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BIOGRAPHICAL AND PORTRAIT CYCLOPEDIA

taking the full classical course of Ludwig's gymnasium of Munich, Bavaria, came, April 29, 1861 to Pennsylvania, where he pursued advanced studies at St. Vincent's college, an abbey in Westmoreland county, which noble institution of learning had been founded in 1846, by Rt. Rev. Boniface Wimmer, who thus revived in America the grand institutions of the Benedictine abbeys of the middle ages for the wider spreading of the glad tidings of Christianity. After five years of close and successful study he completed the work, and on May 30, 1866, was ordained priest, at Covington, Kentucky, by Rt. Rev. A Carell.     After his ordination he was made assistant to the church at Covington, where he remained acceptably until September, 1868, when he was transferred by his ecclesiastical superiors to St. Boniface's and St. Lawrence churches, near Carrolltown, where he remained in charge one year. At the end of that time he became the first resident priest at Lincoln, Nebraska, and in the winter of 1871 returned to Carrolltown, where his pastoral labors continued from February, 1871, to February, 1877.     During the spring of the last-named year he was at St. Vincent's abbey and college, and then went to St. Mary's German Catholic church of Allegheny city, where he reamined as assistant pastor to St. Vincent's, where he served for five and a-half years. He then served as prior at Covington, Kentucky, from April, 1888, to October, 1889; as assistant pastor of St. Mary's, Allegheny city, from 1889, to September, 1892, and as professor of moral theology at St. Vincent's college from September, 1862, to August, 1894. In the last-named month he returned to Carrolltown, where he has since served as prior.

Father Hofmayr has always proved to be an efficient, careful, and successful pastor, accomplishing much in the mental and spiritual interests of his people in the different cities and towns where he had churches, and winning worthy commendation in his other fields of important labor as teacher and as prior. JOHN RIFFEL, one of the soldiers who stormed the castles of Cherubusco and Chapultepec during the Mexican War, is a son of John and Jane (Mariner) Riffel, and was born at Milton, Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, May 7, 1827. The Riffels are of German extraction, while the Mariners, or maternal branch of the family, is of Irish descent. The maternal grandfather of subject was born in Northumberland county, from which county he enlisted in the patriot army and fought in the cause of liberty during the Revolutionary War. John Riffel, father, was born near Milton in 1783, and removed to Cambria county in 1832, locating at Loretto, where he followed the trade of a hatter. In politics he was a member of the Democratic party, and during his life held several of the borough offices. He died at Loretto in 1852. Jane (Marriner) Riffel, mother, was also born near Milton, and with her husband, was a devout member of the Catholic church. She died in 1862, at the age of seventy years.     John Riffel, the subject of this sketch, received his education in the common schools of Loretto. At the age of nineteen years, with the "American Highlanders," he joined the Second Pennsylvania regiment at Pittsburg and served in the Mexican War. During his conflict he engaged in seven of the principal battles and served until the close of the war. After receiving his discharge he returned home, and went to work on the old

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