Reuben was appointed Postmaster of East Peen Township, Carbon County, Pa., in 1843. He worked for the Lehigh and New England Railroad. His family lived on a small farm that he purchased in Weatherly, Pa. He was killed in a railroad or auto accident. He was credited as one of the first steel works chemists in the U.S.

Following the death or her second husband, Mary relocated her family from Weatherly to a home in Braddock, Pa., to accommodate the employment of her her sons at the Edgar Thompson Steel Works there. She lived in Braddock until recently before her death, settling in a Philadelphia suburb, St. Davids. She died after a year long bout of pneumonia, during a stay with Rainey Schwab in Loretto, Pa.