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action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/goodspeedhist/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114Shortly after publishing last week’s article, the Heaths of Locktown<\/a>, David Sherman sent me four very interesting documents from his collection of Heath & Sherman memorabilia. They shed new light on the lives of Edward M. Heath and his son Robert, as well as their friend Lester B. Sherman, and his wife Fayetta Reep’s family.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Let’s look at them\u00ac\u2020chronologically:<\/p>\n 1) 1894 May 5, Teacher\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Certificate for Lida V. Reep<\/p>\n 2) 1896 April 10, Letter of recommendation, by E. M. Heath for William Reep<\/p>\n 3) 1919 Mar 29, Promise to pay by L. [Lester] B. Sherman to Robert Heath<\/p>\n 4) 1932 April 1, Letter from R. T. Heath and Edw. M. F. Heath to Lester B. Sherman<\/p>\n <\/a>Office of County Superintendent of Hunterdon County, State of New Jersey. Teacher\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Certificate for Lida V. Reep.<\/p>\n \u00ac\u2020\u201a\u00c4\u00faLida V. Reep having presented satisfactory evidence of good moral character and having passed the required examination with the results indicated in the annexed Grade is hereby licensed a Teacher in the Public Schools of said County for the term of One Year from date unless this Certificate is sooner revoked.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 May 5, 1894.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Signed by E. M. Heath, Co. Supt., and E. T. Bush, examiner. The other examiner\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s name is illegible to me.<\/p>\n The certificate was for teaching the third grade. Miss Reep herself was graded on Orthography (86), Geography (77), Reading (75), Practical Arithmetic (76), Writing (86), English Grammar (72), and Theory & Practice of Reading (90). Her General Average was 80+. She was also graded on General Appearance of Examination Papers (80).<\/p>\n Lida Victoria Reep, born Oct. 23, 1875 in Falls (or Fallsington), Bucks Co., PA, was the second oldest of nine children of William Benjamin Reep and Henrietta Myers. She was included in the family when it was counted in the 1880 census. Only two years after receiving her certificate, Lida Reep got married. Her husband was Elijah Hewitt Buchanan (1872-1953), brother of George W. R. Buchanan of West Amwell, who married Lida\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s sister Virginia Richmond Reep in 1898. George and Elijah were sons of Joseph West Buchanan and Henrietta Hewitt of West Amwell Township.<\/p>\n I do not know whether Lida continued as a teacher after marrying. The fact that she did not have children suggests she might have.<\/p>\n Lida Reep and Elijah H. Buchanan were living in Delaware Township in 1900, where Elijah rented a farm and worked as a trucker. It appears that soon after the 1900 census was taken, Lida\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s marriage to Elijah Buchanan fell apart. About 1903, Elijah got married to Lida\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s younger sister Ada (1885-1965), even though Lida was very much alive. Presumably they had gotten a divorce.<\/p>\n In 1910, Lida married again. Her new husband was H. Welding Slack of Bucks County. The couple set up housekeeping on North Main St., New Hope. Welding Slack died in 1949 age 70, and Lida died in 1951, age 76.<\/p>\n <\/a>To whom it may Concern. A note at the bottom of the page reads:<\/p>\n \u201a\u00c4\u00faMr. Reep, mentioned in the above letter was my father (Fayetta Sherman).\u201a\u00c4\u00f9<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Fayetta Sherman was born Fayetta Henrietta Reep on August 9, 1889 at her parents\u201a\u00c4\u00f4 home in West Amwell Township. She was a sister of Lida V. Reep Buchanan, Virginia R. and Ada Reep Buchanan. She married Lester B. Sherman, about whom I will have more to say.<\/p>\n Notice that Edward M. Heath signed himself as \u201a\u00c4\u00faEx Co. Supt.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 He had served as Hunterdon County Superintendent of Schools from 1888 to 1895, but he was so widely respected, that a letter from him even after he had served his term was valuable to someone like William Reep.<\/p>\n The job-seeking schoolteacher and father of Fayetta Sherman was William Benjamin Reep, who sometimes went by the name Benjamin W. Reep and sometimes as W. Benjamin Reep. He was born Sept. 27, 1848 in Northampton, Lehigh Co., PA to William H. Reep and Fayetta Yodder. William H. Reep was born August 10, 1823 in Pennsylvania and died on Feb. 24, 1884. He was buried in the Lower Tinicum Cemetery in Bucks County with his three wives. Fayetta Yodder was his first wife, born November 27, 1827, died December 25, 1858, age 31. She had five children, according to the 1860 census for Tinicum: Anna Maria (1845-1909) who married Tobias W. Swope; William Benjamin (1848-1898); Matilda Rebecca (1849-1880) who married Wm Burgstresser; Sarah J., born about 1852 and Emma C., born about 1854.1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n Wm Benjamin Reep married as his first wife William Burgstresser\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s sister, Emma Jane Burgstresser (1849-1870). Emma Jane had two daughters who died young, as did Emma herself, at the age of 21. Wm Benj. Reep married second, on February 1, 1873, Henrietta Myers (1852-1928), daughter of Edward Myers and Elizabeth Major of Tinicum. The Myers were a good example of families that moved back and forth across the river from NJ to\u00ac\u2020PA and back to NJ, since Edward\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s parents were Cornelius Myers and Rebecca Mason of Amwell Township (see Albertus Myer\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Bible<\/a>).<\/p>\n William Benj. Reep and wife Emma were living in Newtown, Bucks County in 1870, where Reep, age 21, was (like son, like father) employed as a schoolteacher. Ten years later, Reep, still teaching school, living in Fallsington, Bucks Co. with wife Henrietta and their three daughters.<\/p>\n Sometime after that, Reep decided to move with his family across the river to West Amwell Township. On March 9, 1888, he bought a farm there of 38.36 acres from Andrew D. W. and Sarah B. Stout of Lambertville for $1400.2<\/a><\/sup> It must be then that daughters Virginia, Lida and Ada became acquainted with the Buchanan family.<\/p>\n On June 17, 1896, the Republican reported that \u201a\u00c4\u00faBenjamin W. Reep, who has been teaching the Mount Range public school in West Amwell for several years, has resigned and taken a position as teacher of the public school at Pattenburg.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 This explains why he wanted a letter of recommendation. Apparently, he got a job as schoolteacher in Union Twp, but he died only two years later, on Sept. 26, 1898, according to his obituary:<\/p>\n Death at Pattenburg on 26 Sept. 1898, William Benjamin Reep, aged 49 years and 11 months. He was the husband of Mrs. Henrietta Myers Reep. He was a school teacher in Union Tp. and had been a school teacher and Justice of the Peace in West Amwell Tp., elected in 1894. He recently moved to Pattenburg. Burial at Frenchtown.3<\/a><\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe Teacher’s Certificate, 1894<\/h3>\n
Letter of recommendation for William Reep, 1896<\/span><\/h3>\n
\nIt affords me great pleasure to bear testimony to the bearer of this letter. Mr. Reep has been a teacher in the public schools of Hunterdon County for a number of years. His ability, energy and enthusiasm make his school work thorough, valuable and satisfactory. Any school Board needing the services of a competent teacher will do well to secure his services.
\nVery respectfully,
\nE. M. Heath, Ex Co. Supt. Hunt. Co.<\/p>\n