BIOGRAPHY: Vincent RIEG, Cambria County, PA 

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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 392-3
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VINCENT RIEG, an active republican and a Union soldier of the late Civil War, is 
a member of the firm of Rieg & Dumm, distillers of pure rye whiskey, at 
Carrolltown. He is a son of Francis and Josephine (Beiswinger) Rieg, and was 
born in Wurtemberg, Germany, November 25, 1844. Francis H. Rieg, father of 
Vincent, was born at Hirlehoven, Wurtemberg, Germany, August 11, 1811, and 
learned the trade of stonecutter, which he followed for many years. He came to 
Cumberland, Maryland, in 1851, and the next year came to Carroll township, 
Cambria county, in the eastern part of which be was one of the first settlers. 
He purchased a woodland tract and cleared out a farm, in connection with working 
at his trade on the Old Portage and Pennsylvania railroads. He was a republican 
in Europe, and on account of his part in the German troubles of 1848, had to 
flee to America. He was a Catholic, and died June 23, 1865, aged fifty-four 
years. He married Josephine Beiswinger, who is a native of Strasdorf, 
Wurtemberg, Germany, and is now in the eighty-third year of her age, residing 
with her daughter Mary in West Virginia. Their children were: Michael, of 
Cumberland, Maryland, employed as a section foreman on the railroad; Vincent, of 
Carrolltown; Conrad, Francis, Anthony, and Joseph, who are dead. Mary, wife of 
Vincent Kreyenbuhl of Leopold, Doddridge county, West Virginia; John, a resident 
of Newtown, Kansas; and Peter, who is dead.
     Vincent Rieg, at the age of fourteen years, went to Washington city, and 
learned the trade of marble cutter (having the honor of placing some of his work 
in the capitol and treasury of the United States). He followed his trade until 
April 24, 1864, when he enlisted in the Union service in Washington city, and 
drove an ammunition wagon in the Third division of the Ninth Army corps, and was 
transferred in December, 1864, to the Provisional division of the Twenty-fourth 
Army corps, from which he was discharged May 26, 1865, and in a short time came 
home, on account of his father's death, to manage the farm and take care of the 
family. He was engaged alone in farming up to 1878, when he combined huckstering 
with it, and five years later quit huckstering to follow bridge-building for 
three years. At the end of that time, in 1889, he was appointed as government 
gauger and store-keeper in the Twenty-third internal revenue district, and four 
years later resigned in order to form a partnership with John W. Dumm, under the 
firm name of Rieg & Dumm, for the purpose of engaging in the distilling business 
at Carrolltown. They succeeded Mrs. Ellen Williams, in the proprietorship of the 
distillery there. They have a well equipped plant for their particular line of 
work, which is the distillation of pure rye whiskey. They have a large home 
trade, and fill many orders from a distance, which they receive through the 
mail.
     On November 17, 1868, Mr. Rieg married Annie Christina Airhart, whose 
father, Peter Airhart, is a resident of Carroll township. To their union have 
been born eight children: Francis, now deceased; Suebert B., fireman on the 
Norfolk and Western railroad; Celestine, farming on the homestead farm; Conrad 
C., teaching school; Christian, now dead; and Elizabeth, Francis and Mary, who 
are still at home.
     Vincent Rieg now owns his father's farm, which contains seventy-one acres, 
and is two miles east from Carrolltown. He is an energetic and persevering man, 
who has been actively engaged in different lines of business for nearly forty 
years. He is a member of the Roman Catholic church. Mr. Rieg is a staunch and 
active republican, and has been important and useful as a worker and leader in 
his party for over a quarter of a century.
     For four years, from 1852 to 1856, while the eastern part of Carroll 
township was rapidly being settled by all nationalities, Mr. Rieg was pilot to 
the Rev. Father Henry Lunkie, the pioneer priest of northern Cambria, on his 
mission as minister and physician to the newly arriving settlers in the 
wilderness of Carroll township.