Rieman business records
Abstract
This collection contains the records of the Rieman businesses in Baltimore. There are 27 volumes of ledgers, cash books, journals, and day books covering the period 1807-1905.
Dates
- 1807-1905
Creator
- Rieman, Daniel, 1755-1829 (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research use.
Conditions Governing Use
The reproduction of materials in this collection may be subject to copyright restrictions. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine and satisfy copyright clearances or other case restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the collections. For more information visit the MCHC’s Rights and Permissions page.
Biographical Note
Daniel Rieman was born in Walrode, Germany in 1755 and died in Baltimore in 1829. He came to America as a Hessian soldier to fight for the British, but became ill in Charleston, South Carolina in 1781 and did little fighting. He eventually arrived in Baltimore about 1780-1783 and started a sugar refinery which was his business in Germany before he left there. His State of Maryland naturalization paper is dated October 8, 1788 and on it his signature is spelled Daniel Rehman (elsewhere it is shown as Riehmann). According to our records he was engaged in sugar refinery with Smith and Payne located on Paca Street and this was the first refinery in Baltimore. His partners apparently retired from the firm and his son Henry Rieman continued the refinery with him for some years at Raborg Street.
In 1829, Henry Rieman's store was on the north west corner of Eutaw and Lexington Streets, but Henry Rieman and Sons, sugar refiners, were at Park Lane west of Pearl. In 1831 the refined sugar store was at corner Lexington Market and Eutaw Street. In the 1840's the firm is found at 24 North Howard Street. In the 1860s it was at 12 South Howard and 9 South Howard. In 1887 it was at 217 West German Street and it continued there until 1902.
Daniel had a son, Henry Rieman, who joined the business before Daniel died in 1829. The Baltimore directory of 1829 gives Henry Rieman as owner of the sugar refinery and also a grocery and bacon store. The suger refinery business ceased in 1833, and with various slight changes of title, the firm remained as Henry Rieman's until early in the 20th century.
Joseph Henry Rieman joined his father, Henry Rieman, in the business in 1843, while his brother Alexander joined in 1845. Joseph H. Rieman, Jr., Howard and Henry J. became partners in the latter part of the 19th century. The firm's name changed to Henry Rieman and Sons about 1847. Joseph H. Rieman (1822-1897) continued the firm as Henry Rieman and Sons, capitalists.
Daniel married Katherine Peters in 1785 and was survived by seven children:
Henry Rieman (1786-1865) married Mary Wilcox Jones
Elizabeth Rieman (1789-1880) married Basil H. Warfield
Barbara Ann Rieman (1793-1874) married Andrew Willier
Margaret Rieman (1795-1871) married Daniel Kalbfus
Ann Maria Rieman (1800-1873) married Edward Steuart
Samuel Rieman (1807-1841) married Seraphine Smith
George Peters Rieman (1809-1835) married Sarah Garrett, a daughter of the first Robert Garrett of Baltimore
The eldest son of Daniel and Katherine, Henry Rieman, married Mary Wilcox Jones and the two were parents to seven children:
Sophie Rieman (1810-1886) married George Steuart
William Jones Rieman (1812-1884) married Cecil Howard of Ohio
Alexander Rieman (1814-1888) married Eveline MacFarland
Elizabeth Warfield Rieman (1816-1903) married John Rawlings Duval
Anna Maria Rieman (1820-1983) married Frederick H. Hack
Joseph Henry Rieman (1822-1897) married Ann Lowe of Ohio
Mary Virginia Rieman (1824-1876) married Henry W. Baxley
Extent
10.0 Linear Feet (6 full Hollinger boxes; 27 volumes )
Language of Materials
English
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Mr. Joseph Rieman McIntosh, July 1971.
Scope and Contents
Henry Rieman and Sons was a provision and commission merchant firm founded by Rieman about 1827. In the late 18th or early 19th century Henry worked in sugar refining with his father Daniel and Basil Warfield. One of the early ledgers in this collection (vol 16) records a [Daniel] Rieman, Warfield, ; [Henry] Rieman, sugar refiners about 1807-12, but the city directories do not. From 1827 until about 1832 Henry continued sugar refining with his brother Samuel as the firm H.;S. Rieman, sugar refiners (see vol. 1). Henry was concurrently engaged in the grocery trade. The firm [Joseph] Yager ; [Henry] Rieman, grocers and bacon sellers existed from about 1819 until 1827. Henry Rieman continued the grocery and bacon selling business alone after 1827 (along with the sugar refining with Samuel at the same address). In 1837 he changed the name to Henry Rieman and Son, grocers and bacon sellers. The firm became Henry Rieman and Sons, provision dealers and commission merchants in 1847. The two sons were Alexander and Joseph H. Rieman. Much of the firm's activity through the 1870s dealt with shipping pork from Terre Haute, Indiana and Cincinnati, Ohio to Baltimore where it was cured. During the period 1880-1886, Henry Rieman and Sons does not list the type of business in which it engaged. However, Joseph's sons had opened Rieman and Bros. Company (1877-1889), a provision and commission merchant firm which perhaps absorbed some of Henry Rieman and Sons' business while the elder Rieman's were engaged in other activities. Alexander was president of the Western Maryland Railroad from 1873-1874 and vice-president from 1874-1884. Joseph H. Rieman was president of the Commercial and Farmers National Bank until 1896. In 1887 Henry Rieman and Sons moved into the field of investments, calling themselves capitalists in the city directory. This remained the activity of the firm through 1898 when open the death of Joseph, Charles E. Rieman took over Henry Rieman and Sons. It became a real estate firm in the twentieth century, but this collection deals with its activities as provision and commission merchants.
This collection consists of 41 volumes and 7 boxes of materials relating to Henry Rieman and Sons. The bulk of the material dates from 1830-1899 although many of the land deeds are earlier and one volume of business records deals with transactions up to 1952. The volumes are daybooks, cashbooks, ledgers and journals from the company. The boxes are almost exclisively land deeds of property held by the Rieman family.
The Rieman family owned property in Baltimore and numbered the deeds to the properties on which ground rent was still collected as Plat 1 through Plat 36. The deeds for these properties are filed according to plat number. Those land deeds no longer binding (either deeds for land sold or earlier deeds for land in plats 1-36) had no plat number and are filed according to street name.
Creator
- Rieman, Daniel, 1755-1829 (Person)
- Warfield, Basil H. (Person)
- Rieman, Alexander (1814-1888) (Person)
- Rieman, Joseph Henry, 1822-1897 (Person)
- Rieman, Henry, 1786-1865 (Person)
- Title
- Guide to the Rieman business records
- Status
- Under Revision
- Author
- P.W. Filby
- Date
- 1976-05
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- English
Revision Statements
- 01-01-2020: Manually entered into ArchivesSpace by Mallory Herberger.
Repository Details
Part of the H. Furlong Baldwin Library Repository
H. Furlong Baldwin Library
Maryland Center for History and Culture
610 Park Avenue
Baltimore MD 21201 United States
4106853750
specialcollections@mdhistory.org