John Charles Henry Riese was born in Germany, 27 December 1825. He died by drowning in Boston, Massachusetts 11 August 1899 and is buried at Mt. Hope Cemetery in Boston. We do not know his ancestry or place of residence in Germany except that family tradition says he came from either Berlin or that area of Germany. He married while in Germany Wilhelmina Rouwald, born in Germany ca. 1834, died in Boston 4 May 1888, and buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery in Boston. All we know of her parentage is that her mother's name was also Wilhelmina.

Most of the information we have on the Riese family was obtained by the genealogist, Neil Todd of the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston, the Tacoma city directories, and from a letter written in 1979 by Mabel (Manning) Pinel, granddaughter of John and Wilhelmina Riese.

John Charles Henry Riese was called John by his wife, Charles on his naturalization papers, and Henry in the Boston city directories and on his death certificate.

According to information received in the letter by Mabel (Manning) Pinel, John C. H. Riese came to America alone and his wife and their three children followed him a year or so later. Their fourth child, Selma Louisa, was their only child born in America. The ages of their children given in the 1900 U.S. Census (Massachusetts and Oklahoma Territory) and the date, July 30, 1869, of John C. H. Riese's arrival at the Port of New York City (given on his naturalization papers issued at Boston, 25 Oct. 1887, Cirtificate #145-86) bear this out although their two sons stated their birthplace as Boston or Massachusetts on the few official papers of theirs we found.

The information obtained from the Boston City directories is very helpful in plotting the movement and occupations of individuals and their families. We found that in 1874, just 5 years after his arrival in this country, Henry Riese was earning his living as a baker with his home and business address listed at 296 Harrison Ave. Perhaps, he ran his bakery business from his home at that time. By 1879, he was listed still as a baker but his business address was not noted and his home address was at 99 Cabot St. In 1883, Henry was listed as being in the sausage manufacturing business at 201 Dorchester St. and we find the first notation of their permanent address which was at 205 W. Third St. Thereafter, Henry was listed as a butcher without a listing of his business address but with his home address given as above. Wilhelmina probably inherited money from her parents as her will clearly states that she owned the home at 204 W. Third St. Over one hundred years after this family moved into that home, we visited it and found it in good repair and realized that the Riese and the Bartletts (the Riese's grandson married a Bartlett) lived within a few blocks of each other for many years.

Wilhelmina (Rouwald) Riese's will left small cash bequests to her four children and, during his lifetime, her husband to have the use, rents and profits of the house at 205 W. Third St. and the use of the interest on a sum of monEy in the Home Savings Bank. Upon his death, all her real and personal estate to be divided two thirds to daughter, Selma Louisa, and one third to son, Charles Herman.

John Charles Henry and his wife, Wilhelmina (Rouwald) Riese had four children:

• Henrietta Wilhelmina, b. at Germany 4 Dec. 1859 (4 Dec. 1860 according to notation found in a handwritten note by Carrie (Richenburg) Eldridge on the back of a picture owned by her son, Roderick Howard Eldridge Jr.).
• Charles Herman, b. at Germany (or Boston?) June 1864; m. at America, Jennie -----, b. at Iowa April 1869.
• John C. Paul, b. at Germany (or Boston?) April 1868; d. while living at Washington St., Needham, Massachusetts, 18 June 1926; buried at Shawsheen Cemetery, Bedford, Mass.; m. at Boston, 6 April 1896 Mary A. Murphy.
• Selma Louisa, b. at Boston 7 Aug. 1872; m. William Manning.