The "Cutting Up A Tree In Your Underwear!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  My wife had just located a story on Facebook written by a musical acquaintance of mine named David Gelatt.  Story was titled "The One Man Nudist Colony in Lancaster City."  It was a rather humorous story that told about one hot summer day in June of 1933 when a Mr. Bechtold Kroll, 55, of 34 W. Strawberry Street in the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania decided to chop up a tree that had fallen in his backyard.  He decided that wearing clothes in the day's heat would make it unbearable.  So, he stripped down to his underwear and began chopping up his tree.  Well, it seems that a nosey neighbor, Miss Angelica Smeltz, didn't care see him in his skivvies and called the local police department.  When the police arrived they found Mr. Kroll completely clothed next to a large pile of wood.  He had evidently completed his chore and had put his clothes back on.  Miss Smeltz, her mother, brother and another neighbor Linnaeus Rathvon all insisted that he was "almost in the nude."  So, the police arrested him and hauled him off to the police station.  He told them that "Maybe I did run around in my underwear, but so what if I did?  Nobody could see me if they minded their own business.  Alderman Trapnell, police court magistrate, said that police would continue to be tolerant during the summer heat waves, but announced that nudist's colonies were taboo.  He ordered Kroll to pay a fine of $2 and costs or serve five days in the county jail.  He didn't care to pay the fine so he went to jail.  But, that wasn't the end of it.  Constable William Hubert, immediately after the sentence was pronounced, proceeded to read another warrant from Alderman Spurrier, charging Kroll with surety of the peace.  The complainant was Mrs. Czepull.  In default of the original fine of $2 and costs, Kroll was committed to jail where the other warrants will be lodged as detainers against him.  As I searched a bit more in the Lancaster Online Newspaper archives I found that Bechtold Kroll, Strawberry Street, on June 13, 1933, received a fine of $10 and costs when he pleaded guilty to a charge of assault and battery upon Mrs. Clara O'Toole, Strawberry Street.  According to Mrs. O'Toole, Mr. Kroll threatened her and struck her when she was unable to pay rent for a house on Strawberry Street which he owns.  Seems this guy must be the neighborhood trouble-maker.  But then, on June 17, the local newspaper reported that the cast against Bechtold Kroll of West Strawberry Street, who was charged with surety of the peace by Mrs. Angilica Smeltz, was dismissed by Judge Atlee.  Seems the judge felt that running around in you underwear wasn't a crime, but he was held in county prison for failure to pay a $10 fine and costs on the assault and battery charge against Mrs. O'Toole.  So who is this Mr. Kroll and why is he always in trouble?  Mr. Gelatt's Facebook story told the story of Mr. Kroll.  He was born in 1878 in Prussia to Heinrich and Henrietta Kroll.  The family sailed to America on the "Brennen" in 1883 and moved to Lancaster.  They lived on St. Joseph Street.  Bechtold worked as a cigar packer for the Lewis Cigar Co.  After his parents deaths, Mr. Kroll became estranged from his siblings and shortly after the nudist colony debacle he moved to Poplar Street in the city.  On January 28, 1938 he was found in his bed, frozen to death.  His death certificate listed cause of death as "excessive cold."  Wow, a guy who was charged with being a nudist died from excessive cold!  He was buried in the Mellinger Mennonite Church Cemetery along the Lincoln Highway in Lancaster.  Seems that Mr. Bechtold Kroll was certainly a colorful man during his life.  I'm wondering if he was buried in his underwear.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.