Elizabeth Krebs, Mother of Modern Halloween

This Hiawatha, Kansas marker honors Elizabeth Krebs, sometimes called the mother of modern Halloween. Krebs was an award-winning gardener who founded the town garden club. One morning after Halloween she woke to find her prize garden smashed to bits by Halloween pranksters.

Most people would have simply cursed the vandals. Krebs hatched a plan instead. She reasoned that if the town's young troublemakers had somewhere fun to be on Halloween night, they would leave the gardens alone.

So in nineteen fourteen she organized a town-wide party, with a costume parade, games, and contests, to draw the mischief-makers in. That party grew into the Hiawatha Halloween Frolic, billed as the oldest continuous Halloween parade in the nation, still held every year.