Several posts on this blog have been written about a group of siblings who I have called the “Altenburg Giants”. Between 1854 and 1873, there were 9 children born to the couple made up of Gottlob Dietrich and Louise Vogel. All 9 of the children were boys, and according to family lore, all of them were at least 6 feet tall. The Dietrich family binder that we have in our research library calls them the “Dietrich Giants”, but since they had enough boys to make up a baseball team, I chose to call them the Altenburg Giants. In a few previous posts, I have described a member of this team by their position in the birth order as being their position in the batting order. I suppose I could have also described one of them according to the numbers used by baseball scorekeepers when keeping track of the action in a baseball game. The pitcher is #1, the catcher is #2, and so forth. Using those terminologies, the main character in today’s tale would be second in the batting order, or he would be the catcher. And if each player wore the uniform for the day of their birth, since today’s boy was born on June 4th, he would have been a catcher wearing #4. It is reminiscent of the St. Louis Cardinals catcher who is soon to have his number 4 retired by the Cardinals organization…Yadier Molina. Here is a photo of the Dietrich boys that has been displayed on this blog before. I will let you pick out the son who was William, the second-born.

Wilhelm Friedrich Dietrich was born on June 4, 1856, thus making today his 170th birthday. When I went to find William’s baptism record, I discovered a few rather interesting facts. On January 27th of 1856, there was a set of twins born to William’s uncle, also named Wilhelm Friedrich Dietrich. It was a boy/girl set of twins, and the girl was named Friederike Wilhelmine, and the boy was named Friedrich August. William’s mother, Louise, was a sponsor for those twins. Those twins both died before the end of February that year. When I saw the baptism record for Friedericke Wilhelmina, I first thought it was the one for Wilhelm Friedrich, especially because the pastor’s handwriting made it look like Friedrich Wilhelm. However, I did not think William was a twin, and I soon noticed that the twins’ parents were different than William’s. I proceeded to locate William’s baptism record a page or two further into the church’s books. We can view that record below. I now think that William was named after his sponsor, Wilhelm Friedrich Dietrich, and perhaps he also got his name from his departed cousin, Friedericke Wilhelmine.

William is found in the 1860 census at the age of 4. His father was a farmer in the Brazeau Township.

The 1870 census is the last one in which we find the Dietrich family living in Perry County. William was 14 years old at that time. That was likely the year that William was confirmed, but Trinity’s books do not include confirmation records for those years.

Two more boys were born in Altenburg before this Dietrich family moved to Kansas. The Dietrich family binder says the Dietrich family made that move in about 1877, and it says they moved to Junction City, Kansas. The 1880 census shows the Dietrich’s living in the Jefferson Township in Davis County, Kansas. There are no occupations listed in this entry, but I have to think that the father and several of his boys were farming.

Now, we will take a brief look at the woman who would become William’s bride. It will be brief because I found practically nothing about her early life. Her name was Augusta Marie Caroline Baresel, who was born on January 5, 1863 in Germany. I was only able to determine her father’s name, Friedrich Baresel. A later census entry says that Augusta came to America in 1870. If that is the case, then she would have been about 7 years old when she arrived. If she arrived in 1870, Augusta should be found in an 1880 census, but I failed when I attempted to find her. I do know that when she was married, her marriage license says that she was from Davis County, Kansas.

William Dietrich married Augusta Baresel on November 10, 1883. This couple’s Kansas marriage license can be viewed here. It says that they were married by Rev. F.W. Mueller. The Dietrich family story says that they moved to Kansas because they knew Pastor Mueller there.

Family Search says that this Dietrich pair had 3 children, but only 2 of them lived to adulthood. The Dietrich’s were still living in Kansas when we can view the next census entry in 1900. They had 2 children and were living in the Smoky Hill Township in Geary County, Kansas. Davis County had its name changed to Geary County in 1889. William was a farmer.

During the next decade, the Dietrich’s made a move to Texas. When the 1910 census was taken, the Dietrich family was living near La Pryor, Texas where William is called a laborer on a farm. I can tell you that William’s brother, August Dietrich, is found in another entry on the same census page as William, so William was not the only Dietrich to make this move to Texas. La Pryor is located not far from San Antonio and also not far from the Mexican border.

When the 1920 census was taken, the Dietrich’s were living in the same location. However, this time William was called a retail merchant for a grocery business. Both of his single children were part of the work force.

William Dietrich died in 1925 at the age of 68. We can take a look at his Texas death certificate. It says he died of paralysis and says he had Brights Disease.

Augusta is found as a widow in the 1930 census. She was living in La Pryor with her daughter, Clara. Augusta had no occupation, but Clara was called “manager telephone”.

Once again, we find Augusta in the same place when the 1940 census was compiled. She was living with Clara, who was still single.

Augusta Dietrich died in 1943 at the age of 80. Her death certificate is the only place where I found her father’s name as Friedrich.

William and Augusta Dietrich are buried together in the Sunset Hills Cemetery in La Pryor, Texas.

The first two batters in the Altenburg Giants batting order spent several years at the ends of their lives in La Pryor, Texas. Only William Dietrich is buried in Texas. His older brother, August, died in La Pryor but his body was brought back to Kansas for burial. I wrote the story of August Dietrich in the post, An Oehlert Girl Marries One of the Giants, but I did not make the connection then that his brother was also living in La Pryor. I guess you could says that a few of the Altenburg Giants ended up playing in the Texas League toward the end of their careers.