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He also has a large (20 x 24) canvas portrait of a middle aged woman standing next to a high back chair (formal pose). This distinguished looking old woman is supposed to be George Riehlmann’s mother, whom we now know was Margaretha Mahler. The picture was made (or enlarged) in New Orleans, and they also have a small "tin photo" of the same woman that the big “canvas photo” was made from. The large photo is badly tom (some children threw a football through it), but it can be repaired.
George Riehlmann was apparently a man with some education. That he was able to write is proven by the fact that his signature is found on the Will he left in Lincoln Co., MS. He was a businessman of sorts by the fact that he opened and operated a store of some kind wherever he lived. Some of the family remembers him as a "proud old German.”
Initially it was not clear as to what religion George Riehlmann and his wife belonged to. We do know that George Riehlmann and his family attended the Presbyterian Church on Canal St. in New Orleans, and that George raised his children as Presbyterians from the information we have collected. Juanita Seitz Dupuy told us that George Riehlmann was a Lutheran and that his wife, Anna Maria "Mary" Henecko, was a Catholic. She said that they had their first child (that would be Margaret) baptized in New Orleans as a Catholic and the Priest made George mad, so he had Margaret “re-baptized” a Lutheran, as well as the rest of the family. The reason they attended the Presbyterian Church was because it was close to their home and the two religions were about the same. Thus, the Riehlmann children followed the Presbyterian religion after adulthood. George's last child was baptized in the Presbyterian Church in Summit, MS, as we have that record. George's oldest child, Margaret, was baptized "Lutheran” according to her daughter, Myrtle Morris of Gulfport, but Myrtle said her mother did not attend any church until late in life when she became a Catholic. Mrs. Ruben Ochoa also said George's wife was a Catholic, but George and all his children were Presbyterians.
Based on photographs of George Riehlmann and stories we were told, he was a man approximately 5' 9" tall, slender build, weighing approximately 170 pounds, with light reddish-brown hair, and blue-grey eyes. George Riehlmann made a Passport Application on July 2, 1868 to travel to Germany. In the application, he states that he was naturalized on May 29, 1860, he was bora May 15, 1837, and he is described as age 31, 5’8” tall, grey eyes, brown hair, dark complexion, high forehead, oval face, etc. What appears to be George is listed onboard the ship, “Harmonia,” on August 25, 1868 returning from Hamburg, Germany and landing in New York. He is listed as a “merchant” and age “31” (1837). He was no doubt traveling home for business and a visit to his German relatives.
Before going further, we would like to go into the ancestors, siblings, etc. of our George Riehlmann. As mentioned earlier, Johann Georg “George”
Riehlmann was born on May, 1837 in Oberweiler im Tal, Germany to Johann “Peter” Riehlmann and Margaretha Mahler based on his baptismal record found at the nearby Lutheran Church in the town of Hinzweiler, Germany. This record and other church records for that part of Germany are also found at the Landeskirchenrat in Speyer, Germany and the Regional office for the Evangelist Church also in that city.
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