The Riebe Family fi rst came to my attention when I saw the obituary for 27 year old Charlotte Riebe in 1915. Charlotte had gone from Bloomington to New Mexico for her health. Possibly her condition was tuberculosis. But after regaining her strength, she proved up a land claim in New Mexico and then opened a real estate office there. Before Charlotte left for New Mexico, she worked as a stenographer for the bridge building firm of Burnham and Ives. Her brother Edward also worked for Burnham and Ives. He later had his own bridge building firm in Lincoln, IL.
Charlotte and Edward were the grandchildren of German immigrants, William and Mary Riebe, who came to Bloomington with one son (John) after 1855 and had five more children in Bloomington. William Riebe started out life in Bloomington as a laborer, but spent most of his life acting as the sexton of the city cemetery -- 35 years! In 1900 a reporter for the Pantagraph tried to get an interview with Mr Riebe, but was only successful in getting a tour of the cemetery. Mr. Riebe had a deep distrust of newspapers and refused to comment for publication. He did however, point out numerous graves to the reporter, demonstrating an ability to name the paupers he had buried and to tell the stories of some of those interred in the cemetery. Besides burying numberless occupants, Mr. Riebe had planted many of the trees in the cemetery and kept the ground for those 35 years. His obituary in 1921 disclosed that William had buried 7232 persons in Bloomington cemetery.
William Riebe was not the only member of the Riebe family to have work connected with the city cemetery. His sons William (Charlotte's father) and Henry were marble cutters who created the stones that marked the graves. But the father and uncle were not there to prepare the stone for young Charlotte. William died in 1902 and Henry died in 1909.