Benjamin Riegle and Catherine Diebler

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Husband Benjamin Riegle ¹

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           Born: 24 Mar 1805 - Tulpehocken Twp, Berks Co, PA 1
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

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         Father: George Riegle (      -      ) 2
         Mother: Anna Mary Lesher (      -      ) 1

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       Marriage: 31 Jan 1826 3

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   Other Spouse: Elizabeth [Unk] (      -      ) 3 - 6 Jun 1875 3

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Wife Catherine Diebler ³

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 16 Jan 1875 3
         Buried: 

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         Father: Daniel Diebler (      -      ) 3
         Mother: Anna Mary Fessel (      -      ) 3

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Children

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General Notes: Husband - Benjamin Riegle

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He was carefully trained from earliest childhood at home, and his parents made willing contributions for the support of a school in the neighborhood in which he was a pupil. This was before the establishment of the public school system, maintained by general taxation; these subscription schools were the only educational advantages within the reach of people of moderate means. The family removed to Northumberland County when Benjamin was nine years old. His education being limited, having attended school only a few months for two or three winters, he continued to attend subscription schools until he was nineteen. These schools were only kept open during the winter season, when farm work was not pressing; in the farming season all the girls and boys were expected to help in home and farm work.
Thinking it well that a boy should know a trade, his parents placed him with Jacob Welker, of Millersburg, to learn cabinet-making. At the end of two years Mr. Welker pronounced him a well trained mechanic, and he went to work as a journeyman. After following this occupation for one year, Mr. Riegle decided to return to farm work; so, after due consideration, he rented a farm in Upper Paxton township, from Jacob Landis, for three years. Within the first year of his lease he learned that he could buy a farm on easy terms, so he sublet the Landis farm to Jacob Lebo, and on April 1, 1828, bought a homestead, then comprising one hundred and twenty-eight acres. He at once took possession and began the process of clearing, improving, enriching the soil and erecting needed structures, making substantial improvements of all kinds in due order. His first great improvement, and the one he deemed most important, was the large, substantial and convenient barn that he built in 1834. Finding that he could as easily and more economically manage a larger farm, Mr. Riegle bought fifty acres more of Christopher Yeager in 1838, and fifty of William Lenker five years later. In 1859 he built a beautiful and spacious residence which thereafter was his home.
As his children reached the threshold of active life Mr. Riegle took care of their interests. In 1850 he bought of George Buffington a farm of one hundred and twenty-eight acres, which he greatly improved, and which, in 1865, he sold to his son Jonathan. In 1860 he bought of Simon Yeager a farm of one hundred and twenty-five acres of cleared land and thirty acres of timber, on which, in 1861, he built a large barn and made other improvements, and in 1866 sold it to his son-in-law, Jeremiah Landis. In the spring of the same year he sold one hundred acres, with buildings, to his son Benjamin. Mr. Riegle's circumstances then made it necessary for him to be taxed with the burdens and responsibilities of active business, but his integrity and ability were so manifest in his career that organized industries and financial trusts and ventures desired his aid and support in their administration. A number of such enterprises in the lower end of Lykens Valley enjoyed his services and his endorsement. He was for many years a stockholder in one of the Harrisburg banks, and was largely instrumental in the organization of the Lykens Valley Bank (later the First National Bank of Millersburg), in which for many years he was a director and one of the principal stockholders; he was also one of the principal organizers of the Lykens Bank.
His church membership was in the United Brethren church.

He and his first wife had nine children, of whom seven were deceased before 1896.

1 —, Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania (Chambersburg, PA: J. M. Runk & Company, Publishers, 1896), Pg 1074.

2 Lesher Families in America, Pg 34.

3 —, Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania (Chambersburg, PA: J. M. Runk & Company, Publishers, 1896), Pg 1075.