Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 562
CHARLES REIHER

Charles REIHER, a furniture dealer at Dunlap, is a native of Prussia, having been born seven miles from Berlin, August 9, 1833. He is the son of John and Dora (GOTSCHALK) REIHER. In the spring of 1848 the family consisting of father, mother, our subject Charles, and his sister Dora, came to America and located near Buffalo, N. Y., at East Hamburg. Here our subject remained until he was fifteen years of age, when he started for himself. He made two trips to New York, on the canal, and then went at the carpenter's and joiner's trade and later on entered the car-shops at Buffalo, where he spent a year and a half, and then went to Marquette, Mich., and took a position as foreman of the car-shops. This was in 1856, and after remaining there eighteen months, he entered the employ of the Government, in the Signal Service Department. He entered into a five-year contract, but was discharged after a service of two years and a half. He was stationed at Ft. Antoinette, Mich.

He next took a claim at Superior City, consisting of one hundred and sixty acres, upon which now stands the great City of Duluth. This he sold to NETTLETON & CADWELL, for $300, and returned to work on the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, at Escanaba, Mich., as foreman of their shops, but after about thirteen months was transferred to Janesville, Wis., and was again transferred after eighteen months to Clinton, Iowa, and was there made foreman of the shops. Seven months later the railroad company sent him to Boone, Iowa, to build the railroad shops at that point. Here our subject remained twenty years, about eleven years of the time he was with the railroad company, after which he went into the butcher business for one year and then changed to the furniture business, in which he continued until 1880, and then came to Dunlap, where he has since carried on the furniture business. He also does undertaking in connection with the furniture business, and is associated with his son, at Charter Oak, in a general store.

Politically, like most of his countrymen who come to our shores, he is a stanch Republican, and always takes an active part in the political campaigns. He is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and also of the Legion of Honor.

He was united in marriage, at Buffalo, N. Y. to Elizabeth VORBECK, a native of New York. They are the parents of three children--Walter, a resident of Boone, Iowa, a time-keeper for the Northwestern Railroad Company; Matilda, wife of Thomas KELLEY, a bookkeeper at Des Moines, Iowa; and Francis, a resident of Boone.

For his second wife Mr. REIHER married Melissa RICHARD. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, although he was reared a Quaker. The parents of our subject died in Boone, Iowa, the mother in 1887, and the father prior to that time. They both lived to advanced age of eighty-seven years.

Return to 1891 Biographical R Surnames Index

Back to 1891 Biographies Index