In the 1930’s and 1940’s. the owners of the home at 4403 Vandelia were William and Minnie Dieterich. William Herman Dieterich was originally from Bremen, Germany, and came to Texas when he was 18. Wilhelmina (Minnie) Augustina Gunther was born in Chicago shortly after her parents emigrated from Germany. She married W.H. Dieterich in Nebraska in 1887.
After the family moved to Dallas, William bought 144 acres of farmland at Midway Road and Walnut Hill. William established the farm as a dairy, with Jersey cows. He delivered bottled milk to his customers on his way to his day job at the Sanger Bros. department store in downtown Dallas where he worked as the building engineer. His young sons helped him on the farm as the dairy business grew. They also sold eggs and farm-made sausage. The family also survived the flood of 1908 when the Trinity flooded the area and they spent days rescuing people from the floodwaters with his rowboat and horses.
With most of their children out on their own, William and Minnie eventually sold the farm and bought a home in the new neighborhood of Perry Heights to be closer to downtown. William’s son, Arthur F. Dieterich, studied at West Point and Texas A&M where he studied agriculture. He played football at A&M and was inducted into the university’s Hall of Fame. He was on the 1922 team that played in the first Cotton Bowl in which the 12 man legend was born. He then worked at a dairy cooperative in El Paso for a brief time to learn the dairy business.
Arthur and his wife, Louise, eventually returned to Dallas and, with the help of his parents, established Hermosa Farm Dairy in 1928 at the corner of Midway Road and Forest Lane. The dairy provided Perry Heights and the Park Cities with milk deliveries by horse-drawn wagon and then later milk trucks until 1947 when city’s development and high taxes forced them to sell. They found an 800-acre farm in Dorchester, Texas, and changed from retail to wholesale dairy products. Arthur also served in various roles with the American Dairy Association of Texas. In his later years, Arthur often served as a judge at the State Fair of Texas in dairy competitions. There is a fascinating oral history given by Arthur and Louise where they talk about life at the Hermosa Dairy, running the dairy during the Great Depression and their family backgrounds. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc306934/
Shirley, the granddaughter of William and Minnie, and the daughter of Arthur & Louise Dieterich visited her grandparent’s former home on Vandelia in 2011 to tell us her memories of her grandparents living there and the celebration of their 50th year of marriage in 1943. Shirley’s daughter, Nancy, provided these pictures of the family and the house in Perry Heights.
Shirley was also great, great-niece of Julien Revershon (eponym of the park off Maple Ave) Shirley was well respected for her work as a botanist and received numerous awards for her study of Native Texas plants of the North Texas region.
William died in 1947 and Minnie moved a few years later to live with Arthur and Louise at their farm until her death.
