Arnold Krekel

Arnold Krekel (March 12, 1815 – July 14, 1888) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri.

Education and career

Born in Langenfeld, Prussia, German Confederation, Krekel emigrated to the United States in 1832 with his family, including his younger brother Nicholas Krekel. He attended St. Charles College and read law to enter the bar in 1844. He was a surveyor in St. Charles County, Missouri. He was a justice of the peace there from 1841 to 1843, and was in private practice beginning in 1844. He was a county and city attorney of St. Charles and St. Charles County from 1846 to 1850, and was editor of the abolitionist newspaper St. Charles Democrat from 1850 to 1864. He was a member of the Missouri House of Representatives in 1852. Krekel served in the Union Army throughout the American Civil War as colonel of a regiment of Missouri volunteers. He was President of the state constitutional convention in 1865, during which the Missouri emancipation proclamation was approved, formally abolishing slavery in Missouri. He is also credited with naming O'Fallon, Missouri, located in St. Charles County and founded by his brother Nicholas, after a friend, John O'Fallon.

Death

Krekel died on July 14, 1888, in Kansas City, Missouri.