Wood County, West Virginia    Biography of Paulus REPS

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Submitted by Ann Schwirian <TrKeGram@aol.com>
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume II,
pg. 283

    Paulus Reps.  At the northwest corner of the Court Square in Parkersburg 
is a business house conducted under the name Reps & Company, but whose sole 
proprietor is Paulus Reps, one of the city's most substantial merchants and a 
man whose relations with the citizenship has met every test imposed upon 
integrity and honor.
    Mr. Reps was born on a farm in Butler County, Pennsylvania, December 23, 
1853, the first of the two children and only one now living of Ernest and 
Anna Margaret (Wolf) Reps.  His parents were natives of Germany, the former 
of Prussia and the latter of Hesse-Darmstadt.  They came separately to the 
United States.  Ernest Reps as a young man had to give service to the German 
Army, and that was only one cause of dissatisfaction with conditions in 
Europe which made it almost impossible for a man to rise above his 
circumstances.  Thus it was that he came to the United States when about 
twenty-one years of age, and he had learned the trade of locksmith, but in 
this country could find no regular employment in that line.  He then learned 
the trade of tanner in Pennsylvania, and followed that business for some 
time.  Shortly after his marriage he bought a small tract of land in Butler 
County and turned his energies to farming.  From Western Pennsylvania he 
moved to Adams County, Ohio, where his wife's people lived, and in that 
section of the Ohio Valley he and his good wife lived out their years and are 
buried.
    On a farm in the hills of Adams County, Ohio, Paulus Reps grew to 
manhood.  He had worked within the measure of his strength on the farm and in 
the home, but he also eagerly pursued knowledge in the district school.  At 
the age of eighteen he passed a successful examination for a teacher's 
certificate, and the first term he taught was for six months, at the salary 
of $30 a month.  For sixteen years teaching was his chief profession.
    Mr. Reps has been identified with the citizenship of Parkersburg over 
thirty years.  In 1890 he and others entered the mercantile business, but in 
the course of years he bought out his partner, though he has always continued 
the firm name of Reps & Company.
    His first wife was Anna Pflaumer, of Adams County, Ohio.  She died, 
leaving two children, Isa E. and George Ernest, the latter associated with 
his father in business.  The second wife was Cora Ellen Crosser.  The three 
children born to their marriage are:  Helen Doris, Mrs. Harlan DeVore; Thelma 
Virginia; and Russell Paul.
    Mr. Reps came to Parkersburg with little of this world's wealth.  He had 
an idea and backed it to the extent of his ability.  During subsequent years 
he has enjoyed a steady increase in returns, and is accounted one of the 
substantial and successful business men of the community.  From early boyhood 
he has been a great lover of music, and that love seems to be an inheritance 
of his children, several of whom have developed special proficiency in the 
art.  Mr. Reps is a Methodist, a republican, and a member of the Parkersburg 
Chamber of Commerce.