HomeMy WebLinkAboutAC477_GABRIEL_M__AND_MURIEL_J__N__KREPPER_COLLECTIONTyrrell Historical Library
Finding Aid for the Gabriel M. and Muriel J. N.
Krepper Collection, 1930-2002.
Accession AC -477.
Finding aid created by
Tyrrell Historical Library staff
Summary I nformafion
Title: Gabriel M. and Muriel J. Neumann Krepper Collection, circa 1930- circa 2002
Creator: Krepper, Gabriel M., 1920-2005.
Krepper, Muriel J. Neumann, 1920-2003.
Inclusive dates: 1920-2005.
Extent: 8 boxes at approximately 3.8 cubic feet.
Abstract:
This collection consists primarily of memorabilia related to the Pennsylvania and
Bethlehem Shipyards' located in Beaumont from the 1930s to the 1980s. Contained
within this collection are two boxes of photographs, which number approximately 137
items. The theme of the photographs capture many aspects of the ship building trade
including the following: shipyard officials and employees, commemorative and
ceremonial events, offshore drilling platforms, vessels being built at the shipyard,
ongoing construction projects at the shipyard, interior views of ships at the yard, dry
dock scenes at the shipyard, and scenes of the Neches River Naval Reserve Fleet.
Call number: AC -477.
Language: The material is in English.
Repository: Tyrrell Historical Library
695 N. Pearl St
Beaumont, TX 77701
Phone: 409-833-2759
Home Page: http://www.beaumontlibrary.org/tyrrell_historical_library.htm
Access and Use
Acquisition Information
The collection was donated by Suzanne Krepper of Dallas, Texas
Arrangement:
This collection is organized into (8) upright, one-half cubic foot boxes with folders
numbered consecutively. There is a box/folder contents inventory in box (1), folder
(1), of the collection. There is a series of playbills and entertainment events in
Beaumont, circa 1940-1967; a series of newspaper clippings of Beaumonters, circa
1939-2002; a series of area telephone directories, 1928-1959; a series of employee
newsletters (Island News) of Bethlehem Steel, Beaumont, Texas, 1976-1980; books,
pamphlets, and articles on shipbuilding, rules of the patent office, and liquefied
petroleum gas; a series of Bethlehem Steel Corporation Annual Reports, 1974-1982; a
series of engineering drawings, 1938-1980; a series of photographs (ships and ship
building events), 1935-1982; and books, including a shipbuilding cyclopedia, shipping
register, and procedure handbook of arc welding. There is (1) flat box containing a
scrapbook kept by Muriel J. Neumann when in Beaumont High School, 1938.
Access Restrictions
There are no restrictions.
Copyright:
The Tyrrell Historical Library does not hold copyright for many of its collections. The
researcher must secure permission to publish. All requests for permission to publish or
quote from manuscripts must be submitted to the Tyrrell Historical Library. The
researcher assumes full responsibility for complying with copyright, literary property
rights, and libel laws.
Related Material:
AC -441 William "Bill" Faucett Shipyard Collection and Photographs.
Preferred Citation:
AC -477, folder, box, Gabriel M. and Muriel J. Neumann Krepper Collection, Tyrrell
Historical Library.
Biographical/ Historical Note
Gabriel M. Krepper (1920-2005) was born in Jeanerette, Louisiana, son of Gabriel and
Georgetti Krepper. His father was a barber, born in France, and owned a barber shop
in Jeanerette, Louisiana. By 1930, Gabriel (age 9) was living in Beaumont, Texas, with
his mother and two brothers, Gilbert (age 20) and George (age 6), and his older
brother was already working at the shipyards. Gabriel began work at Pennsylvania
Shipyards, Inc., Beaumont, Texas, in 1938, making drawings for the construction of tug
boats and drilling barges. During the war years, he worked in the Washington DC
shipyard's engineering department producing plans for ships, and then enlisted in the
Navy. His later career included production supervisor and Chief Estimator, from which
he retired in 1982. Side vocations and pursuits included general contractor for building
homes and artist of small scale models of marine vessels and offshore drilling platforms
built by Bethlehem Steel, Beaumont, Texas.
Muriel J. Neumann Krepper (1920-2003) was born in San Antonio, Texas, daughter of
a Hungarian immigrant father. Her father, Ernest Neumann, was a repairman of pianos
and organs. Due to a lack of repair work of musical instruments in Beaumont, he lists
painter as his occupation of choice in 1930. Muriel attended Beaumont High School,
graduating in about 1939, after taking a year off, due to an automobile accident.
The Kreppers raised their family of four children in Beaumont, Texas. Their collection
includes Muriel's high school scrapbook, Gabriel's shipyard papers, books and work
related pamphlets, brochures and photographs, as well as other items documenting
their life in Beaumont.
References
1920 U.S. Census, Ancestrylibrary.com.
1930 U.S. Census, Ancestrylibray.com.
Library receives notable collection, by Bill Faucett (2007).
Obituary, Beaumont Enterprise, December 16, 2005.
Collection Scope and Content Note
The collection includes programs and booklets of Beaumont events, 1941-1967; a
reminiscence of downtown Beaumont and the importance of having a downtown, by Joe
G. Perl; a 1985 St. Marks Episcopal pictorial directory, and newspaper images of
Beaumonters the Kreppers knew, circa 1939-2002. The collection includes a video
cassette of the sixtieth reunion for the Beaumont High School Class of 1939; a report,
"Liquefied Petroleum Gas Ship, Nattalie O. Warren" (with photograph images) / by the
Pennsylvania Shipyard, Inc. (1947) (the Nattalie O. Warren, built at the Beaumont
Shipyards, was the first liquid petroleum gas tanker ever built); Beaumont Yard -
Bethlehem Steel, employee newsletter, Island News (1976-1980); and the 1949
organization of a Bethlehem Steel, salaried employees, social club and 1956 social club
newsletter, The Abescoe News.
The collection contains a 1943 awards ceremony program for Pennsylvania Shipyards,
Inc., Beaumont, Texas, for the reception of the award of merit, the Maritime "M"
Pennant. The program also contains a history of Pennsylvania Shipyards, Inc. (1922-
1941). The collection includes Bethlehem Steel publications displaying works of
Bethlehem Steel while giving a brief history of the company at Beaumont (1908-
1989); and a history of the Baltimore yards and Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation
(1800-1965). It also includes Bethelehem Shipbuilding and Bethlehem Steel
publications with company and industry histories.
The Beaumont Shipyards worked closely with Lincoln Electric Company, pioneers of arc
welding. All steel structures, including buildings, tanks and bridges, used rivets before
the 1930s. In the 1930s a number of ships were built using both rivets and welding.
Then in 1937, Beaumont was the first to build a tanker vessel using complete welding.
The Lincoln Electric Company's Procedure Handbook of Arc Welding Design and Practice
(1940), included in this collection, uses the Beaumont Shipyards in a number of images
demonstrating arc welded designs, and displays the "Paratex", the first complete arc
welded tanker (page 1075). The collection also includes a series of photographs of the
shipyards, personnel, and structures the shipyard produced (1935-1982).
Subject Terms
Subjects:
• Beaumont Shipyards (Beaumont, Tex.).
• Bethlehem Steel Corporation (Beaumont, Tex.).
• Helicopters.
• Oaks Hotel (Beaumont, Tex.).
• Pennsylvania Shipyards (Beaumont, Tex.).
• St. Mark's Episcopal Church (Beaumont, Tex.).
• Ships.
• Shipbuilding.
Persons:
• Barkell, Jeanne.
• Bell, Elsie Eunice.
• Buchanan, Margaret.
• Combest, Margaret (1921-2006).
• Cowan, Virginia Mae Rothwell (1931-)
• Currie, Lydia Guedry.
• Davis, Hattie Aldora Davis.
• Deerman, Ruby Lee Naquin.
• Dodd, Lucy Jane.
• Dowell, Helen Brainard.
• Dowell, Mrs. Herbert.
• Fuller, Mrs. Wesley Edens.
• Hackworth, Eleanor.
• Jones, Jerry, Miss.
• Lewis, Bonnie Eldred.
• Ludgate, Dorothy.
• McDonald, Marcene.
• McGee, Betty Ann.
• McKee, Betty.
• Rupp, Lela Marie.
• Trotti, Billie Bert, Miss.
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Locations:
• Baltimore (Md.)
• Beaumont (Tex.)
• Bethlehem Shipyards (New York, N.Y.)
• Bethlehem Shipyards (San Franciso, Calif.)
• Bethlehem Shipyards (San Pedro, Los Angeles, Calif.)
• Minglewood (Beaumont, Tex.).
• Spindletop (Beaumont, Tex.)
Genres:
• Brochures.
• Drawings, engineering.
• Manuscripts (history).
• Maps, water -ways.
• Pamphlets.
• Photographs.
• Publications, ship -building.
• Scrapbook, loose-leaf.
• Scrapbooks.
• Telephone directories.
Contents List
Box/ Folder Title
Box
Folder
Title / Description
1
1
List of Contents of Krepper Collection, 2007
1
2
Beaumont entertainment, real estate and history (1940-
1999) (playbills, programs, promotional brochures,
typed manuscript).
1
3
Beaumont pictorial directory, scrapbook pages, roster,
1939-2002
1
4
Beaumont history, Spindletop (1951 newspaper).
1
5
Beaumont numerical telephone directory, 1928.
1
6
Beaumont numerical telephone directory, 1931.
1
7
Beaumont numerical telephone directory, 1946.
1
8
Beaumont numerical telephone directory, 1948.
1
9
Beaumont numerical telephone directory, 1948.
1
10
Beaumont numerical telephone directory, 1950.
1 11
Beaumont numerical telephone directory, 1959.
2 1
List of Contents of box 2, Krepper Collection, 2007.
2 2
Video cassette of the Beaumont High School Class of
1939 Sixtieth Reunion, 1999.
2 3
Shipping (maps, publication article) (1970s).
2 4
Patent office rules (1936).
2 5
Natalie O. Warren, liquefied petroleum gas ship (1947).
2 6
Island News employee newsletter (1976-1982),
organization of employee social club (1949), and
Abescoe News employee social club newsletter (1956).
2 7
Shipbuilding training (1942), and Pennsylvania
Shipyards, Inc. Award of Merit (1943).
2 8
Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Beaumont, history and
products of (1945-1985).
2 9
Sabine Towing Co., Bethlehem Shipyards, Beaumont,
(history and quick facts of); Bethlehem Shipyards,
Baltimore Harbor (1970s and history); Bethlehem San
Francisco floating drydock (1970), Bethlehem San
Pedro, Los Angeles (1970), Bethlehem New York Harbor
Drydock (1976).
3 1
Contents list of box 3; Bethlehem Shipbuilding, activities
during World War II (1946); 75" anniversary (1980);
annual reports (1974-1982).
3 2
Shipbuilding terms, abbreviations, tables (1943);
engineering standard structural shapes and car building
shapes (1926); rat -proofing of new ships (1939);
welding instructions (1943); Bethlehem structural
shapes (1946).
3 3
Engineering drawings of products (1938-1985).
3 4
The Log (1953) [monthly trade journal]; Ocean Industry
magazine (Gulf Publishing Company, 1982).
3 5
Helicopters by Sikorsky (1980); Gabe Krepper binder of
Bethlehem, Beaumont, business information (1978).
4 1
Contents list, box 4.
4 2
Photographs, C. G. Glasscock Drilling Co., Inc., Mobile
Drilling Platform Mister Gus, Built by Bethlehem Steel
Corporation, Shipbuilding Division, Beaumont, Texas;
commissioning ceremony and banquet (1954).
4 3
Photographs, shipyard images (1935-1981).
4 4
Photographs, drilling platform built by Bethlehem -
Beaumont (1976).
5 1
Contents , box 5; list of vessels built by the shipyard
(1926-1980).
5 2
Photographs, various shipyard images (1944-1982).
5 3
Photographs, various shipyard images (1952-1975).
5 4
Photographs, various shipyard images (1947-1965).
5 5
Book, bound, Procedure Handbook of Arc Welding
Design and Practice, sixth edition / Lincoln Electric
Company (1940).
6 1
Contents list, box 6.
Book, American Bureau of Shipping Register/ American
Bureau of Shipping (1966).
Contents list, box 7.
Book, Shipping Cyclopedia / Simmons- Boardman
Publishing Company (1920).