The oldest of Shinah Solomon Etting andElijah Etting’s children, Reuben was born in York, Pennsylvania in1762. In 1778 his father died, and two years later his mother, nolonger finding the frontier town of York a hospitable environment toraise her family, moved down to Baltimore with her five youngest.

Reubenwould eventually follow his family to Maryland, although he nevercompletely settled in the city. While he spent considerable time withhis mother and sister Sally inBaltimore, Etting moved back and forth between that city andPhiladelphia, pursuing business prospects in both. He traded in drygoods, ran a millinery shop and worked as an auctioneer. Financialsuccess, however, never smiled on him as it did his brother Solomon.

In1794, two years after Solomon had married RachelGratz, Reuben married her first cousin Frances.The daughter of Philadelphia’s Michael Gratz.They had eight children, including Benjamin.

Whenthe United States seemed to be on the verge of war with France in1798, Etting served as captain of a militia called the IndependentBlues. Despite his desire for civic involvement, public service andprestige, Jews were forbidden from holding public office in Maryland.So, it marked a milestone in the Jewish struggle for rights when in1801 Thomas Jefferson appointed Etting a federal marshal forMaryland. However it would take another twenty-four years for Jews towin full equality in Maryland, a fight that would consume the Ettingbrothers and their associate Jacob I. Cohen.