Reuben W. Weisz was born at Lancaster, Ohio, June 20, 1820; he is the son of George and Catharine E. (Shuman) Weisz, natives of Pennsylvania, of German descent.  They clung to the habits of the fatherland in their family, speaking German exclusively and teaching that language to their children before they did English.  The subject eat of this sketch could speak two languages at the age of twelve years, and later in life learned a third.  When about thirteen years of age, he left home and until 1843 clerked in a dry goods store.  He resided in Hocking County a number of years, and while there was engaged as a merchant and hotel-keeper and also as a dealer in lumber.  In 1855, he came to Richwood and has since been variously engaged, but latterly he has retired from active business life.  In 1844, he married Mary A. Abbott, a native of Fairfield County, and a daughter of Orrin and Rosanna (Hayes) Abbott.  She died in 1856, leaving three children, and in 1857 he married Mary H. Thompson, a daughter of Hugh and Mary W. (Cotton) Thompson.  His second wife died in 1874, also leaving three children.  In 1875, he married Miss Nancy M. Waters, a native of New York State and a daughter of Nathan P. and Susan D. (Perry) Waters.  She died in 1879, leaving one child.  Mr. Weisz takes a great pride in his home, which is presided over by his youngest child by his second marriage, while he superintends his business affairs.  He has met with success in all of his business operations, has always enjoyed a comfortable portion of this world's goods and now has a competency sufficient to support him in his declining years.  He was for twenty-six years a member of the German Reformed Church, of which his father was a minister for forty years, but there being no church of that denomination in Richwood, he has since his residence here been connected with the Methodist Episcopal Church.