Rihm Family Creates Marketing Legacy

Behind the Cambridge City business bearing the Rihm name is a family tradition that has lasted 4 generations.

Each day that Kimmie Smith walks into Rihm's Food Ranch marks another day in her family's legacy.

Smith, 24, is the daughter of store operator Don Rihm.  And the three businesses bearing the name Rihm today in Cambridge City are all offspring of the meat market her great-grandfather started in 1926.

"It's something to be proud of.  It's something to respect, the fact that each generation has taken part in the store," Smith said. "I think our family's made a lot of sacrifices, but it's worth it.  It's a place always to come back to."

George Rihm Jr. came to Cambridge City from Piqua, Ohio, where he learned the meat business alongside his five brothers.

He bought a meat market at 19 West Main Street here, promising service and courtesy.  As his business began to grow, so did his family.  George and Helen Decker Rihm - whose brother was in meatpacking - had three sons.  The boys went to work alongside their parents in the narrow storefront on the National Road.

"I started when I was about six years old doing odd jobs he'd let me do," said Walter Rihm, now 77 (in 2001). 

Walter recalls farmers coming to town on Saturday nights and how his father would keep the shop open late so those leaving a movie or some other type of entertainment could pick up their perishable purchases before heading home.

Walter and brothers Bill and Tom learned the trade at their father's elbow and all worked in the business at one time.  It has passed down through Walter's family.

George Rihm died in 1945 while his two elder sons were fighting in World War II.

"I was on Iwo Jima and didn't know he died for about a month," Walter said.  "My mother had it to run while I was in the service."

George's brothers, including one with a meat shop in Knightstown, helped until brother Bill could return from the service to run the shop.  When Walter returned home, Bill pursued his own meat-marketing dreams.

Even in love, the business came first.  Walter married his bride, Donna, on November 27, 1947.

"That was Thanksgiving Day," Donna recalls.  "We had to get married when the store was closed.  That way all the family could come."

Walter's seven children and 18 grandchildren all have followed in his footsteps, working in the business at one time.

Son Jerry remembers coming to the store "when I was big enough to get to work.  We trimmed bones when we were probably in grade school."

Son Don has worked there "ever since I was big enough.  Forever."

Even Jerry's son, Joseph Rihm, 16, has experienced the family work ethic: "He (Jerry) always made me come out here when I was little and do little stuff, sweep the floor and make boxes and grind hamburger."

With such a growing family, the business had to grow as well.  By the 1960's, the Rihm's expanded their meat market into a supermarket at 27 West Main Street; acquired a liquor store and opened it at the original 16-foot wide meat market site, 19 West Main Street; and owned a meat processing and packing plant in New Lisbon.

The Rihms offered rental "lockers" or freezers for meat.  In the 1970's, they expanded that operation with a new facility south of Dublin.

"At one time we took in 120 cattle every two weeks," Walter said.

Though the years, the meat market has changed considerably.  It went from beef to hogs to venison and on to catering in the company's portable smokers.

"The business keeps changing over the years," Walter said.  "We hadn't planned any of this.  It just materialized.  So far, it's been pretty good for us."

"It's got problems about like any business," Jim said.  "Each person's got their own responsibilities."

At the grocery, Don does a little bit of everything.  "It's something to be pretty proud of.  Most of the biggies have run everyone else out.  We have just a lot of loyal customers."

"I'm always looking for something different.  You just never know what you're going to find in here," Vance said.  "Our bacon is just wonderful.  We had a lady in here last night taking it back to Kentucky."

She is proud that her family name has hung on a shingle on U.S. 40 for 75 years.

"You can let your kids work while they're still young enough that they want to work and give them a little bit of background, an incentive to save their money," Vance said.  "It's kind of nice to be in a family business. If you need to get off or one of the kids, you can whereas if you're in a factory, you don't have a lot of choices.  I think my kids are turning out pretty good.  They've all worked here."

Smith appreciates that sense of family when she is working.

"Our customers, a lot are older, and I think it's fun for them to see the younger generation in here taking care of things instead of a bunch of faces they don't know," Smith said.  "I think that's part of the reason they still come in here."

By Rachel E. Sheeley, Staff Writer
April 29, 2001
Reprinted by permission from the Palladium-Item.

^Top