’s household in New Richmond, Wisconsin. He died sometime after 1880.