Source: "History of Sheboygan County Wisconsin, Vol II, p. 706 Carl Zillier, Editor S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, Chicago, 1912"

Robert Rietz has been the superintendent of the finishing department of the Northern Furniture Company since 1883 and the superintendent of the shipping department of the concern since 1906. Having been long engaged in the furniture business he is a man possessing a perfect understanding of his business and an accomplished and efficient superintendent of the departments over which he has control. He was born in Sheboygan, June 18, 1860, and is the son of Rudolph and Minnie Rietz. The family is of German extraction, having emigrated to this country from Germany in the year 1850. Rudolph Rietz removed from Memphis, Tennessee, to Sheboygan in 1859, and has the unique distinction of being the first to establish a planning, hub and spoke factory in that city under the name of Rietz & Mueller. The establishment continued to do a successful business for many years after its founding, but later was destroyed by fire in the year 1871. Mr. Rietz passed out of life in Sheboygan in the year 1888 and was buried on the family lot in Wildwood cemetery. His widow resides at their home in the city of Sheboygan.

Robert Rietz was reared in his father's home and received his early education in the public schools of Sheboygan and later completed a full course in the Sheboygan Business College. Immediately upon finishing his common-school course he became a painter, following the occupation for a number of years. He later became an employe of the Phoenix Chair Company for two years and, for the purpose of perfecting himself in the knowledge of the manufacture of chairs he spent one year in the city of Chicago after which he returned to Sheboygan and became an employe of the present concern with whom he has continued without interruption for the past twenty-nine years.

Mr. Rietz was united in marriage in this city on January 10, 1887, to Miss Katherine Bahler. Mr. Rietz is independent in his political affiliations and is a member of the Christian church of Sheboygan. He is one of the trusted and efficient employes of the Northern Furniture Company of Sheboygan and a man universally respected for his integrity of character and his industrious and thrifty habits in life. He owns a beautiful residence at No. 617 Wisconsin avenue, in which they now reside.

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