Family owned
The mill Grandpa started is still on Washington Street.
1954–today
A New Paris mill, run by the same family for seventy years.
In the spring of 1954, Vaughn D. Riegel opened Riegel Feed & Grain in New Paris. The wooden elevator is still a landmark on the north end of town — and it is still family owned. A 2023 photo post of the mill in its first season noted that it remains “extremely busy.”
Vaughn grew up in Ansonia, served in the U.S. Army (including the First Division Army Band), farmed, and raised cattle. He was a life member of American Legion Post 360 and a member of the New Paris Kiwanis. He ran the mill until he retired in 2008, and he died in 2014 at 86.
The business was incorporated in Ohio on December 13, 1996. The mill itself is a generation older than the paperwork.
Who you’ll meet
Third generation, same counter.
Nicole Wood owns and operates the mill with her dad, Dwight D. Riegel, and her brother. In a 2025 Preble County Development Partnership spotlight, Nicole put it simply: they had just marked seventy years, and they still custom grind, still buy and sell grain, and still keep “a little bit of everything” on the floor.
Nicole has also taken part in Leadership Preble County — the kind of local involvement that fits a mill that has been on a first-name basis with this county since Eisenhower was in office.
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Vaughn D. Riegel opens Riegel Feed & Grain in New Paris. Historical photos of the mill from that first season still circulate among Ohio history groups.
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Riegel Feed & Grain, Inc. is incorporated in Ohio. Dwight Riegel is listed as owner; Nicole (Riegel) Wood is a customer contact on the firm’s public business filings.
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Vaughn retires as owner-operator after more than fifty years at the mill.
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The family marks seventy years in business. The mill is still grinding, still taking grain, and still selling to farms and households across Preble County and the Indiana line.
This county
New Paris is a farm town. The mill is part of that.
New Paris is a village of about 1,500 in Preble County, on the western edge of Ohio, a short drive from Richmond, Indiana and within the Dayton metro. The mill sits at 307 North Washington Street, at the High Street intersection.
We are listed by Visit Preble County as a 2026 verified location, and by Ohio.org as an agritourism stop — not because we are a museum, but because a working mill with a general store is still something people come to town for.
Ohio Department of Agriculture records list Riegel Feed & Grain as a licensed grain warehouse (New Paris / Preble) and as a commercial feed registrant. That is the quiet paperwork behind a place that has been trusted with other people’s grain and other people’s livestock for a long time.
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