Ancestors
Abraham Ream
1749-1817 · Brecknock Township
Born 1749
Died 1817
Mother: Nicholas Riehm
Children include Johannes
Abraham Riehm was a grandson of Johann Eberhard Riehm, the Palatine settler of 1717 on the Muddy Creek, and a son of Eberhard's son Nicholas. He grew up near the place his uncle Tobias laid out as Reamstown, in Cocalico Township, Lancaster County. On 14 September 1767 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Adam Neidig, both of them single, and the church entry names both fathers.
They crossed the county line into Brecknock Township in Berks County. In November 1772 he bought ninety two and a half acres there, out of a tract called Benjamin's Plains, and he held them for fourteen years. Their children were baptized by the Reformed pastor John Waldschmidt: Johannes, born 23 July 1779, and Esther and Abraham, born 1781 and 1784 and baptized together in August 1785. They worshipped at the Allegheny church in Brecknock, where Waldschmidt confirmed their daughters Elizabeth and Catharine at the communion of 17 April 1785.
On 21 April 1787 he and Elizabeth sold the Brecknock farm for three hundred pounds. She is not heard of again, and he married a second time, to Magdalena March, with whom he had seven more children. He moved north and west into the part of Northumberland County that became Centre County in 1800, and farmed in Haines Township. He also bought land in eastern Ohio, a quarter section in the Steubenville land district, which he left to his daughter Catharine.
His will, written in a clerk's fine hand under a black-letter heading, opens: "In the Name of God, Amen, I Abraham Ream of the Township of Haines, in the County of Centre and State of Pennsylvania, being in perfect Health of Body and of sound Mind, Memory and Understanding." He left his daughter Elizabeth, wife of Adam Boemer, five pounds, and a fund of one hundred and sixty six pounds to pay her ten pounds a year if she were widowed. Catharine, wife of a Hebler, received the Ohio land. Barbara, wife of John Frederick Ream, had already had her portion in a farm in Potter Township, and Christiana Shafer had received part of hers. The children of his second marriage, Magdalena Wagner, George, Eve, Sally, Peggy, David and Michael, were to share the interest. He died in 1817 and the will was proved in Centre County.
Children
Johannes Riehm (1779-1849)
Sources
Berks County deed books, the instrument recorded twice. "This Indenture made the twenty first day of April in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven. Between ABRAHAM REAM of BRECKNOCK [Township] in the County of Berks and State of Pennsylvania and ELIZABETH HIS WIFE of the one part and PETER [S...] farmer of the said place yeoman of the other part."
THE CHAIN OF TITLE, which the deed recites in full. A proprietary patent of 14 August 1772 granted a tract of four hundred and thirty seven acres called Benjamin's Plains, lying partly in Berks County, recorded at Philadelphia in Book W. A. volume 3 page 1870. It passed from the patentee to a DICKINSON, and DICKINSON and MARY HIS WIFE, by their indenture of 19 NOVEMBER 1772, sold ABRAHAM REAM ninety two and a half acres out of it. So he had held that ground for fourteen and a half years when he sold it.
THE SALE. Ninety two and a half acres, for THREE HUNDRED POUNDS lawful money of Pennsylvania. The bounds run from a stone corner in a neighbour's line, north thirty degrees east a hundred and seventy three perches to a small hickory, then south sixty three degrees east a hundred perches.
AND IT DATES HER. Her death is given as 1787, with nothing else to place her in that year. The deed has her alive on 21 April 1787, joining in the sale as a wife had to, so the farm went the same year she did and their son Johannes was eight when both happened.
THE BUYER'S NAME CANNOT BE READ. The two recordings give it as Shnitzer, Sheritzer, Stultzer, Shiveitzer and Shewetter, which is one German surname beaten about by two clerks and a scanner. He was a farmer of the same township and that is as much as the page will support.
AND THE DEED DOES NOT NAME HER FAMILY. It calls her only Elizabeth his wife, which is what these instruments do, so the surname NEIDIG rests on no known record. Rev. John Waldschmidt's pastoral records of the Reformed congregations of Cocalico (Swamp), Muddy Creek, Weiseichenland and Zeltenreich, 1752 to 1786, printed in Pennsylvania Archives, Sixth Series, volume 6 (Harrisburg, 1906), page 188, archive.org pennsylvania-archives_1905_6_series-6.
Marriage of Abraham, son of Nicholas Riehm, and Elizabeth, daughter of Adam Neidig, both single, 14 September 1767, in the church record of the Riehm family's congregation near Reamstown, as printed in D. Elmer L. Denniston, A Genealogy of the Stukey, Ream, Grove, Clem and Denniston Families (Harrisburg, 1939), the Riehm family chapters, pages 238 to 239, 254 and 326 to 327, which print the Riehm entries of the family's church record (FamilySearch full text, Genealogies collection, images 3:1:3QHK-93RT-74T3, 3:1:3QHV-B3RT-74V2 and 3:1:3QHV-B3RT-74BQ).
Will of Abraham Ream of Haines Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania, Centre County probate estate case files, 1818 (FamilySearch, images 3:1:3QHK-XQT2-K9Q1-Q and 3:1:3QHK-8QT2-N4BF-J).
Rev. John Waldschmidt's pastoral records of the Reformed congregations of Cocalico (Swamp), Muddy Creek, Weiseichenland and Zeltenreich, 1752 to 1786, printed in Pennsylvania Archives, Sixth Series, volume 6 (Harrisburg, 1906), page 188, archive.org pennsylvania-archives_1905_6_series-6. Marriage of Abraham, son of Nicholas Riehm, and Elizabeth, daughter of Adam Neidig, both single, 14 September 1767, in the church record of the Riehm family's congregation near Reamstown, as printed in D. Elmer L. Denniston, A Genealogy of the Stukey, Ream, Grove, Clem and Denniston Families (Harrisburg, 1939), the Riehm family chapters, pages 238 to 239, 254 and 326 to 327, which print the Riehm entries of the family's church record (FamilySearch full text, Genealogies collection, images 3:1:3QHK-93RT-74T3, 3:1:3QHV-B3RT-74V2 and 3:1:3QHV-B3RT-74BQ). Rev. John Waldschmidt's pastoral records of the Reformed congregations of Cocalico, Muddy Creek, Weiseichenland and Zeltenreich, 1752 to 1786, Pennsylvania Archives, Sixth Series, volume 6 (Harrisburg, 1906), marriages and the communion lists, archive.org 6thpennsylvaniaarch06harruoft. Will of Abraham Ream of Haines Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania, Centre County probate estate case files, 1818 (FamilySearch, images 3:1:3QHK-XQT2-K9Q1-Q and 3:1:3QHK-8QT2-N4BF-J).
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Cite: Heirology, "Abraham Ream (1749-1817)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/abraham-ream-1749-1817-0a1bfc.