Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens
Lawrence County Pennsylvania 1897
[p. 361] one of Chewton's leading
citizens, whose portrait appears on the opposite
page, is a gardener and model farmer of Wayne
township. His life began in Wayne Co., Ohio,
Oct. 11, 1842, and his parents were Joseph and
Mary (Leet) Repman. Joseph Repman when a
lad of thirteen took passage on a sailing vessel
from Frankfort, Germany, to the United States;
the journey took three months, which was the
usual time made. With characteristic German
thrift and energy, the lad worked his way and
drifted to Lancaster Co., Pa., where he was
employed by Daniel Hoal for three years,
which was the term of years that it was agreed he
should work for his passage over to this country,
and then spent a few years in a distillery.
His next employment was driving a six-horse
team and canastoga from Philadelphia to Pittsburg
for the purpose of transporting merchandise.
This job lasted five years, and then Joseph
Repman married and settled in Canaan township,
Wayne Co., Ohio; this farm was partially
improved, and he continued to add to the
improvements already made, until he obtained a
good chance to dispose of the property to good
advantage. Later on he removed to Spencer,
Medina Co., Ohio, where he died at seventy-five
years of age. His wife, when fifty-one years
old, was attacked by a wasting fever that
terminated fatally. Their children were: Joseph;
Hannah; Sophia; Simon; Jacob; Andrew; Mary;
Eliza; John; Sarah, who died in early life; and
Levi, the youngest of the family and the subject
of this sketch.
When a youth of fifteen summers, our subject went to Ashland, Ohio, where he learned the miller's trade, which he followed for two years, and then worked on a farm until he had attained his majority. In 1862, he enlisted in Co. E, 120th Reg. O .V. T., and served two years as a private. Then having discharged his duty as a loyal citizen, he left the service as his period of enlistment was up and went to Indiana and worked in a saw-mill and farmed for three years. His next move brought him to the grist-mills at Rochester, Pa., where, he staid five years. In 1868, he changed his occupation and worked in a limestone quarry for a year, for his throat had become affected by the dust of the milling. In company with P. Fisher, Mr. Repman leased the Shin, Williams & Co. lime kilns, and they burned lime for twenty years. He was a railway engineer for two years, and then bought thirty-acres of the McCullon farm, and in 1892 built a house thereon. He had previously built one in Wampum in 1877. He owns a farm of ten acres, on which he has erected the necessary buildings, and made improvements so that it is thoroughly modern, and there he carries on farming and gardening. Mr. Repman chose for his wife Elizabeth McCullon, whose father was Aaron McCullon, and at her death she left two children, of whom Harry is a school teacher, and Ida J. married F. Schneider. Our subject then married again, the bride being Jennie Douthett, and her demise at thirty-eight years left a son, Charles. Our subject's third wife, now presiding over his household, was Maud Lostetter, whose father was James Lostetter of Pulaski.
Mr. Repman is a Republican and has served as school director for thirteen years, as member of the council for six years, and as treasurer of the borough of Wampum for two years. He is a member and past grand of the I. O. O. F., Lodge No. 196 of Wumpum [sic], and also of the Encampment. Mr. Repman is a man who is liked by all his business associates with no exception, and is very highly esteemed by his personal friends. He has ever done what he could for the advancement of the moral, social and educational interests of the community.
Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens Lawrence County Pennsylvania
Biographical Publishing Company, Buffalo, N.Y., 1897
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Updated: 28 May 2001