A carpenter by training, Theodore L. Reber (1838-1912) was born in Pennsylvania.  After his first wife and two children died there in the early 1860s, he married Rebecca Jane Rogers (1841-?) and moved to Burlingame, Kansas, where he opened a confectionery.
In 1873 the Rebers moved to Denison, where T.L. opened a news stand and stationery on Main Street, "opposite Harper & Hayward's."  In December of 1875 he & H.L. Pope badly wounded each other in a gunfight said to be caused by Mrs. Reber.

Later that month Mr. Reber sold out to F.R. Brown and left Denison.  This building housed the Denison Post Office and F.R. Brown & Co. (Franklin R. Brown and Martin H. Brown), "Wholesale and retail dealer in Books, Stationery, Magazines, Fine gold pens, Pocket Cuttlery, Toys, Chromos (postcards), Musical Instruments, and novelties of all descriptions.  Also fine imported cigars, in variety; the latest in St. Louis papers, 5 cents a copy.  Weeklies, ledgers and Saturday nights only 7-1/2 cts per copy.  At the book store , in the Post Office [114 West Main Street]. Denison, Texas"...Denison Daily News, Sept. 23, 1876.

In August of 1876 he returned and opened another book store at 217 W. Main, the former location of J.A. Euper's soda fountain.  Seven months later, in March of 1877, he sold out again and moved to Deadwood, South Dakota, where he opened a restaurant.  He spent two years in Deadwood, then traveled around the Southwest for the next three decades, starting up and selling soda water bottling plants in 50 different towns.

Eventually becoming a legend to bottle collectors, Reber has been called "the Johnny Appleseed of soda bottling."  
He died in 1912 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.


The Remarkable T.L. Reber : Soda Bottles and Bottling in the Black Range and Silver City, New Mexico by Bill Lockhard and Zang Wood