Daily Tribune, Johnstown, PA, Tuesday, October 18, 1891:
DEATH OF WILLIAM REAM
An Aged and Respected Citizen of Upper Yoder Passes Away
It is with more than ordinary sorrow and regret that we announce the death of William Ream, of Upper Yoder Township, who passed peacefully to his rest at an early hour this morning, aged nearly eighty-one years. "Billy" Ream, as he was generally known and affectionately called, spent all of his long life in the immediate vicinity of Johnstown, having been born on a farm on Yoder Hill, almost overlooking the city, and it was in the same neighborhood that he died. He was of diminutive stature and slight frame, but a stouter, kinder heart never beat in a human breast, and he was as brave as a lion. Ever since we can remember, up to within a year, he has been coming to this office regularly once a week for his paper, and to the last it was always a pleasure to greet him and to have a wordy round or two with the bright little man who in his younger days feared no one, and thought nothing of whipping a bully over twice his size. His agility was wonderful and his strength that of the finest steel, and the man who ran up against him struck a hickory sapling that never went down. He did not seek quarrels, but took them like the average man takes a storm of weather, and what a well-seasoned piece of human timber he came to be!
Of late years we have noticed that his chin and nose were coming pretty close together, and that he was getting thin and bent, wrinkled and old, but we never once missed the cheery spirit until he quit coming altogether, and we learned that he was in bed waiting patiently for the last messenger. It was old age that killed him, for nothing else ever could have done it. Only a few months ago, refusing the offer of his son's carriage, he walked about four miles to call on two of his daughters, and seemed none the worse. But as there is an end to all things, so his magnificent body wore out at last, and "Billy" Ream is no more.
The deceased was a son of Garrett Ream, long since dead, who came here from Bloody Run, Bedford County, when the present century was very young indeed, and settled on Yoder Hill, some little distance back of the cemetery site, the approach to the old homestead being by a road leading up the mountain a little beyond the present residence of Mr. T. L. Hunt. He did considerable clearing there, but never farmed a great deal. Farming was too slow for Garrett Ream, and he conceived the idea of navigating the Conemaugh to Pittsburgh in the high-water season, so he went into the boat building business. He built his own flat-boats, took fright to Pittsburgh on the bosom of the floods, and sold the boats there to coalers, who sent them on down the Ohio as far as New Orleans. His first load was a flitting, and he sold the boat for $100, footing it back home a rich man. Another boat was soon built, and the demand for his craft grew so that he established a "shipyard" on the Stonycreek where the U. B. Church now stands. Then he got the contract for boating the pig iron made at Shade Furnace, in Somerset County, which was built in 1807 or 1808, and of the Benscreek Furnace, operated by George S. King, Bell, and others, and moved his boat-yard to Benscreek, where he also built a sawmill.
By this time his sons "Jake," only recently deceased, and "Billy" were "good chunks of boys," scarcely more than five feet tall, but tough as pine knots and sinewy as Indians. They began to do the boating, while the father devoted more time to the business here. The boats were fifty or sixty feet long and eighteen feet wide, and would easily carry from fifty to sixty tons of pig iron. For carrying the iron to Pittsburgh the Reams received $12 per ton. The trip from here to Pittsburgh occupied about two days on the flood, the boats "tying up" at night. The boys would always walk home, the trip consuming about two days and a half. The Reams enjoyed a very prosperous trade in boat-building and iron-carrying until 1834, when the canal was opened and the dams in the river made navigation for their flat-boats impossible. Other parties had in the meantime engaged in the carrying trade, but Jake made the last trip down the river, and had great difficulty getting past the first dam to be constructed. It was the boast of the boys that they knew every rock and island in the channel.
It was "Jake" Ream who had the great fight with "Pete" Gates, and which, though it occurred over fifty years ago, is still well remembered by our older citizens, they having fought on the ice and "chawed" each other like bull-dogs. Gates was a giant in size but Jake got away with him. Like Billy, he was a fighter and never got left.
Garrett Ream was the father of fourteen children, all but one of whom- Mrs. Penrod, of Braddock- are now dead. Mrs. Penrod was with Billy when he breathed his last. Billy was the father of twelve children, six of whom are living, as follows: Lydia, married to Joseph Livingston, of Grubbtown; Julia Anna, married to Henry Howard, of Upper Yoder, near Hochstine's; Susannah, married to Peter Speicher, of Thomas' Mills, Somerset County; John, living on the old farm, and with whom his father made his home; Stephen, of Upper Yoder, and Lavinia, married to Jeremiah Boyer, of the same township. Mr. Ream is survived by his widow, by the children named, and by sixty-six grandchildren, and forty great grandchildren. The funeral will take place on Thursday afternoon, interment being made in the family burying-ground on the farm.
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Re-interred at Richland Cemetery.
DEATH OF WILLIAM REAM
An Aged and Respected Citizen of Upper Yoder Passes Away
It is with more than ordinary sorrow and regret that we announce the death of William Ream, of Upper Yoder Township, who passed peacefully to his rest at an early hour this morning, aged nearly eighty-one years. "Billy" Ream, as he was generally known and affectionately called, spent all of his long life in the immediate vicinity of Johnstown, having been born on a farm on Yoder Hill, almost overlooking the city, and it was in the same neighborhood that he died. He was of diminutive stature and slight frame, but a stouter, kinder heart never beat in a human breast, and he was as brave as a lion. Ever since we can remember, up to within a year, he has been coming to this office regularly once a week for his paper, and to the last it was always a pleasure to greet him and to have a wordy round or two with the bright little man who in his younger days feared no one, and thought nothing of whipping a bully over twice his size. His agility was wonderful and his strength that of the finest steel, and the man who ran up against him struck a hickory sapling that never went down. He did not seek quarrels, but took them like the average man takes a storm of weather, and what a well-seasoned piece of human timber he came to be!
Of late years we have noticed that his chin and nose were coming pretty close together, and that he was getting thin and bent, wrinkled and old, but we never once missed the cheery spirit until he quit coming altogether, and we learned that he was in bed waiting patiently for the last messenger. It was old age that killed him, for nothing else ever could have done it. Only a few months ago, refusing the offer of his son's carriage, he walked about four miles to call on two of his daughters, and seemed none the worse. But as there is an end to all things, so his magnificent body wore out at last, and "Billy" Ream is no more.
The deceased was a son of Garrett Ream, long since dead, who came here from Bloody Run, Bedford County, when the present century was very young indeed, and settled on Yoder Hill, some little distance back of the cemetery site, the approach to the old homestead being by a road leading up the mountain a little beyond the present residence of Mr. T. L. Hunt. He did considerable clearing there, but never farmed a great deal. Farming was too slow for Garrett Ream, and he conceived the idea of navigating the Conemaugh to Pittsburgh in the high-water season, so he went into the boat building business. He built his own flat-boats, took fright to Pittsburgh on the bosom of the floods, and sold the boats there to coalers, who sent them on down the Ohio as far as New Orleans. His first load was a flitting, and he sold the boat for $100, footing it back home a rich man. Another boat was soon built, and the demand for his craft grew so that he established a "shipyard" on the Stonycreek where the U. B. Church now stands. Then he got the contract for boating the pig iron made at Shade Furnace, in Somerset County, which was built in 1807 or 1808, and of the Benscreek Furnace, operated by George S. King, Bell, and others, and moved his boat-yard to Benscreek, where he also built a sawmill.
By this time his sons "Jake," only recently deceased, and "Billy" were "good chunks of boys," scarcely more than five feet tall, but tough as pine knots and sinewy as Indians. They began to do the boating, while the father devoted more time to the business here. The boats were fifty or sixty feet long and eighteen feet wide, and would easily carry from fifty to sixty tons of pig iron. For carrying the iron to Pittsburgh the Reams received $12 per ton. The trip from here to Pittsburgh occupied about two days on the flood, the boats "tying up" at night. The boys would always walk home, the trip consuming about two days and a half. The Reams enjoyed a very prosperous trade in boat-building and iron-carrying until 1834, when the canal was opened and the dams in the river made navigation for their flat-boats impossible. Other parties had in the meantime engaged in the carrying trade, but Jake made the last trip down the river, and had great difficulty getting past the first dam to be constructed. It was the boast of the boys that they knew every rock and island in the channel.
It was "Jake" Ream who had the great fight with "Pete" Gates, and which, though it occurred over fifty years ago, is still well remembered by our older citizens, they having fought on the ice and "chawed" each other like bull-dogs. Gates was a giant in size but Jake got away with him. Like Billy, he was a fighter and never got left.
Garrett Ream was the father of fourteen children, all but one of whom- Mrs. Penrod, of Braddock- are now dead. Mrs. Penrod was with Billy when he breathed his last. Billy was the father of twelve children, six of whom are living, as follows: Lydia, married to Joseph Livingston, of Grubbtown; Julia Anna, married to Henry Howard, of Upper Yoder, near Hochstine's; Susannah, married to Peter Speicher, of Thomas' Mills, Somerset County; John, living on the old farm, and with whom his father made his home; Stephen, of Upper Yoder, and Lavinia, married to Jeremiah Boyer, of the same township. Mr. Ream is survived by his widow, by the children named, and by sixty-six grandchildren, and forty great grandchildren. The funeral will take place on Thursday afternoon, interment being made in the family burying-ground on the farm.
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Re-interred at Richland Cemetery.
Daily Tribune, Johnstown, PA, Tuesday, October 18, 1891:
DEATH OF WILLIAM REAM
An Aged and Respected Citizen of Upper Yoder Passes Away
It is with more than ordinary sorrow and regret that we announce the death of William Ream, of Upper Yoder Township, who passed peacefully to his rest at an early hour this morning, aged nearly eighty-one years. "Billy" Ream, as he was generally known and affectionately called, spent all of his long life in the immediate vicinity of Johnstown, having been born on a farm on Yoder Hill, almost overlooking the city, and it was in the same neighborhood that he died. He was of diminutive stature and slight frame, but a stouter, kinder heart never beat in a human breast, and he was as brave as a lion. Ever since we can remember, up to within a year, he has been coming to this office regularly once a week for his paper, and to the last it was always a pleasure to greet him and to have a wordy round or two with the bright little man who in his younger days feared no one, and thought nothing of whipping a bully over twice his size. His agility was wonderful and his strength that of the finest steel, and the man who ran up against him struck a hickory sapling that never went down. He did not seek quarrels, but took them like the average man takes a storm of weather, and what a well-seasoned piece of human timber he came to be!
Of late years we have noticed that his chin and nose were coming pretty close together, and that he was getting thin and bent, wrinkled and old, but we never once missed the cheery spirit until he quit coming altogether, and we learned that he was in bed waiting patiently for the last messenger. It was old age that killed him, for nothing else ever could have done it. Only a few months ago, refusing the offer of his son's carriage, he walked about four miles to call on two of his daughters, and seemed none the worse. But as there is an end to all things, so his magnificent body wore out at last, and "Billy" Ream is no more.
The deceased was a son of Garrett Ream, long since dead, who came here from Bloody Run, Bedford County, when the present century was very young indeed, and settled on Yoder Hill, some little distance back of the cemetery site, the approach to the old homestead being by a road leading up the mountain a little beyond the present residence of Mr. T. L. Hunt. He did considerable clearing there, but never farmed a great deal. Farming was too slow for Garrett Ream, and he conceived the idea of navigating the Conemaugh to Pittsburgh in the high-water season, so he went into the boat building business. He built his own flat-boats, took fright to Pittsburgh on the bosom of the floods, and sold the boats there to coalers, who sent them on down the Ohio as far as New Orleans. His first load was a flitting, and he sold the boat for $100, footing it back home a rich man. Another boat was soon built, and the demand for his craft grew so that he established a "shipyard" on the Stonycreek where the U. B. Church now stands. Then he got the contract for boating the pig iron made at Shade Furnace, in Somerset County, which was built in 1807 or 1808, and of the Benscreek Furnace, operated by George S. King, Bell, and others, and moved his boat-yard to Benscreek, where he also built a sawmill.
By this time his sons "Jake," only recently deceased, and "Billy" were "good chunks of boys," scarcely more than five feet tall, but tough as pine knots and sinewy as Indians. They began to do the boating, while the father devoted more time to the business here. The boats were fifty or sixty feet long and eighteen feet wide, and would easily carry from fifty to sixty tons of pig iron. For carrying the iron to Pittsburgh the Reams received $12 per ton. The trip from here to Pittsburgh occupied about two days on the flood, the boats "tying up" at night. The boys would always walk home, the trip consuming about two days and a half. The Reams enjoyed a very prosperous trade in boat-building and iron-carrying until 1834, when the canal was opened and the dams in the river made navigation for their flat-boats impossible. Other parties had in the meantime engaged in the carrying trade, but Jake made the last trip down the river, and had great difficulty getting past the first dam to be constructed. It was the boast of the boys that they knew every rock and island in the channel.
It was "Jake" Ream who had the great fight with "Pete" Gates, and which, though it occurred over fifty years ago, is still well remembered by our older citizens, they having fought on the ice and "chawed" each other like bull-dogs. Gates was a giant in size but Jake got away with him. Like Billy, he was a fighter and never got left.
Garrett Ream was the father of fourteen children, all but one of whom- Mrs. Penrod, of Braddock- are now dead. Mrs. Penrod was with Billy when he breathed his last. Billy was the father of twelve children, six of whom are living, as follows: Lydia, married to Joseph Livingston, of Grubbtown; Julia Anna, married to Henry Howard, of Upper Yoder, near Hochstine's; Susannah, married to Peter Speicher, of Thomas' Mills, Somerset County; John, living on the old farm, and with whom his father made his home; Stephen, of Upper Yoder, and Lavinia, married to Jeremiah Boyer, of the same township. Mr. Ream is survived by his widow, by the children named, and by sixty-six grandchildren, and forty great grandchildren. The funeral will take place on Thursday afternoon, interment being made in the family burying-ground on the farm.
-----------------------
Re-interred at Richland Cemetery.
DEATH OF WILLIAM REAM
An Aged and Respected Citizen of Upper Yoder Passes Away
It is with more than ordinary sorrow and regret that we announce the death of William Ream, of Upper Yoder Township, who passed peacefully to his rest at an early hour this morning, aged nearly eighty-one years. "Billy" Ream, as he was generally known and affectionately called, spent all of his long life in the immediate vicinity of Johnstown, having been born on a farm on Yoder Hill, almost overlooking the city, and it was in the same neighborhood that he died. He was of diminutive stature and slight frame, but a stouter, kinder heart never beat in a human breast, and he was as brave as a lion. Ever since we can remember, up to within a year, he has been coming to this office regularly once a week for his paper, and to the last it was always a pleasure to greet him and to have a wordy round or two with the bright little man who in his younger days feared no one, and thought nothing of whipping a bully over twice his size. His agility was wonderful and his strength that of the finest steel, and the man who ran up against him struck a hickory sapling that never went down. He did not seek quarrels, but took them like the average man takes a storm of weather, and what a well-seasoned piece of human timber he came to be!
Of late years we have noticed that his chin and nose were coming pretty close together, and that he was getting thin and bent, wrinkled and old, but we never once missed the cheery spirit until he quit coming altogether, and we learned that he was in bed waiting patiently for the last messenger. It was old age that killed him, for nothing else ever could have done it. Only a few months ago, refusing the offer of his son's carriage, he walked about four miles to call on two of his daughters, and seemed none the worse. But as there is an end to all things, so his magnificent body wore out at last, and "Billy" Ream is no more.
The deceased was a son of Garrett Ream, long since dead, who came here from Bloody Run, Bedford County, when the present century was very young indeed, and settled on Yoder Hill, some little distance back of the cemetery site, the approach to the old homestead being by a road leading up the mountain a little beyond the present residence of Mr. T. L. Hunt. He did considerable clearing there, but never farmed a great deal. Farming was too slow for Garrett Ream, and he conceived the idea of navigating the Conemaugh to Pittsburgh in the high-water season, so he went into the boat building business. He built his own flat-boats, took fright to Pittsburgh on the bosom of the floods, and sold the boats there to coalers, who sent them on down the Ohio as far as New Orleans. His first load was a flitting, and he sold the boat for $100, footing it back home a rich man. Another boat was soon built, and the demand for his craft grew so that he established a "shipyard" on the Stonycreek where the U. B. Church now stands. Then he got the contract for boating the pig iron made at Shade Furnace, in Somerset County, which was built in 1807 or 1808, and of the Benscreek Furnace, operated by George S. King, Bell, and others, and moved his boat-yard to Benscreek, where he also built a sawmill.
By this time his sons "Jake," only recently deceased, and "Billy" were "good chunks of boys," scarcely more than five feet tall, but tough as pine knots and sinewy as Indians. They began to do the boating, while the father devoted more time to the business here. The boats were fifty or sixty feet long and eighteen feet wide, and would easily carry from fifty to sixty tons of pig iron. For carrying the iron to Pittsburgh the Reams received $12 per ton. The trip from here to Pittsburgh occupied about two days on the flood, the boats "tying up" at night. The boys would always walk home, the trip consuming about two days and a half. The Reams enjoyed a very prosperous trade in boat-building and iron-carrying until 1834, when the canal was opened and the dams in the river made navigation for their flat-boats impossible. Other parties had in the meantime engaged in the carrying trade, but Jake made the last trip down the river, and had great difficulty getting past the first dam to be constructed. It was the boast of the boys that they knew every rock and island in the channel.
It was "Jake" Ream who had the great fight with "Pete" Gates, and which, though it occurred over fifty years ago, is still well remembered by our older citizens, they having fought on the ice and "chawed" each other like bull-dogs. Gates was a giant in size but Jake got away with him. Like Billy, he was a fighter and never got left.
Garrett Ream was the father of fourteen children, all but one of whom- Mrs. Penrod, of Braddock- are now dead. Mrs. Penrod was with Billy when he breathed his last. Billy was the father of twelve children, six of whom are living, as follows: Lydia, married to Joseph Livingston, of Grubbtown; Julia Anna, married to Henry Howard, of Upper Yoder, near Hochstine's; Susannah, married to Peter Speicher, of Thomas' Mills, Somerset County; John, living on the old farm, and with whom his father made his home; Stephen, of Upper Yoder, and Lavinia, married to Jeremiah Boyer, of the same township. Mr. Ream is survived by his widow, by the children named, and by sixty-six grandchildren, and forty great grandchildren. The funeral will take place on Thursday afternoon, interment being made in the family burying-ground on the farm.
-----------------------
Re-interred at Richland Cemetery.
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